One of the more frequent support questions we receive as calls or in the support inbox regards moving an existing license to a new computer. Now, sometimes the reason is “my company upgraded our computers” or “I got a new computer”. GREAT! In that situation the old computer is usually functioning and the process is pretty free of stress. Unfortunately, more often that desired the questions is more like “My old computer died, I had to get a new one–how do I install my program and, Did I lose my farms?” or “It is rainy season here–I left my truck window open, I ruined my computer, HELP!”
As a subscription based license, we don’t care if you change computers weekly. You purchase one license that can be run on one computer (in some cases a desktop and a laptop) for the duration of the subscription period. Each computer using the program has a separate and distinct permission to run the program. Your license has one (sometimes two–see above) permissions associated with your payment. In order to move your permission to a new computer, it needs to be released from the old computer. In this way, you get full use of your annual subscription even if you change computers.
In both cases where you need to change the registered computer, the process is the same, it just has a happier ending for some.
Step One: BACK-UP YOUR FILES
This falls under Best-Program-Management Practices. EVERY computer program we all have ever owned tells us to back-up our data on a regular basis. I am old enough to remember floppy dics and the stack of back-up discs associated with images, checkbooks, accounting, etc. Back in the old days computers were significantly less stable, processors much slower and we were all kind of nerdy about backing up. Actually anyone who had a computer was kind of nerdy. Somewhere along the way most of us got sloppy about backing up data.(maybe it happened when people stopped wearing pocket protectors…) Well, all computers die. They don’t necessarily send out notices when they plan to exit. It is an EXCELLENT idea to back-up your farm files monthly. And don’t just back them up to another folder on you computer. Back them up to an external hard drive and back that up to the cloud, or another external hard drive. Hard Drives die, too. With in the program we make it easy to back up. From the Home Console (that irritating screen you click past after you click past the announcements).
Please note: we do not have a place we save all your files. Your personal farm files are only on your computer or where ever you choose as the file destination. Also, please note: Occasionally, when a big update is made to the program, we ask you to first uninstall the AMTS.Cattle.Pro program from your computer then reinstall. During this process, your personal program related files (those you just backed up) are still on your computer. For a video that explains the file structure go here
If, for some sad reason (see the truck window incident above) you cannot back up, maybe some nice computer recovery service will be able to pull the old data off your dead computer. And, we are sorry for your pain.
Step Two: DEACTIVATE THE LICENSE ON THE OLD COMPUTER
This can be done in two ways. The first illustration assumes a functioning old computer. in the second example I show that it can also be accomplished if your computer is dead or, if you happen to be the administrator of the program for a company with multiple licenses, by logging into your account on the AMTS website and deactivating the license through the Account Dashboard.
Deactivation from Old Computer
This is done either form the Management Console (shown below) or from the Help menu drop-down About AMTS.Cattle Professional>View License Details.
Deactivation from Account Dashboard
You can also deactivate your license from the account dashboard. This method is actually more convenient in multiple ways. If you killed your computer, you can release the license without needing to try to resurrect the dead computer. If you are your company’s administrator and you purchased the program for Steve and Steve subsequently quits but absconds with the company laptop (or had it on his own), you can shut that program down! The next time shifty-Steve starts up the program he will get a tidy message stating he no longer has a license for the program. Ha! Take that Steve! And finally, when you install the program on your shiny new computer, you will need the activation code to register your new computer. Using the Account Dashboard will provide you with the necessary code. The images below will help you see the functionality of Deactivation through the Dashboard.
Once you have chosen the correct license, you can deactivate the program on that computer.
Once your license is successfully deactivated you can download and install the program on your new computer. Instructions for that process are found on our website here. The last thing you will need to do is to transfer the backed-up farm files from you external device (or the cloud) to the Documents folder on you new computer. Put the Files in the AMTS folder under the nested AMTS.Cattle.Pro folder.
A video of this entire process is shown here.
As always– if you have questions or challenges contact any of us at support.