Activation Problem

[IainThompson]

I was using Sonar (free version) yesterday with no problems. Today I get the message that I am not activated and the error message says "Sonar experienced a problem with activation. Please contact support. (20, 800b0100)". Does anyone know what this means and know how I can sort it out? If I use Sonar at the moment the save option is deactivated.

[Wookiee]

@IainThompson you could try logging out of all Bandlab accounts, and then use the activation option inside Sonar. It might work!

[Promidi]

A couple of week ago, I was using a Beta version of Firefox. 

No matter what I tried, the version of Firefox would not allow Sonar to activate - even when opening  the browser from Sonar's Help > sign out then sign in.

The only way to fix this was to revert to the public release of Firefox 143 (which I am still on going forward).  

Another way I was able to activate Sonar was by temporarily changing my default browser to Edge for the activation procedure (changing back to Firefox when done).

I am definitely going to be looking out for this issue when Firefox 143 becomes the release version.

[IainThompson]

Just providing an update, in case it helps someone else in the future. I asked for help from Bandlab and they suggested the following: 

1.      Sign out and back in – Fully sign out of Sonar (and Cakewalk Product Center if you have it installed), then sign back in with the same BandLab account that owns your Sonar license. This can often reset the activation.

2.      Reinstall via Product Center – If signing out/in doesn’t help, uninstalling Sonar and reinstalling it through Cakewalk Product Center can clear up any activation hiccups.

 

Step 1 didn't make any difference for me, but the reinstall (step 2) sorted things out.

[Noel Borthwick]

On 9/3/2025 at 9:56 AM, IainThompson said:

I was using Sonar (free version) yesterday with no problems. Today I get the message that I am not activated and the error message says "Sonar experienced a problem with activation. Please contact support. (20, 800b0100)". Does anyone know what this means and know how I can sort it out? If I use Sonar at the moment the save option is deactivated.

That specific error is telling us that the digital signature of the executable is invalid. The app will not activate without an exe properly signed by us.

There are only 3 ways this can happen.
1. Your exe is corrupted on disk
2. Something external removed the digital signature
3. You obtained the exe from a source other than Cakewalk installers 

The fact that installing to product center solved the issue further confirms that you had an exe that was not legit.

A proper exe should have a valid digital signature.

[IainThompson]

21 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

The fact that installing to product center solved the issue further confirms that you had an exe that was not legit.

Just for the avoidance of doubt, I have only ever taken updates from the official site, so if the exe was "not legit" then the non-legitimate file came from Bandlab. If the file became corrupted on my system, which I guess could have happened in the update process earlier this week, then this is a bit different from concluding that the file was not legitimate in the first place.

[Noel Borthwick]

It's not possible in this case for an invalid file to have come from us because if so, every single user would have seen the identical issue.
Did you save a copy of the file before reinstalling? That would show if there was a difference. Even a single byte change in the file will void the digital signature, so disk corruption or something similar could cause such a problem as well. Looking at the file props as I showed in my screenshot would show that.