Hi there. I just got the academic version of Avid MC 3.54 and installed it in my snow leopard macbook pro. (clean install)

Activation doesnt work: everything I try says "activation failed".

I called the activation phone number, they said it was activated on their end, but the avid on my mac couldn't "see" it. 

The guy then said that snow leopard wasn't supported, and there was nothing he could do. He then canceled my activation on his end. I read here that the software works on Snow Leopard, so it seems to be just an activation issue.

Is there a way to fix this, or should I (try to) return my avid media composer?

Thanks

Alberto

wierd.  I didn't think MC 3.5. anything was blessed to run Snow Leopard...

To clarify, NO Avid product is currently supported on Sn'eopard.

I understand its not supported. I was wondering if there's a way to make it work.

thanks

Never mind.  I read it wrong.

Carl

still unable to activate avid. Does anyone have any idea on how to help?

The only way to guarantee that it will work would be to install the supported operating system. For MC 3.5.4, that’s 10.5.5, 10.5.6, or 10.5.7. Any other versions of the operating system is unsupported. What I mean when I say unsupported is that Avid never tested it and it may work or it may not work. Because Snow Leopard has not been officially qualified, there could be some problems that prevent activation from working and Avid may currently be trying to fix the issue.

One thing you could try would be to go to the following folders and delete the listed files:

\\Applications\Avid Media Composer\\Settings

Delete: “Utlfcfgdata”, “Utlcfdata”, and “Avid License Data”

\\Library\ApplicationSupport\Avid\Pixie\

Delete any files that end in “.PP2” or “.PF2”

Try to activate MC after deleting all of these files. If that does not work then you need to install a supported version of the Operating System on your Computer.

The reason it doesn't work is because the permissions scheme has changed in 10.6 and the activation cannot write the License file into Library/applications support/avid/pixie.

Open your permissions to everyone on those folders and try the activation again.

That's how I did it.

Dude!! That did it. Thank you very much.

The only thing, if anyone has the same issue, I had to manually create the pixie folder, and set read and write permissions for it as well.

thanks again!

Thanks for putting the part about needing to add the pixie folder yourself.  I spent too much time doing and re-doing yesterday and did not think of actually creating the folder myself. Keep it simple is hard to stick to sometimes.  Thanks to all posters on this topic for sharing the info.  I am now activated on a new Mac Pro!  This forum is a blessing.

BLKDOG:

The reason it doesn't work is because the permissions scheme has changed in 10.6 and the activation cannot write the License file into Library/applications support/avid/pixie.

Open your permissions to everyone on those folders and try the activation again.

That's how I did it.

BLKDOG, I know you're not in favour of people upgrading to anything (officially) unsupported (eg. Snow Leopard), and I've been holding off.  But when I read on threads like this that there seem to be workarounds for the odd glitch, I can't help but be tempted to upgrade (I've had the Install disc on a nearby shelf for a couple weeks now).

Do you not think that we're safe to upgrade now?

Thanks, Malcolm

It all depends on how comfortable you are working around problems Malcolm. I am very willing to "see what happens" when I'm out on the bleeding edge like this but I back myself up like crazy. I have a second HD with a fully qualified system on it just in case things go pear shaped and I have to bail completely.

So, if you are like me and are curious to see how it runs, I say go for it. My experience thus far has been pretty good. Back youself up though.

Very good advice.  I'm always eager to update, but I try to keep my curiosity in check until people like you put it through its paces.  At this point, though (and I stand ready to be corrected, as always) it seems to me that you and others are finding that things are running pretty smoothly, so I'm tempted to give it a try myself.

This thread has solved an activation issue.  Are there any other issues I need to worry about?  I did a search with the words 'Snow Leopard', and 'problems' and didn't come up with much, re Media Composer 4.  If anyone knows about something I don't, please let me know.  My edits are fairly simple ones, by the way.  Not much in the way of effects, etc.

Thanks for the advice, Malcolm

I use MC on a PC...but I recently got an iMac, that will be used for Final Cut. But until I get FC, I put MC on the iMac...just to see how it worked and to free up the PC for other things while I edit on MC.

Aparto from an issue with recognizing hard drives..which was a Mac situation...so far, MC has worked fine.

I've captured, edited, added effects, used Avid FX, rendered. I have about an hour of material I'm working on.

Actually I like Avid better on the Mac...I dont have a few totally annoying issues I had on the PC.

I am not big on upgrading Avid. Almost everytime I have I ended up with some problem that doesnt get fixed till the next major release. So if i had been using MC on the Mac only i never would have tried to use with Snow Leopard.  Who knows what problem might pop up, but so far it seems fine.

 iMac 2.93,  4 gigs, OS X 10.6.1  (Snow Leopard). 

I have had the system running 3.5.4 on Snow Leopard for a week and I haven't run into any issues yet.  However, when I try to go up to 4.0.2 I get the "Failed to migrate license information" error.  I de-activated the license prior to doing the 3.5 uninstall, I placed the updater in the Media Composer folder, I verified that I had given proper permission to the Library>Application Support>Avid>Pixie folders and still I get this message.  Any advice?  It seems that people can get 4.0.2 to run on Snow Leopard, but I am wondering if they had a previous version on the system or if 4.0.2 was the first version on the machine.  Any help is appreciated.