(Legacy Licenses) Error: A Corrupt License Has Been Detected

Under certain circumstances, your license for your legacy ZBrush software can become corrupted. This will normally happen if you reinstall the software on your computer, or if you update that machine's operating system (such as going from Windows 8 to Windows 10).

What is happening is that your machine's digital thumbprint has changed, making ZBrush think that this is a different computer even though it is physically still the same machine.

If you try to use your ZBrush software and are given a message that the license is corrupt, please close the application. Then follow the steps below.

Important: In step 3, you MUST click the "Reset" button.  Any other button will fail to clear out the corrupt license information and the error will persist.

1. With your software closed, go to the ZBrush or ZBrushCore folder.
   • For example C:\Program Files\Pixologic\ZBrush 2022
2. Run the Pixologic License Manager, which you will find there. (If you receive an side-by-side configuration error, see here.)
   • Note:  In earlier versions than ZBrush 2019.1 it was called Pixologic Deactivation Manager instead.
3. At the lower left corner of the Manager window, click the button to Reset.
4. Confirm when warned that you should only do this at the instruction of Support. This article counts as that instruction.
5. Close the Manager.
6. (Recommended) Log into your account at My Licenses and request deactivation of this copy of the software. This is necessary in case the error was caused by your computer ID changing due to operating system updates. The deactivation will credit to your license immediately so that you will be able to activate again without issue.
7. Launch your copy of ZBrush or ZBrushCore.
8. You will now be prompted to reactivate. Activate again like normal, using your ZBrush ID.
   • When the web page opens, you may be told that no activations are available, and not be able to select your license key.  In that case, click the Deactivate button and remove your previous activation from your key.  That will immediately credit back to your account, allowing you to then reactivate successfully.