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Cakewalk Activation Error (20)


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Am getting a Cakewalk Activation error out of the blue despite refreshing and logging into Bandlab.

Have also tried reinstalling Cakewalk to no avail and am on the latest version.

Appreciate the help!

*EDIT: SOLVED*

I managed to resolve this issue by using a third party uninstaller (Revo uninstaller) to uninstall Cakewalk in entirety by clearing registry files and residual files before doing a clean install. That actually worked but of course it wiped out all my Cakewalk settings and VST plugin data. Do it at your own risk.

*EDIT2*: Workaround without needing to uninstall

On 6/23/2022 at 8:38 AM, Leandro Buares said:

guys, I just renamed the cakewalk.exe file to cakewalk1.exe and it worked perfectly

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image.png.d1f422d9cc1e253d6f82625fc5c532b0.png

Edited by Wong Jian Ming
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36 minutes ago, scook said:

I am not sure what error code 20 is.

Did you click the "Contact Support" tab in the bottom right and let support know about the problem?

Alternately, you could mail support@cakewalk.com or open a ticket on the support website.

Have contacted them and done everything mentioned in the list of stuff to try and it still doesn't activate for me.

Edit: posting here to see if anyone can provide some advice because I urgently need to get it up and running for a session tomorrow, its a bit ridiculous that this comes up all of a sudden.

I've literally tried uninstalling everything for that I've installed on my PC for the past few days but still no to avail.

Last resort I'll have to use another DAW entirely  just because of this activation thing.

 

 

 

Edited by Wong Jian Ming
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What OS are you on? And are you running any kind of firewalls?

What was in the list of things that Support said to try? There may be some other options we can help you with here they didn't cover, but it's pointless if we just tell you to do the same thing they said.

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On 6/18/2022 at 11:11 AM, Wong Jian Ming said:

Am getting a Cakewalk Activation error out of the blue despite refreshing and logging into Bandlab.

Have also tried reinstalling Cakewalk to no avail and am on the latest version.

Appreciate the help!

image.png.d1f422d9cc1e253d6f82625fc5c532b0.png

What version of Windows are you using and how did you install Cakewalk?

Error code 20 is an error indicating that the digital signature of the application is invalid or could not be authenticated. This can happen if the executable was modified or if the cryptography in Windows is unable to validate the signature. 

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On 6/20/2022 at 5:33 AM, Noel Borthwick said:

What version of Windows are you using and how did you install Cakewalk?

Error code 20 is an error indicating that the digital signature of the application is invalid or could not be authenticated. This can happen if the executable was modified or if the cryptography in Windows is unable to validate the signature. 

Have been using Cakewalk since forever and always either installing the EA versions through the forums or updating directly through Cakewalk when it prompts me about a new update.

In this case I did not do anything to Cakewalk before getting this error message, however I have been messing around with trying to setup a postgresSQL server on my NAS/PC before hitting this error. Not sure if that had anything to do with this error.

 

EDIT:

I thought I had posted an update, but I managed to resolve this issue by using a third party uninstaller (Revo uninstaller) to uninstall cakewalk in entirety by clearing registry files and residual files before doing a clean install. That actually worked but of course it wiped out all my Cakewalk settings and VST plugin data.

Edited by Wong Jian Ming
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Having a similar problem here.  Installed the update last night and got both a message saying that "activation has been refreshed"  and the "Not activated Error 20 message.  Am I activated or not?  I don't think I am because next to the program name on the top of the screen it says Not Activated in parentheses.  Running Windows 10 Home.  Never had any such type of issue before with any of the multitude of  updates.  Really would be a drag to have to uninstall and  reinstall the program and lose all my settings and VST data.  There's got to be something going on with this update.  Any guidance or bug fix would be greatly appreciated

Edited by Lombardi
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You shouldn't need to do a full uninstall. The first thing to check is look at the version info for cakewalk.exe. It should look like this:
Check if it says "this digital signature is ok"

image.png


If not can try deleting (or renaming) the cakewalk.exe file and reinstall the application and retry.  

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My Digital Signature Details reads exactly as yours does. Also tried deleting (or renaming) the cakewalk.exe file and reinstalling the application to no avail.  I'm hesitant to do a full uninstall because I have a lot of vst plugins in various folders and many projects that I am currently working on that utilize them.  However I am reaching the point where I need to work and not being able to save any changes to a project because of activation issues is getting old.  Whatever the issue, I need a fix I can count on.

 

Thanks

Edited by Lombardi
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1 hour ago, Noel Borthwick said:

That would imply that the issue isn’t related to the program but something environmental. Do you have an antivirus that may have blacklisted the program or something like that? If you rename it back or copy the exe file does the problem return?

Had another PC with this issue, renamed to Cakewalk1.exe and it worked, renamed it back and back to having the activation error.

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