This article covers licence and activation problems. For other installation problems see Family Historian Installation Problems, and for how online activation works see Family Historian Activation.
Version 8 Licences
Free updates to ƒh7 cover Version 7 releases only. ƒh8 is a new version, and you need a new licence to use it in full.
ƒh8 can be bought as a monthly or annual subscription, which includes free upgrades to future releases, or as a perpetual licence, which is yours to keep but does not include the next major version. Owners of Version 7 get a discount on the perpetual licence, and owners of Versions 5 and 6 a smaller one; there are no upgrade discounts on subscriptions. Prices and the upgrade links are on the Family Historian 8 Pricing page.There is also a free edition of ƒh8, with a licence that never expires. It covers the essentials of building and exploring a tree, with no limit on the number of people, but not diagrams, reports, mapping, queriesQuerying is a very powerful feature that allows you to specify and save criteria for identifying a set of records of a given record type., pluginsPlugins are small programs that allow new features to be added without upgrading Family Historian itself; some plugins are written by Calico Pie and others are written by users. or GEDCOMGEDCOM, an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication, is a specification for exchanging genealogical data between different genealogy software. It is a file format that most genealogical programs and online trees recognise. export. You can upgrade it to the full version at any time without reinstalling, and if a subscription lapses you can go back to the free edition and carry on with the same projectA Project is a Windows folder, created by Family Historian, which contains all your Family Tree information recorded in Family Historian. Normally located in the Documents\Family Historian Projects folder.. Apply for it on Calico Pie’s Free Edition page; Compare Free Edition and Full Version has the full list of differences.
Every licence is attached to a Family Historian account, as it was in Version 7. A subscription has no activation code: you log in with the account you bought it with, and the licence is already there. Any other licence comes with an activation code by email, which you enter once, after logging in, the first time you run ƒh8. The full instructions are on Calico Pie’s Install Family Historian 8 page.
If ƒh8 is already running as a free trial on a computer when you buy a licence, logging in does not switch it over. Open Project Window > More Tasks > Licence Manager and swap the trial for the new licence there. (It is not on the Help menu, which is where most people look first.) On a computer where ƒh8 has never been installed, logging in with the same account is all you need once the licence is in your account.
Lost Account Details (Versions 7 and 8)
To reinstall ƒh you need your account, not the activation code. If you have forgotten the username, run ƒh on a computer where it is still installed and choose About Family Historian on the Help menu, which shows the account details. If you have forgotten the password, use the lost password link in the login dialog and a reset link will be emailed to you.
An activation code can only be used once, so losing it does no harm once the licence is in your account, although Calico PieCalico Pie Limited is a UK software house, and the publishers of Family Historian. suggest keeping a copy in case you ever need support. If you cannot get back into your account at all, email [email protected].
Too Many Computers (Versions 7 and 8)
Most licences allow ƒh to be installed on two computers at once. Install it on a third and you will be shown the Licence Activations window, where you can deactivate one of the others. Deactivation is permanent, so check the device name before you click. The alternative is to buy another licence and activate it in the same account. See Calico Pie’s Activation Help and our Family Historian Activation article.
Version 6 and Earlier
Earlier versions were unlocked with a Licence Name and Registration Key rather than an account. The rest of this article applies to them.
Mislaid Licence Details or Software Download
Have you mislaid your Licence Name &/or Registration Key or your Software Download?
Software Download Purchase
If you purchased a Software Download, then raise a ticket with Calico Pie’s Support team and ask them to resend your Licence Name & Registration Key, or Software Download. Include as many details as possible, especially your e-mail address"The address structure should be formed as it would appear on a mailing label…", according to GEDCOM; however, this is capable of a number of interpretations, and Address and Place are best considered together. at the time of purchase if it has changed. Since ƒh V5 you only need a few details:
- Latest purchased Software Download installation file
- Its associated Licence Name & Registration Key
- If it was a Version Upgrade then the previous version Licence Name & Registration Key
If you purchased the latest Full Licence download and have mislaid the Software Download, then download and install the free trial of that version from the Download Archive and enter your Licence Name & Registration Key when requested.
If you have a Full License download for any earlier version, you can use its Free Trial version to re-install on your computer.
Older trials can be found at FH Download Archive. This advice does NOT apply to any Version Upgrade nor any Installation CD.
Remember that since ƒh V5 the Version Upgrade products have eliminated the need to install earlier versions.
Installation CD Purchase
If you bought an Installation CD, the Registration Key will be printed on a paper slip or label that came with the boxed set. Sometimes it is on the front of the Quick Start Guide booklet. Usually there is no Licence Name, so the Installation CD must be used, as the Free Trial downloads demand both Licence Name and Registration Key.
If you have the same version of ƒh installed and working on another computer, then raise a ticket with Calico Pie’s Support team and ask them to retrieve the Registration Key by remote access to your computer. This will only work if it is a Full Licence and NOT a Version Upgrade that needs two keys. They also offer a paid service to convert a Version Upgrade to a Full Licence with a new Registration Key.
Create Installation Archive
Having retrieved your precious installation mediaWhen you add a picture, video, sound recording, document file etc into a Family Historian project, a Media record is created to represent that media item within the project; the Media record includes a link to the actual Media file. and licence, follow the advice to create an Installation Archive.
Licence Details Not Valid
What might cause ƒh to say your Licence Name and Registration Key are not valid?
The most common reason is you have tried to install a Trial Version and not the Software Download listed in your Licence E-mail.
If this is the case you must start the whole installation from scratch, and use the Software Download from the link on your Licence E-mail (or your archive backup of this file).
Repeated Licence Details Request
If ƒh requests the Licence Details to be re-entered every time it is run, then try running as Administrator.
Right-click on the ƒh icon and choose Run as administrator from the dropdown menu that appears (the exact details may vary with different versions of Windows). You may have to enter an Administrator password. You will need to re-enter your Licence Name and Registration Key, but should find that thereafter, the details have ‘stuck’.