Okay. Google meant well. I get it.
It’s just their execution leaves much to be desired.
But from the start:
As I was working through the Christmas photos of the last days, I wanted to use my Nik software collection, a bunch of powerful tools that I use as plug-ins with Adobe Lightroom. Most of these tools are excellent for imaging effects or improvements, particularly Silver Efex Pro 2, HDR Efex Pro and Viveza.
I suppose what happened when I got my new laptop and installed my system, the license keys of the installed plug-ins had to be re-entered by default. Little did I realize that this was not possible anymore, however, and I did not use any of the plug-ins till I had some time now during the holidays.
Here’s what happens when I want to use either Silver Efex Pro, HDR Efex Pro or Viveza:
No problem.
Shit like this is the reason why I always have my important license keys accessible, regardless where I am. When I typed in the correct (and yes: paid for) key for any of the software packages, however, I got a message telling me that it “does not seem to be valid”. Huh?
Guess what: Google – who acquired Nik a little while ago – changed the license key policy, meaning there are no license keys anymore. Now, that’s not a bad thing per se. It’s even great.
But it is as disaster in my situation. The way this would normally work is, that I would download the half gig of software update and install it over the old plug-ins. And because the old software would have then had a valid license key the new software okays the installation and everything simply runs.
In my case this does not work, however, because I triggered a reset of the plug-ins which required entering the keys again after installing my system on the new laptop. And because the license key policy has been changed, for a hard to understand reason the keys have been deactivated altogether and now I am stuck with dead bits and bytes on my hard drive.
I cannot even access anymore my old customer account I had created and which let me download the software at any time.
I have bitched like a sailor on this on Twitter and also have sent feedback to Nik Software / Google.
Let’s see what comes back.
Edit 16h27:
So I was just finishing to write about this here and suddenly I got an email from Nik Software.
Okay, that was quick. The agent was apologizing and asked for the old license codes to confirm I am really entitled to the package. It did not even take a minute after replying to this that he sent back a link to download the full collection, which I guess will now run license key free.
While I am still unhappy with the poor communication of this change early on, I have to admit the way this was handled now is nicely done. As a reaction to a customer complaint you cannot get a better and hardly a faster reaction over the holidays. Well done!
