Reset the trials for everyone for 9.6

DxO PhotoLab
1

Hi.

I used the trial version for 9.3. It was decent for a week, then got progressively worse until I was starting the program over and over and over again and had to attempt 20+ times just to export a single image.

I experienced literally thousands of crashes.

I processed 3 groups of images (CR3, R6ii, plus experimented with some 70D shots from a few years ago), including one 4 day island vacation with around 3500 images and a 2 day model shoot at around 900 images, as well as some other random stuff totaling around 5000-6000 images.

The results were great… when the program behaved. And behave, it did not.

In my 30 days, I spent around 50 hours using the program and around 200 hours troubleshooting it.

Not ideal.

I have seen on Andy Hutchinson and others’ videos that there have been a LOT of problems.

Now I see that 9.6 has a special announcement of a major change.

And it took me around 2-3 months to actually arrange budget, find and receive it, but I’m no longer using a 2070, but now a 4070 Super Ti OC with 16gb vram.

But forgive me when I say that I don’t really trust that this new version will actually fix the problems. I am however, hopeful.

The only problem is, I can’t. My machine ID is locked because I’ve already used the trial. I asked if I could get that cleared and the answer was no.

I don’t understand the logic behind letting me use a trial which shows me how awful your software can be but when you fix the problems and send me emails and newsletters about how it’s fixed, I can’t even test it out.

Well, not unless I pay full retail. Of course, I was considering purchasing during the Black Friday sale with 20% off, so this would screw me over as a customer twice. Once for losing the pricing benefit and once because we’re already 6 months in to the 9.x series and you’ll likely be switching up to version 10 in a few months.

So this is all a horrendous value proposition that you’re advertising you finally fixed the bugs…

But that will be my option to choose, just like anyone else who might be ready to pick up some software.

I do think that it would be reasonable to clear the licensing server’s trial records though so everyone can get a chance to use the program when it’s running well (if it is in fact running well) after the bug fixes. There seems to be a lot of fine print there, so it sure seems like either the QC department is not so confident in this one, or just can’t be bothered to test on Win10.

I’ve actually got a USB stick with Win11 ready to go, but I want to test the software to see if it works first.

I am sure I’m not the only one. I’ve seen loads of people saying they had a bad experience. Why not try to win them back?

It will literally cost you nothing.

Everyone who had a good experience and will likely buy the program, already bought the program. Everyone who had a bad experience likely did not. You stand to lose nothing but only gain paying customers.

I was considering making a petition for it but I decided not to. It shouldn’t take a petition for something so obvious.

The software has been broken/unusable for 6 months. You want people to try it again.

So release the damned trial locks and let people actually try it again!

2 Likes
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Hi and welcome to the USER forum.

DxO may read this but will not respond. Therefore, it is best to kindly request a new trial license from the support team, which is certainly possible. :slight_smile:

1 Like
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support.dxo.com is the way to go.

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That combination will almost certainly guarantee that you will have no problems.

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Almost guarantee. But reading through comments on various youtube videos and facebook groups, it seems like some are still having problems. Even with that configuration or similar.

I think if the company is acknowledging that there were major bugs and those bugs are now fixed, it should on principle allow another attempt to try the software without me having to put my 240 bucks down for the privilege of beta testing for them.

Indeed, the poor performance and failure to address the bugs in 9.0, 9.0.1, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5 releases would strongly suggest that a “try before you buy” would be almost necessary for reasons explained clearly above.

Are you accustomed to buying things that have poor reputation at full retail when the company is not trustworthy?

Would you be one of those guys giving a strong recommendation to people to go out and buy a 1979 Ford Pinto without a second look?

I have little to go on. My experience with 9.3 was abysmal. 50 hours of working on photos. 200 hours of dealing with problems.

How about a show of good faith?

And what I am asking for is a show of good faith as a company policy to reset trials for everyone, which will allow everyone else who had a terrible experience with the first trial to give it another go.

They stand to lose nothing.

But the end users, well we lose 6 months of viability since there is a major update every year and this one was September. So come September 2026, we will undoubtedly be asked to upgrade to PL10, 6 months after having paid full retail for 9.6.

Kind of a dick move.

They SHOULD be offering 9.6 with the major bug fix with a full trial reset AND a 50% off voucher, but that would take money out of their pocket. I’m not asking for that. They lose $0.00 to reset the trials for everyone. And if it’s actually good, there’s a good chance it will give their revenue stream a boost.

I’m suggesting a win-win solution here.

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I did. They said it was not possible.

I’m saying that it’s the opposite of that. I’m saying not only is it possible, it’s the obvious thing to do.

I looked it up and DxO’s reputation is pretty mixed and with 9.x that reputation got worse. Rightfully so.

Chris Wright and Andy Hutchinson both commented on how 9.0 was a disaster, with Andy calling it a clusterf***.

For me, I’m likely going to just fiddle around with LRC and other programs until 10 comes out and give them another try. But if they wanted to improve their reputation, they would address the fact that the first 6 months of 9.x have been unusable for a huge chunk of their customers and many have walked away for good.

For a company that recently went into receivership and is trying to dig itself out from that, you’d think they would be motivated to improve their reputation…

My proposal is win-win and costs them basically zero dollars and zero cents. Just go to the licensing server and wipe all 9.x trial records. 3 seconds later, everyone who had a bad go with their trial over the past 6 months gets a chance to try 9.6.

Win-Win.

1 Like
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Quite simply: Don’t buy a new version immediately after its release unless you “need” it due to a missing camera-lens profile.