Issue: trial version expired after 2 days (DxO Photolab 9.2)

DxO PhotoLab Windows topics
1

Hi everyone,

I’m experiencing an issue with my trial version, and the DxO Support Team has told me they can’t do anything further to help. I’m hoping to find assistance here on the DxO forum, or to hear from others who may have had similar experiences.

I wanted to test the 30‑day trial version of DxO Photolab 9 with the intention of purchasing a license at the end of this month, since I believe DxO PhotoLab is the best option on the market.

Unfortunately, my trial has not gone as expected, and I really don’t know what to do at this point.

At the beginning of the trial, I was unable to launch the software. I eventually discovered on my own that the problem was due to incorrect date and time settings on my new laptop, as described somewhere on the DxO website. After fixing that, I was able to use PhotoLab for a few hours before another issue appeared.

Two days after downloading the trial version, and following the latest Windows 11 update, I tried to open PhotoLab again. This time, I received a message saying that my trial version had already expired.

I contacted the DxO Support Team, who were initially very responsive. They helped me run diagnostics on my laptop and concluded that the issue was still related to incorrect time settings. However, they couldn’t explain why the software worked before but no longer does. I have carried out all the recommended checks, even with the help of ChatGPT‑5, to confirm that my system time settings are correct.

Despite this, the issue remains unresolved. The support team has now told me there is no further solution they can provide, even though I can demonstrate that I’ve done everything possible to correct any potential time‑related problems.

Has anyone else encountered this issue? If so, how was it resolved? What did DxO Support suggest in your case? Or do you have any other ideas?

Anyway, gven the current situation, I am not prepared to purchase a license as I had originally planned, even if I didn’t find any alternative choice.

Thanks very much in advance.

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While I can’t guarantee it will be successful, do you have an alternative email address that you can use to download another trial version?

Mark

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Alternative email addresses don’t help. Verification i s done on the server in response to informations stored on the local drive.

Testing again will probably require another PC and an independent (1) email address. Being connected in a different network might not be necessary but beneficial. Make sure to set time correctly and leave your system as is after the installation.

(1) separate registration with DxO.

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Thank you for your first answers.
Using another PC won’t be possible, because it is the one I bought to run this kind of software.

I could try to create a new e-mail address, but if you say that should be not suffisiant, is this only worth trying?

Is it not possible to force the reinitialization of the trial version itself?

Unless the version is definitely corrupted, maybe we could find another solution on my laptop to fix the issue, but the diagnostic seems not very precise or the issue itself has not been very precisely defined by the team support. I don’t even know where it is specified in the .zip I transfered to the support team.

Thanks a lot.

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As written in a previous post: the acceptance of the trial key depends on information stored locally and on DxO’s server(s). We can force local information to a certain degree, but we can’t force anything on DxO’s server(s)

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I have sent a new message to the support team with a new diagnostic, and I am now waiting for their answer. I really hope they will investigate my issue further and propose some solutions.

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"XXX (Support & Assistance)

Nov 15, 2025, 6:19 PM GMT+1

Greetings,

We are unable to provide instructions on how to read our diagnostic, our apologies.

If you wish to re-run the diagnostic, we will be happy to check and see if that error has cleared. However, your previous diagnostic states that there is an issue with the date/time.

regards,

XXX - DxO Labs Support Team"

It is not getting better :pensive:

Can someone help me identify my issue? It seems the DxO Labs Support Team won’t help me further…

How am I suppose to find the issue myself, if DxO cannot even allow me to identify the error message in their “diagnostic” files?

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Suggestion for future. A system restore point, disk image or time machine (if apple) might have allowed you to recover easily from this. Respectfully, Its not DxO’s fault the date and time on your laptop was incorrect. This is probably one of the oldest problems with trial software and was the first thing developers patched against decades ago.

Now you’ re going to abandon a great application? This was your mistake remember.

Do you regularly back up your machine? Hardware fails. Software corruption happens. Backups provide peace of mind, and give you the ability to recover without having to reinstall your OS. Again, respectfully… this is just the beginning of potential problems you might face without implementing a back up solution.

It would be great if it were possible to provide a guaranteed solution. Unfortunately, its not that easy. The activation server is automated and relies largely on the info being reported by your system. Changing the date would flag the activation. Although unintentional, it might appear to the system that you were trying to defeat the trial period. Activation relies on hardware identifiers, date and time, etc.

Wiping your disk and reinstalling your OS could work, but its not certain. A back up would allow you to test with very little downtime.

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