Can you clarify, is Affinity now online-only?

[sonar]

I bought Affinity 1, and it used to be that like normal software there was a license key and you could activate it on systems that were isolated from the internet. I just bought the Affinity 2 universal though and received no key, and as I look around it appears that this is now internet-connection required software? If a normal license is still available I'd appreciate any pointers. If this has changed permanently to online-only it'd be nice if there was a FAQ entry about it and maybe some warning at the purchase page? Thanks for your time!

[StevenS]

Hi @sonar, welcome to the Affinity forum.

Our V2 apps do not use product key to activate, instead using a one-time online activation.

Thank you for your feedback and suggestions.

[sonar]

Thanks so much, appreciate the quick reply. Big bummer to hear that, but at least it was on sale so only lost $100. Good luck with v2 and going forward!

[walt.farrell]

31 minutes ago, sonar said:

Big bummer to hear that, but at least it was on sale so only lost $100.

So, you have machines that are never online?

In any case, if you purchased from Serif, within the past 14 days, you can request a refund by contacting affinityreturns@serif.com with your purchase details.

[sonar]

2 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

So, you have machines that are never online?

In any case, if you purchased from Serif, within the past 14 days, you can request a refund by contacting affinityreturns@serif.com with your purchase details.

Yes, or in one case restricted by security policy to very specific sites. I also still run software decades old in a few cases in VMs, any activation servers will be long gone at that point, so I make a habit of checking whether that'll be possible since hard to say what will be important down the road. And licenses are nice for if you want to give friends/family a software Xmas gift, can just print out the key on a nice card for them.

Not going to bother with a refund though, I'll just stick with v1. These days customer hostile activation stuff is pretty normal, I just figure maybe 1/3 the software I buy will be a write off. Sometimes there's a use for it eventually, and I still like to support smaller developers. Just wanted to know if I was missing something was all since it didn't have a FAQ, and when I did a search for it I found a thread from a few years ago where they specifically highlighted it not needing to be online.

Anyway, thanks for your reply as well!

[walt.farrell]

2 minutes ago, sonar said:

And licenses are nice for if you want to give friends/family a software Xmas gift, can just print out the key on a nice card for them.

That doesn't work with V1 of the Affinity products, really, even though they have Product Keys. The purchased application is tied to the email address used originally for the purchase. So, for V1, you really needed to purchase a redemption code, and then send that. Currently, though, there's no way to give a gift, but Serif is probably working on that.

4 minutes ago, sonar said:

any activation servers will be long gone at that point, so I make a habit of checking whether that'll be possible since hard to say what will be important down the road

One of the Serif Staff said they are aware of this long-term issue, and will plan something in case that ever happens. But I know what you mean; that happened to me with an old Photoshop release.

5 minutes ago, sonar said:

Anyway, thanks for your reply as well!

You're welcome