Why is there a watermark with my perpetual/serial license?

This FAQ is for users who have a perpetual license/serial number.

If you own a subscription license (e.g. Red Giant Complete, Maxon One, Universe) consult this FAQ.

The majority of perpetual/serial watermarks are resolved by following either of these sets of steps.

The steps are written in an if-then-else manner, so you can skip any section not applicable to you:

• The first step in troubleshooting watermarks on perpetual licenses is to uninstall whatever version you have installed.
  • Since the majority of watermarks on perpetual licenses occur because the wrong version of the product is installed, and because installing some versions does not overwrite others, the first step is to uninstall your watermarked plugins.
  • To uninstall through the Maxon App, select the Uninstall option in the menu alongside your product(s)
    
• If you purchased your perpetual license through Maxon.net (after 2020), follow these steps:
  If you didn't purchase through Maxon.net, skip this set of steps.
  
  
  1. Make sure you have the latest version of the Maxon App.
     The Maxon App is available for download from the top of this page.
     
     
  2. Sign into the Maxon App with the same email you'd used to purchase your perpetual license
     You can check if the email you're using has a perpetual license associated with its Maxon account on my.maxon.net
     
     
  3. Check that the perpetual license now says it's activated within the Maxon App.
     If the perpetual license hasn't activated already after you signed in, use the menu to the right of the product to select the Assign License option.
     • If Assign License is greyed out, it means the license is already assigned to another machine. Head to the Licenses tab of my.maxon.net and release the license from whatever machine you're not using it on.
       
       
       
  4. Skip the next set of steps

• If you purchased your perpetual license through redgiant.com (before 2021), follow these steps:
  
  1. Make sure you have the latest version of the Maxon App.
     • The Maxon App is available for download from the top of this page.
     • You'll need to setup a basic Maxon account to retrieve the installer.
  2. Sign into the Maxon App with your MyMaxon account.
     • Use the same Maxon account you'd just used to retrieve the Maxon App installer.
  3. In the top right menu, select Import Serials
     
     
     • Manually provide your serial.
       • If you purchased your serial through redgiant.com, you can retrieve your serial from the Manage button under the Licenses tab of my.maxon.net
         
       • If you purchased your serial from elsewhere, Red Giant and Maxon do not track purchases through resellers; you will need consult with whatever vendor you'd acquired your serial from to retrieve it.
• Once all of the above steps are complete, check for a watermark in a BRAND NEW PROJECT/SEQUENCE/TIMELINE — NOT A PROJECT YOU'D BEEN WORKING ON WHEN YOU'D DISCOVERED THE WATERMARK.
  As a troubleshooting test, try out your product on a brand new sequence/project with a new clip, and apply the effect.
  • • If there is no watermark on a brand new project: Then you're all set. To remove the watermark from any project you were working on before, clean out the render cache of your host and you're good to go..
      • The steps for cleaning out the render cache is dependent on whatever editing program you are using:
        • For After Effects: Edit > Purge > Image Cache Memory
        • For Premiere: Sequence > Delete Render Files
        • For Final Cut Pro X: File > Delete Generated Event Files
      • If you clean out the render cache and there is still a watermark but there was no watermark on a brand new project, try adjusting any of the parameters on the effect by a wide margin to force the output to re-render.
    • If there is still a watermark on a brand new project, and the Maxon App shows you are in a licensed state, use the top right menu of the Maxon App to send us an Error Log via a troubleshooting ticket and we'll go from there.