Overview

Under normal conditions, BarTender automatically refreshes your license when it is renewed or upgraded, ensuring that the updated validity period is reflected on your system.

However, in some circumstances, the license server may be unable to perform this automatic refresh. As a result, the updated licensing information may not be reflected on your system, and your license may even appear to be expired despite having been renewed.

In these situations, you can try manually refreshing your license to resolve the issue.

This article provides instructions for manually refreshing your BarTender license as well as troubleshooting steps to further investigate the issue if manual refresh does not work.

Applicable to 

BarTender 2019 and later

Information

Identify your BarTender License Server

In order to perform a refresh of your BarTender license you will first need to identify the computer on your company network where the license is located. 

Depending on your BarTender setup you will be faced with one of two scenarios:

1. Your local machine is the BarTender license server. This is the case for single machine setups of BarTender.  
2. You have a dedicated BarTender license server or the license is stored on another computer on your network. A dedicated server is usually the preferred setup for companies with a multi-device configuration of BarTender. 

If you have direct access to the BarTender license server then you can skip the remainder of this section and go directly to Perform a Manual Refresh of your License. If you are not sure where your license server is located, you can follow the steps in the article below to identify it: 

• How to Find the BarTender License Server on your Network

Perform a Manual Refresh of Your License

1. Open the BarTender Administration Console application.

2. Go to Licensing.

3. Select Current License and confirm it isn’t marked Expired.

4. Refresh the License by right-clicking on the current license and then on Refresh License. 

5. Alternatively, you can click on the green refresh button to the right of the license.

If you were unable to refresh your license or want to review your BarTender setup to determine why your license isn't being refreshed automaticaly, you can review the following articles for troubleshooting steps: 

• Error: Failed to Refresh the License(Could not create SSL/TLS secure channel)
• Determine If the TCP Port for the BarTender Licensing Service is Open
• License Server Isn't Updated After License Renewal

Additional Resources

If you would like a more detailed explanation of license activation and how licensing works please have a look at the following resources.

Support articles:

• Activating the BarTender Software
• How to Properly Activate BarTender 2019 and Later on Multiple Computers

Technical documents:

• Printer-Based Licensing