I bought this software and it has proved to be a disappointment. My expectations were high after the hyping from DxO, e.g. The most advanced Raw photo editing software! That’s something.
Primarily I had hoped for an improvement in the masking system, but none of the points I had suggested for DxO to improve had been improved within half a year. One of the very strange things is, that the brush can’t paint a straight line following the common algorithm: - point, hold Shift down, move to a new point and click - and a line is drawn between the points - but not with DxO Photolab6. Another low level ‘finesse’ is with the edge masking brush, which never reveals its true result.
So, first I wanted to let the deal go back, but that simple process is for some reason made difficult by DxO. I will have to install a software for sharing my PC, and I have to book a service person who will search it to remove the secret key manager. This is far from good customer service. Why not send me a utility I can run myself and forward a dismounting code that tells DxO that my key has become useless.
So my next possibility could theoretically be to sell my license for a fair price to another person. But how? The software seems to be fused together with my computer in some way. I can’t even move it to another PC of mine.
If it’s not possible to return this software in a smooth way or sell it to another person, then I am stock with the most advanced end to end raw photo editing software - strangely without having any use for it, despite I am working with raw images each day.
Any suggestions … DxO or others?
Welcome to the forum @Eigil_Skovgaard .
You might want to read the end user license agreement or get in touch with DxO support through this page: https://support.dxo.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
Quickly glancing through the EULA, I got the impression that the license is for you and you alone.
Looking at the EULA…
2 SOFTWARE LICENSE
2.1 Subject to (i) for Commercial Versions of the Software, payment in full of the amount set-out in the Invoice and (ii) for the Trial Versions of the Software, compliance with the Restrictions indicated during the download, we grant you a single user, non-exclusive and non-transferable license to:
Anyways, we have some discrepancy in the EULA text vs. the actual licensing:
- EULA: single user (probably meaning the human being)
- License: bound to hardware (CPU, Motherboard or whatever is used)
If the product was never used, DxO should be able to take the license back, but I’ve not searched the EULA and support documentation for the respective statement.
Did you not discover that PhotoLab did not meet your requirements during the 30-day free trial? Why did you continue using it?
You stated that “I had hoped for an improvement in the masking system, but none of the points I had suggested for DxO to improve had been improved within half a year.” Seriously? Did you really believe your suggestions would be automatically accepted and DxO would stop working on other things to accommodate your personal preferences and implement them in 6-months, just because you thought they were important? Such hubris! That is not how the software development process works, and your timeframe for off the cuff unsolicited suggestions is completely unrealistic, assuming DxO would even be interested in them. Perhaps you should spend some time discovering that gems within this software instead of just focusing on the things you want to see improved.
Mark
You could also try describing the the problems you have with example images (apart from drawing straight lines) and perhaps some people here can help you get something out of the software for which you have paid. Guessing it has some features that attracted you to it in the first place.
Maybe it is really as bad for you as the impression you have, but also maybe not.
I’m not saying I can help but I know there are people here who can.
DxO is actually (when asked) honoring European rights for customers to return products not suitable for them.
Unfortunately this has been made tricky through the suggested process. DxO want a service person using a third party software (which I have to install) to search my computer in order to demount the license. That’s not good service.
As I suggested, why not let me download a simple utility and run it - which carries out the demount and returns a “cleaned” code. The purpose would be to make my key useless and I could have my money back.
I appreciate the kind suggestions of offering me help from the forum, but I am not a beginner, and I am convinced that this software i not for me. If it represented the slightest advantage in anything I already have at hand, I would keep it. This whole problem is more or less due to my faith in DxO. My Pure RAW 2 has worked perfectly and is used on daily basis. I don’t need the XD noise level.
Finally, good people here confirm to me, that I can’t even let my grandchildren play with the software on their own computer. So, everything considered - a waste of money in this case.
Ok, I understand that you know PhotoLab is not for you and that the deactivation procedure is not feasible.
Don’t understand why your grandchildren can’t use it on their computer. From what I read it can be activated on 3 devices (but only used on one at a time). So unless you already had it on 3 devices… .
Photolab Elite comes with three installs. You can’t transfer the license to a third party but you can install the software anywhere you wish. There’s no reason you can’t install it on your grandchildren’s computer assuming you have not already used up the three installs.
Mark
That is interesting…specially in view of any backups that can bring back everything that has been removed. DxO seems to either not have had the idea or the resources to invalidate a license code on their own licensing server.
I bet they have had the idea and they probably do have the resources but it’s not a killer / must have photo editing feature. That means they can’t scream about in order to drive sales and that’s why they will never implement it.
(In my far from humble opinion 
)
…and not enough cases to make it worthwhile 
That will also be a factor, but DxO is privately owned and financed and that means the need for ‘new and exciting’ features, to ensure growth, with every new version is paramount.
under EU jurisdiction shall be something that shall force them to provide a facility for one-click refund / license remove
/ etc… no ? write to your MEP !
Those are some of those points that makes photolab not easy and fast to use and so not at top professional level.
DxO is good at testing material and making correction profiles. But not at providing a good set of COMPLETE tools and interface to easily and fully take advantage of it.
All things considered…
Free fully functional trial period (30 days is very generous)
14 day return or refund on un-activated software, etc…
If the purchase price of DxO software poses enough of a hardship on someone making them feel like they need to somehow recoup their “loss”, they may need to seriously reconsider the choices they have made in life in regards to earning ability and how they make purchase decisions.
When a couple of hundred bucks becomes a regret or deal breaker, then golf, photography and owning a Porsche are probably not for them.
DxO doesn’t mis-represent itself. You get the full Monty… Maybe not yours, but to the (vast majority) rest of us here. Its so great, how could you not like it? What camera(s) do you shoot with? Do you own just one? Is it perfect? Does it do everything you want it to, so you only need one? No, it doesn’t because no camera is perfect. There is always something else we wished it could do, but over all its a likely a great device.
Contact support, have them de-activate your license on your existing device. No one needs to get on your computer. You can do whatever you want with your license if you stay within your activation limit. (3, again generous). Then go out and try capture 1, topaz, affinity, Lr, etc… and you’ll find out the same thing. None are perfect, all are constantly being improved and no one application will meet everyone’s needs universally. Then you’ll realize how great you really had it and probably come back. If you don’t, I hope you find the holy grail of post editors and don’t regret trying or buying it after one of its myriad of features doesn’t quite live up to your expectations.
Its really that simple.
If only it actually was that simple. First, you have to contact support instead of just being able to deactivate the license yourself from within the software itself or from a web page. Primitive, and wouldn’t be so bad if support was accommodating, but they’re anything but in my experience. I’ve been subjected to the same unreasonable/irrational requirements as the OP every time I’ve wanted/needed to move an activation to another computer. They have eventually capitulated and deactivated the license each time, but only after a lot of back and forth that has been anything but painless.
The only new feature I want in PL7 is the ability to manage activations myself, without having to contact support.
Whilst the deactivation procedure does appear to be a PITA (can’t find details about it apart from in this thread) can someone please describe the situation where having the option to use the key on 3 different systems is a limitation?
Also letting someone on my PC to search for leftovers is like letting someone into my house for a similar purpose. Maybe it’s an age thing but I value some privacy.
Only practical cases I can see are if you want to break the EULA or are changing your computer every few months.
I have one licence for a piece of software that I can move once a year. More than that I need to contact support and say please. I learned this because the licences was recognising the update of a virtual network adapter as a hardware change. So every update was breaking the license.
However the license could also be tied to a USB drive and I now use that option. Perhaps this would also be a solution that work for DxO I guess most here will recall dongles (on parallel ports and such).
@Eigil_Skovgaard what is the status? Had you only used the licence once and have you been able to use one of the other 2 remaining activations to get it running for your grandchildren?
At the bottom of the page.
George
What is at the bottom of the page?