When activation cannot reach us
Activating Desktop Plan needs one short connection from your computer to our licence server, licence.desktopplan.com. This chapter helps you find what is stopping it, and tells you what to send your IT team if you are on a work computer.
Is this your own computer, with no IT team to ask? Work down this page from Check which message you saw to On a home computer. It takes you from the message you saw to the settings to change.
Is this a work computer that your IT team looks after? Check the message first. If it is the connection message, send your IT team the page written for them: Network and licence requirements for IT teams.
Check which message you saw#
While Desktop Plan contacts us, the Activate button reads Activating…. If the connection fails, this message appears in the activation window:
"Could not reach the licence server. Check your connection and try again – nothing has been used up."
This is the message this chapter is about. Nearly always, your licence key is fine: the request never reached us, and something on the computer or the network stopped it. Now and then it means our server is busy or down, so if nothing on this page helps, try again an hour later. On a home computer, carry on with Two quick tests. On a work computer, go to On a work computer.
Messages that are not connection problems
These come back from our server, so the connection worked. Your IT team can’t help with them.
| Message | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "That licence key and email do not match an order." | We received the request, but the key and email don’t match an order. | Use the email address you bought with, and copy the key from your order email. |
| "This licence is already active on all 3 of its computers." | The licence is in use on all its computers already. | Click Manage your computers under the message and remove one you no longer use. See Licence and updates. |
| "This team licence is in use by all … of its people." | Every place on your company’s team licence is taken. | Ask whoever manages the licence to remove someone who has left, or to add people. See Team licences. |
| "You are already using this licence on all 3 of your computers." | You have used your three places on a team licence. | Deactivate it on a computer you no longer use (App settings), or ask whoever manages the licence to remove one. |
| "This team licence is for … addresses." | You typed an address the team licence does not take, such as a personal one. | Use your work email, the same one on every computer. If you work with another address, ask whoever manages the licence to add it on My activations. |
| "This team licence lets in only the addresses its manager has added." | The licence lets in only the people its buyer listed, and your address is not one of them. | Ask whoever manages the licence to add your address on My activations, then activate with it. |
| "This licence has no free place for this computer just now." | The licence has no place left that this computer can take. | Ask whoever manages the licence, or contact support. |
| "Desktop Plan reached the licence server, but could not verify its answer." | Our server answered, but the answer was not the one it signs, so Desktop Plan ignored it. Something between you and us changed it, or our server is being updated. | Try again later. If it keeps happening, contact support. |
| "This licence has been switched off because its order was refunded or cancelled." | The order behind the key is no longer active. | Contact support if this is a mistake. |
| "Your licence is valid, but this machine would not let us save it" | The licence is fine, but Windows refused to let Desktop Plan save it. | This is a work computer’s settings. Send your IT team their page (On a work computer). |
Two quick tests#
These show whether the network or the computer is stopping the connection, before you change any settings.
Open the server in your browser. On the same computer, go to https://licence.desktopplan.com. If the page doesn’t load, your internet connection, your router or your network is blocking it. If it loads – the licence server says "If you can read this, this computer can reach it" – your network can reach us, and On a home computer covers the remaining causes.
Try a different network. Connect the computer to your phone’s hotspot and click Activate again. If it works there, the first network is what blocked it.
After the computer is activated, Desktop Plan doesn’t need to reach us to open or save your plans. It checks the licence in the background about once a day, and carries on quietly if it can’t. Being offline never removes your licence. So if activation works on a hotspot, you can go straight back to your usual network. On a work computer, check that your company allows connecting to a hotspot first.
On a home computer#
On a home computer, activation almost always goes through the first time. When it doesn’t, the cause is usually one of these:
- A VPN. Disconnect it, activate, then connect again. A work VPN on a home computer sends everything through the company network, so treat it as a work computer and see On a work computer.
- Router filters and parental controls. Some block shopping sites, or new sites they don’t know yet, as a category. Add licence.desktopplan.com and shop.desktopplan.com to the allowed list. The same applies to a family-safe DNS service or a network ad blocker.
- HTTPS scanning in your antivirus. Some antivirus products look inside secure connections (often called HTTPS scanning, web shield or encrypted connection scanning). Desktop Plan checks our server’s certificate itself, so it refuses a connection your antivirus has opened up. Add licence.desktopplan.com and shop.desktopplan.com to that feature’s exclusions, or switch it off while you activate.
- The firewall in your antivirus software. If it asks whether Desktop Plan may connect, choose to allow it. If you blocked it earlier, change that answer in the firewall’s settings, then try again.
- A proxy server. Desktop Plan’s activation doesn’t use the proxy set in Windows. If your internet only works through a proxy, activate on another network, such as your phone’s hotspot.
Very rarely: security software blocks Desktop Plan without asking
If the browser test loaded the page and none of the above applies, open your security software’s firewall settings and look for program control, application rules or a list of blocked programs. Allow Desktop Plan to connect to the internet. If it asks for the program file, open Task Manager while Desktop Plan is running, right-click Desktop Plan and choose Open file location. For an installed copy it is usually C:\Users\<your name>\AppData\Local\Desktop Plan\desktop-plan.exe. The portable copy is the file you downloaded, such as Desktop Plan 0.61.exe, wherever you keep it.
Windows Defender Firewall lets programs connect out unless an outgoing rule has been added. If one has, allow Desktop Plan under Windows Defender Firewall › Advanced settings › Outbound Rules. Close Desktop Plan completely and open it again before you click Activate.
On a work computer#
On a computer your company manages, the settings that block activation belong to your IT team, so the fix is theirs to make. Send them this page:
Network and licence requirements for IT teams. It lists the one address Desktop Plan’s licence connects to, what it sends, and the proxy, firewall and certificate settings that stop it.
If you are from the IT team and were sent here, that page is the one written for you.
It helps them to know three things: the exact message you saw, whether the browser test in Two quick tests loaded the page, and whether you were on the office network, at home or on a VPN.
Common questions#
Can you activate Desktop Plan for me from your end?
No. The licence is registered to your computer and your Windows sign-in, so the activation has to be made from that computer. If nothing here gets it through, contact support with the message you saw and what the browser test showed.
The website opens in my browser. Why can’t Desktop Plan reach it?
Desktop Plan doesn’t connect the way your browser does. Its activation ignores the proxy set in Windows, and it checks our server’s certificate against its own list rather than Windows’ list. Security software can also allow the browser and block Desktop Plan. On a home computer, On a home computer covers this. On a work computer, your IT team will find the details on their page.
Do failed attempts use up my activations?
No. An attempt that never reached us isn’t counted. Activating again on a computer that is already activated, as the same Windows user, doesn’t use a second activation either.
Does Desktop Plan need the internet every time I open it?
No. Only activation needs the connection. After that it checks the licence about once a day in the background, and if it can’t reach us you carry on working with no message.
Can I use Desktop Plan before it is activated?
Yes. Until it is activated it runs as the free version, which needs no connection at all. Your plans are kept on your computer either way.
Can two people use Desktop Plan on the same computer?
Yes, as long as each person has a licence of their own. Each person signs in to Windows as themselves and activates their own licence there, and the two never affect each other. A licence is for one person, and its 3 activations are for that person’s own computers.