Solved Macrium reflect X repeatedly offering to transfer license key

I'm going to see what I can do if anything. I've created new folder on desktop and put the MIDCheck application inside it.

I think I'll have to contact Joe in the morning and see what he suggests because I sure don't have a clue what I'm doing Thanks though!

Well, I sent Joe a pm hopefully he will get back to me and resolve this ongoing issue.

Here is what I came up with. Is that a zero or letter O? Thanks!

p5200 said:

Here is what I came up with. Is that a zero or letter O? Thanks!

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If you are asking about the MAC address, that is a zero. MAC addresses only contain the numerals 0-9 and letters A-F.

EDIT: Also, if you are unsure, you can simply copy and paste from that screen.

Ok, I appreciate it that's what I used was zero Thanks!

hsehestedt said:

If you are asking about the MAC address, that is a zero. MAC addresses only contain the numerals 0-9 and letters A-F.

EDIT: Also, if you are unsure, you can simply copy and paste from that screen.

Click to expand...

Didn't think about that

I had the same issue on 1 Windows Installation out of 5 and 2 PC's are Dual Booting, Post #2 by @KevTech hopefully fixed the issue for me and I also exported the created registry key overriding the MAC address so I can import it again if I reinstall Windows or Macrium again on the problem machine.

Well I've finally gotten the Mac Override Reg. file into my Registry. I went in to verify it's in there. If I still have the license key problem I will be installing Hasleo! Tried it on my other pc and it seems to work pretty well.

HI, pardon the thread necro, but I was having the same exact problem recently with the latest version of Macrium Reflect Home (non ReflectX).

I have a four-machine annual license, which was just renewed this past December.

I've had the rather vexing problem with Reflect throwing up the "Transfer License to this Computer" prompt at Reflect startup for the past two years. I've always thought it was something to do with the licenses among the four machines on our LAN, somehow getting confused. This was not correct.

After removing Reflect from all machines and then reinstalling Reflect on only the most vital of workstations that I do daily "incrementals forever" on, I found that the problem persisted even with a single machine using a single license.

In addition to removing all instances of the software from all four machines, I also ensured that all licenses were cleared from my Macrium license/account portal, except for the one machine on which I reinstalled it.

My hunch was that it was something network adapter-related, MAC address-related, etc. So I isolated the problem by using my typical VPN routed through a server I'd been using for several days, then started Reflect. I got the message to transfer my license again, so I did the license transfer and then got caught up on the few days of incrementals I'd missed while Reflect was open/working.

I closed Reflect and restarted it, VPN still connected to the same server. Reflect started fine.

After exiting Reflect, I then *intentionally* switched from a Chicago VPN to a New York VPN server.

When I tried to open Reflect, it showed the "Transfer license..." message, so I knew it was 100% something to do with the license activation/checking process being mixed up with the various NICs (and, by extension, the VPN tunnel) always present on my machine.

THE SOLUTION for me was to follow the somewhat fatiguing process outlined by a Macrium support person over in the Macrium support forums. Here is the discussion.

Essentially, I had to use a command-line utility to identify the *precise* Ethernet adapter my workstation uses on our LAN. Then run a reg command that explicitly ties the Macrium Reflect process to that *exact* MAC address so that Reflect, when starting, doesn't first grab data from the VPN tunnel, which I change many times throughout any given day.

This seems to have worked. Messy but so far, effective.

I've opened/closed Reflect just fine, with no license prompt, and after changing to different VPN servers, so I just wanted to add that if anybody is still having issues with the same sort of Reflect license problems.

I've had a four-license package for years, nary a problem, and now I'm fully upgraded to Macrium Reflect X.

TraderGary said:

I've had a four-license package for years, nary a problem, and now I'm fully upgraded to Macrium Reflect X.

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I've used Reflect full-time since the early free Home days. Quite a few years, actually, using the Home Free version when only working with a single machine. But the past two years I've been doing the four-machine annual option since moving an old brick/mortar family company to a full-time home-based operation. I love paying for good software!

And I also love Reflect, the software. Never a single issue with countless life-saving full OS/sys drive restores. It's saved me SO many times. I do incrementals forever on a daily schedule. Imaging two 4TB NVMEs and an 8TB NVME like clockwork to a RAID6 volume made up of six 8TB QVO SSDs (hosted via an Areca ARC-1883i PCIe RAID card)

I don't have many problems with my primary workstation, very rare. It's the kind of rig/environment where there are very few changes to my staple tool set, the kind of system where loT LTSC makes a lot of sense. But when I do have the rare problem, Reflect is like a literal, bit-perfect time machine.

I have some years in the software dev trenches as well. The random issue I was having, and others have had, will likely get ironed out in future updates. Reportedly, folks like me never saw the licensing thing until after Reflect 8.1 was EOL'd

For myself, the licensing thing only began when I started using a VPN full-time (Mullvad for the past couple of years). I suspect, and have read, that the same thing can occur when switching frequently between Wi-Fi and Ethernet on the same machine. Makes sense how it could...

The problem was 100% tied to the licensing/activation logic that hinges on the NIC MAC address. Any time I'd change VPN servers, which is all the time, I'd immediately get the license transfer message.

The license routine that runs at Reflect starts each time it's opened after being closed, just "thought" I was using a different machine as it was likely, by default, pulling the MAC address from whatever adapter, virtual or not, was topmost, and generally that's the Mullvad VPN tunnel (a sort of "virtual" adapter). I'm a network/storage geek so the whole thing was more informative than problematic.

I simply followed the Macrium support person's instructions and "hardwired" Reflect to the actual hardware NIC that the VPN tunnel spins off of. Just a simple "reg" command line to add/adjust a single key with specific instructions to use that exact MAC address of my primary, hardware NIC. Obviously, VPN uses a different MAC address one on each VPN server and probably becomes even more problematic if using more hardening like obfuscation and random MAC address...

All good, though. Still haven't dove into ReflectX. I did, briefly but the license thing I now have a solid fix for kept making me think it was due to one of the four machines on my network so I just removed Reflect from all but my main rig and still using vanilla Reflect.

Reflect X seemed much faster, though. Looking forward to migrating to it across all my rigs.

Thanks for the comment.

~s

I retired early from IT in a major corporation 25 years ago. Ever since I've been a sole proprietor trading from wherever I happen to be using my two-laptop computer setup. My office is wherever I happen to open my backpack.

I changed my backup strategy to include Macrium Reflect images about five years ago. I back up my System One at the end of every day alternating between two Samsung 4TB T9 Portable SSD drives. Between the two drives I keep several weeks of complete images. It currently takes me about 3 1/2 minutes to make an image. I'm currently backing up 287 GB. I love the speed of Macrium Reflect X. My experience with Macrium Reflect has always been problem free.

I use OneDrive for the offsite component of my backup strategy. Cloud OneDrive keeps all my data and photos on both computers in real-time sync with each other. I can transparently move from one computer to the other and my data and photos are always totally up to date in real-time. This is my fail-safe for hardware failure. Since all my data is always identical between computers, I just move to the other computer as if nothing happened.

TraderGary said:

I retired early from IT in a major corporation 25 years ago. Ever since I've been a sole proprietor trading from wherever I happen to be using my two-laptop computer setup. My office is wherever I happen to open my backpack.

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Bit of a lateral/slide off topic here so pardon, ... I'll keep it brief. I've hidden the bulk of it behind a spoiler tag below to keep things respectful of the forum and because it's all rando technical background and investment stuff.

Your mention of being in IT (like myself w/ several years as AVP to Treasury Dept (Intranet admin) at Chase and many other roles at design firms) combined with your presenting as a person highly entrenched in investing really make me want to hit you up via DM just for some casual banter/chatting about such topics; let me know if you would be open to such.

Also the "older than dirt" tag line hits hard w/ me as I am as well (IMO @ 58yrs). My storage/tech-in-general adventures began with an IBM XT, then a 286 and 386 from which I ran a pre-WWW bulletin board system for some years in late 80's/early 90's (HoWL! BBS). Well before the first www page was published.

TraderGary said:

I changed my backup strategy to include Macrium Reflect images about five years ago. I back up my System One at the end of every day alternating between two Samsung 4TB T9 Portable SSD drives. Between the two drives I keep several weeks of complete images. It currently takes me about 3 1/2 minutes to make an image. I'm currently backing up 287 GB. I love the speed of Macrium Reflect X. My experience with Macrium Reflect has always been problem free.

I use OneDrive for the offsite component of my backup strategy. Cloud OneDrive keeps all my data and photos on both computers in real-time sync with each other. I can transparently move from one computer to the other and my data and photos are always totally up to date in real-time. This is my fail-safe for hardware failure. Since all my data is always identical between computers, I just move to the other computer as if nothing happened.

Click to expand...

My method is very similar to yours with a great deal of room for improvement: IE making much better, wiser use of the tools I have on hand. So I'm currently drafting a fairly simple process which will take a weekend but will also equal a good deal more peace of mind and more utility out of the gear and value per dollar spent on said gear.

I've ignored MS OneDrive since I've used a Google Drive, 5TB plan and have for quite a few years, already well vested in G Drive before OneDrive became a thing. G Drive has worked well for me but I'm a bit inverted in the process direction and also have no source-level encryption of any kind in place which is something I'm working out in my redux roadmap.

Primary to my in-the-works plan is to implement source level encryption before then mirroring that most important data to the online G Drive volume. I'm halfway towards finishing my map but the whole "tuning" process should be fun and fairly straightforward.

I generally host personal and company data, for myself and family at G Drive and then make the critical stuff all available offline, leaving the rest of the non-critical data purely streamed. The offline G Drive data is stored on the 48TB RAID5 volume (soon to be RAID6 for value of double the parity data making loss of two of the 8TB SSDs survivable).

The obvious plan is to switch the direction of the critical data, starting local w/ good encryption and /then/ syncing to G Drive. Things are good now but def room for improvement, namely the directional tweaks, adding encryption and especially rebuilding the main 48TB RAID5 volume as a RAID6 volume. The latter bit alone will greatly improve things just considering data integrity and loss-sustainability.

I also do an offload of the critical data to a 3rd, offline pool of external drives, keeping only periodic full system drive images on those external drives due to write speed, etc. But all the rigs do daily's via Reflect and to the locally hosted RAID volume.

My primary workstation uses Reflect to do incrementals forever to the locally hosted RAID5 volume. That RAID5 volume using six 8TB QVO SSDs is wicked fast so even with a current 2.5gbs cap on our LAN traffic, the imaging runs quite quickly. All other machines on the network spin their own daily incrementals to the same RAID5 volume over the LAN. Upgrading the NICS/switch to full 10gbs ethernet will be a huge improvement since all LAN rigs will be able to make much better use of the speedy RAID5/6 SSD volume once that's done and not just my main workstation which writes Reflect imaging data to the RAID volume locally (so quite speedy there).

So room for a good bit of refinement but it all works for now.

Let me know if your open to some DM chat about the other topics, you might find the story interesting and every new resource I gain from the more well-informed trading community is pure gold.

Best regards,

~s