Managing your licence
One key, one site. Activating, moving to another site, and exactly what stops working when a licence lapses.
- Beginner
- 6 min read
- Applies to 2.0
Activating
User Access → License. Paste your key and activate.
The License screen with the status banner and the key field.
The banner then shows the state, the version and the renewal date.
Activation registers this site's address. One key activates one site — so a staging copy and a live site are two activations, not one. Deactivate before you move a key.
Moving a key to another site
Deactivate on the old site first, then activate on the new one. Restoring a backup or cloning a site copies the activation record with it, which is the usual cause of a key that appears to be in use somewhere you no longer control.
If you have lost access to the old site, deactivate it from your account with the vendor rather than trying to force it here.
What happens without a valid licence
Every Pro feature stops. Not some of them, not a reduced version — all of them: two-factor authentication, the audit log, the IP manager, the Form Builder, broadcasts, maintenance mode, the Pro email handling.
What keeps working:
- The free plugin, in full. Your login pages, registration and redirects are Core features and are unaffected.
- The redirect handler, so members are not stranded mid-journey.
- The License screen itself, so you can put a key back.
Nothing is deleted. Settings, audit entries, IP lists and form schemas all stay in the database and come back when a valid key does.
The consequence worth planning for: if two-factor authentication was required for a role and the licence lapses, that requirement stops being enforced. Members sign in with a password alone. Renew before expiry rather than after.
How often it is checked
The licence is verified against the vendor and the answer is remembered for a while, so an ordinary page load does not wait on a network call. An active licence is trusted for an hour; an inactive answer is rechecked more often, so activating a key takes effect within minutes rather than at the end of the hour.
Activating or deactivating clears that memory immediately — you never have to wait for a cache to notice what you just did.
If the vendor cannot be reached
A network failure is not the same as an invalid licence, and is not treated as one. Requests carry a short timeout so a slow or unreachable licence server cannot hold up your admin screens.
Updates
Updates come through WordPress's own update screen, the same as any other plugin — see Updates.
Something missing or out of date? Tell support.