Luminar 4 limited to 2 machines?
Hi,
I was very surprised to discover, after paying for the pre-release, that Luminar 4 seems to have an installation limit of 2 machines. Previous versions of Luminar had a 5 machine limit.
I would like to hear the reasoning behind this change, as it will impact a number of users like myself. I personally run a 3 machine set-up, 2 desktops in different locations and a less powerful portable machine, and I may have to reconsider Luminar if I need to buy 2 licences.
Thanks for any insight,
Denis
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@skylum
Just reached out to your CEO on LinkedIn.Maybe that will help, I am skeptical though.
Best,
Mark
2019-10-13
Hi Alex,
Want to bring your attention to this thread: https://community.skylum.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360005595460-Luminar-4-limited-to-2-machines-?page=1#community_comment_360000835039
Reaching out as it seems like you would be the one that can fix this. Read my comments there. Please help.
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Angela, I appreciate your offer to have me contact support for more licenses than 2. However, I'm hoping the company changes the policy back to 5 licenses not just for me, but as a policy for everyone. 5 licenses was a nice touch that MacPhun started. It spoke to being customer-oriented. I've been a supporter of your company for many years now and when I recommend the software, I mention the 5 licenses which impresses my photographer friends.
I have bought the upgrade since Luminar is important to me, but before that I have now also bought the on1 RAW 2020 beta, which btw provides 5 licenses. I'm going to give them a go and see what so many photographers are raving about. I hadn't upgraded on1 software in many years as I was so pro Luminar and Aurora after Skylum/MacPhun Creative Suite and other software. I use Luminar in pretty much every image. I want you to succeed. I also want your company to keep the stellar public image it had in the past, but I fear the light is dimming.
Nancy Goodenough
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Just to add my voice. When I saw the upgrade to Luminar 4 I decided to upgrade, but my assumption was it was a in place upgrade and I would keep the 5 licenses I already owned. I think you should honor the licenses that already had 5 activations and not change it. I am currently not using all 5 activations, but they were a perk I liked to have with Luminar.
Please reinstate the owners upgrading to 5 activations.
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Kate,
"Please note that our community forum is regularly reviewed by our management and QA team. We're getting across our customers' comments / suggestions / complaints to the corresponding team during meetings and via our corporate channels, so please rest assured that your messages reach the destination."
Given the concerns and complaints on this forum and the time span over which those have been made, your statement above is damning evidence that your management could not care less about their customers or providing the software that has been promised over the past 2+ years.
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Hello Everyone. I believe we have definitely failed to communicate the change to the number of licenses for Luminar 4. I have read the thread, and we should have done better. We will have a team meeting today to discuss this case. Luminar 4 license will allow activation on 2 computers, when Luminar 4 ships. But I believe we should make an adjustment for those who have pre-ordered Luminar 4 in advance. Please stay tuned.
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Hello Artists. Hope your day is going great. Here are the promised updates. Luminar 4 will be shipping with a license valid for 2 computers. Customers who want to use Luminar on more than 2 computers will be able to purchase additional licenses. At the same time I agree that we as a Team have done a lousy job to communicate these changes to you. Even though this information is available in the Support section on skylum.com, we should have made it easier to discover. We should have communicated these changes more clear. With this in mind, we have made a decision to give you an extended license that will work for 5 computers. To get the extended license, please send an email to Alina (Head of Customer Support) at alina@skylum.com, and reference this thread. Please make sure to send us a copy of the receipt that confirms your Luminar 4 purchase. Unfortunately we are not able to make this an evergreen offer, so be sure to contact Alina before October 22 (that is a week from now). Every Luminar 4 customer who emails Alina before 10.22 and requests an extended license, will get it. Thanks again. We will improve our customer communication moving forward. Alex.
PS If you’re in NYC Area or plan to visit Photo Plus Expo, come meet us! We will be demoing Luminar 4 and giving away cool stuff!
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Luminar 4 will be released on November 18.
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Thanks to Alex and Skylum for showing some sensible customer orientated actions and addressing this. Like other I have products like On1 which has the 5 licence limit. How you could assume 2 amazes me. I'm not a professional photographer but I have 3 laptops and 1 desktop at home I use and which laptop depends on the situation I'm in (ie MS Surface vs 15' dell XPS etc). Having to remove and reactivate licences would be painful.
I'm more concerned however about some of the language being used by management stating that this is a new product. I'm sorry - I just checked my invoice from July which shows me it's an upgrade. Which is it? I would think after the fiasco A LOT OF US went through with the release problems of Luminar 3 you would check everything now 110% before making statements.
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@Roar Fondse
Your opinion clashes with the reality of a number of users, including me, who use more than two seats without sharing with friends or family. (Your thesis that "most" people are dishonest, and that Skylum is losing business because of it, needs backing up with actual data, btw)
Historically, the company has always provided 5 seats for all of their products, and there was no reason to believe this would change. Especially since this is not a new product, but an upgrade. The biggest problem here was in the marketing. Were I cynical, I could imagine that this was an intentional omission during advertising the pre-order. Were I in generous mood, I'd simply say they severely underestimated the impact on users. I don't have any credible evidence one way or the other. I just hope they'll be much more forthcoming in the future about such changes.
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@Roar Fondse
I didn't ask for data from Skylum. I asked YOU to provide it to back up your accusation that users are basically "dishonest". Whoopee that you have worked in IT a long time. I would imagine you're not alone in that regard, so it doesn't make you an expert on the reason why Skylum did this. t's not about understanding the new policy, it's about the fact that many loyal long term customers felt they had been disregarded. Read some of the early comments and you'll maybe understand, though it seems you have a closed mind to this. Changing it from 5 to 2 provides no evidence; it's merely a business decision, which Alex admitted that they had not publicised well enough. So he saw the error in their ways, and did what honourable companies do.
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I appreciate that a "solution" was eventually provided for those of us that upgraded without any indication that this would be the restriction other than in the invoice after the upgrade purchase was complete. The fact that this solution was only indicated in this forum and with a very tiny window of time to enact it is extremely disappointing. Some of us do not visit these forums constantly and in my case I missed the window by a couple of weeks.
I understand that there may be business reasons to change the licensing restrictions, but not communicating this until after purchase of an upgrade is very hard to forgive.
As much as I like most of the aspects of your products (I have been a purchaser for a number of years now), I am finding it very hard to continue recommending them to others.
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Completely agree with Dave Smith.
"Luminar 4 is meant to be used by a single person. We’ve discovered that two activations are enough for one person in most cases. For example, at home and at work, or on a desktop and a laptop computer."
But this statement counters its self by listing already 3 option:
- home desktop
- home laptop
- office desktop
And if you, dear Skylum team, are so eager about the single person license with only 2 seats, why then bother with this "first 20k get 5 instead of 2" advertisement, which are not shareable or have another benefit while they are according to above statement useless anyway?
I'm quite interested how many people will complain about this after today or especially next Monday when the official release hits.
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Hi all.
waiting long time since preordered this upgrade from Luminar 3 to Luminar 4 and when I finally received it .. surprise, only 2 lincenses instead of usual 5 (OK, I only use 3 but ... this was my decission). I do agree with all people commenting befroe that this was not stated at pre order time and it is not the way as per previous releases (joined MacPhun some years ago, contined on Skylum ... not ony for Luminar but also Photolemur and Aurora). It is mre that just a problem of communicating that we will not receive the 5 license package as usual (it shoul be clearly stated, bold and red, at pre order time ... it was not). It is jus a commercial decssion based on the fact that we are using more than one, or two, or three ... up to the grabted five license and so by reducing the license package Skylum expect for us to further purchase more licenses.
Nice to know that we, as customers, as suspect of wromg use of our paid licenses and we do need Skylum to indicate how to setup our work enviroment ("two is enough" machines).
It is very disapointing that a company we used to trust in can see us just as a "money pocket" where they can dig to get our money as they decide.
Fortunatelly, as stated in this very same thread, other sw providers can see customers as people instead of "money pockets". At least I will give them a chance and try. Difficult to be loyal to a company that it is not loyal to me as customer. An, even worst, I do reallly love Luminar 4 new features and workspace organization but, honestly, I do not like being treated just as an ATM, I'm a customer
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