HOW TO

Recover lost licenses from My Esri

Last Published: August 11, 2021

Summary

Esri licenses may be unrecoverable when a computer's hard drive is reformatted or otherwise fails, or if the machine is lost or stolen. This article describes the steps to recover the lost licenses from My Esri.

Procedure

There are two methods to recover lost licenses:

  • Recover licenses on a machine by searching for the relevant ArcGIS product.
  • Recover licenses by using a machine's Unique Machine Number (UMN).
Note:
To perform the following steps, the 'Esri Admin' or the 'Take Licensing Actions' permission is needed. Sensitive information such as machine IDs, license numbers and other personal information have been obfuscated in the following screenshots. 
Note:
If the affected machine can still be accessed, do not use the Recover Lost Licenses option on My Esri. Follow the instructions in the articles listed in the Related Information section below to deauthorize the license(s) instead.
Warning:   
The Recover Lost Licenses is a process to retrieve licenses from a machine which is no longer accessible due to a system failure, system loss or destruction. The License Recovery process requires the signature of the organization’s License Administrator in a Certificate of Destruction. This process is irreversible and is used as the absolute last option when all other solutions to rectify the problem have failed.

Recover licenses on a machine by searching for the relevant ArcGIS product

  1. Log in to My Esri. Navigate to My Organizations > Licensing.
  2. Under Licensing Tools, select Recover Lost Licenses.
Click Recover Lost Licenses to begin the process for recovering licenses from a non-accessible machine.
  1. In the Step 1: Find Your Machine page, click the I know of at least one Esri product on the machine radio button, and click Next.
Select the 'I know of at least one Esri product on the machine' radio button to recover licenses based on the ArcGIS product used on the non-accessible machine.
  1. In the Step 2: Search for machine by product page, select the Product Name, Version, and License Type from the drop-down lists. Click Search.
Select the relevant product name, version, and license type from the drop-down menu to recover the associated licenses.
  1. Expand Machine Result, and click Select on the desired machine.
Expand Machine Result and click Select to recover licenses from the desired machine.
  1. In the Step 3: Review Selected Machine page, review the licenses attached to the machine. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click Next.
  2. In the Step 4: Accept Terms and Conditions page, click the I agree to the terms and conditions checkbox, and click Next.
Click the 'I agree to the terms and conditions' checkbox and click Next to finalize the license recovery process.
  1. In the Step 5: Summary to process License Return page, scroll to the bottom and click Process Return. The licenses are returned to My Esri, and can be used for authorization on a new machine.
Click Process Return to complete the license recovery process.

Recover licenses on a machine by using the machine's UMN ID

  1. Log in to My Esri. Navigate to My Organizations > Licensing.
  2. Under Licensing Tools, select Recover Lost Licenses.
Click Recover Lost Licenses to begin the process for recovering licenses from a non-accessible machine.
  1. In the Step 1: Find Your Machine page, click the I have the machine's UMN IDs radio button, and click Next.
Select the 'I have the machine's UMN IDs' radio button to recover licenses based on the UMN ID of the non-accessible machine.
  1. In the Step 2: Select Machine page, enter the UMN ID of the desired machine, and click Search.
Enter the UMN ID of the non-accessible machine, and click Search to recover the associated licenses on the machine.
  1. Expand Machine Result, and click Select on the desired machine.
Expand Machine Result and click Select to recover licenses from the desired machine.
  1. In the Step 3: Review Selected Machine page, review the licenses attached to the machine. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click Next.
  2. In the Step 4: Accept Terms and Conditions page, click the I agree to the terms and conditions checkbox, and click Next.
Click the 'I agree to the terms and conditions' checkbox and click Next to finalize the license recovery process.
  1. In the Step 5: Summary to process License Return page, scroll to the bottom and click Process Return. The licenses are returned to My Esri, and can be used for authorization on a new machine.
Click Process Return to complete the license recovery process.

Article ID:000016186

Software:
  • ArcGIS Desktop
  • Enterprise

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