Registering, Authorizing, and Deauthorizing Finale Notation Products – Finale/Garritan Help Center

Please note that the term "User Code" has been changed to "Computer ID" in version 26.

In this article, you can find information on registering the MakeMusic notation product you just purchased, how to authorize a computer with that product, some information on common errors during authorization, and how to deauthorize Finale. The authorization and deauthorization sections as detail a couple of different methods for completing these processes and what to do when things aren't quite going as planned.

Registering your notation product

If you have purchased Finale on from a dealer, purchased new from a reseller, or you do not see your serial number on your account, you may need to register the product. This involves logging into your MakeMusic account and filling out some prompts. Information you will need includes which product you are trying to register and your serial number (serial numbers begin with four letters and then have eight alphanumeric characters after a dash; i.e. HFER-########).

If you have downloaded the free Finale NotePad 2012 application, please see Registering Finale NotePad 2012.

Authorization

Authorizing your notation program on a computer

When you install a Finale notation program, you must authorize the computer by entering your serial number into the Authorization Wizard. After 30 days, if you do not authorize your product, your program will stop saving or printing; however, you can still authorize anytime after 30 days.

To authorize your copy of Finale, Allegro, PrintMusic, or SongWriter, follow these steps:

Open the application. Windows users: Right-click the desktop icon for the program and select Run as administrator. Note: If this method does not work, please see the following article for alternate ways to run as administrator: Unable to Run as Administrator.
If prompted to authorize, click Authorize Now. Otherwise, choose Help > Authorize Finale.
Enter your name and serial number and click Next. What's a serial number?
If you have an internet connection, follow the onscreen prompts to automatically authorize your software.

If you happen to run into any errors along the way, please see Resolving common authorization errors.

Authorizing Finale offline, or when an internet connection is not recognized

If you do not have an Internet connection, or Finale is not recognizing your internet connection, you will see this message:

If you see this message, click Continue and then continue with the steps below to authorize your software manually.

After choosing Continue, choose the "Website..." option. Note: Previous versions of Finale software may say Website or telephone for the first option. Finale technical support is now exclusively online.
Open our online registration page.
Gather your user code/computer ID from the computer on which you are trying to authorize Finale. What's a user code?
Back on the registration web page, choose the applicable options from the Ownership, Product, and Version fields; type your serial number into the final field and click Next.
The "Registration Successful" page appears. Click Continue.
Type in what you would like to name the computer you are authorizing in the Location field.
Type the user code you gathered into the User Code field.
Choose an option from the Platform & OS field; click Next.
A 10-digit authorization code appears on the next page. Type that code into the Authorization Code field in Finale to complete the process.

If you run into any issues, please feel free to contact Customer Success for further assistance.

Resolving common authorization errors

In some cases, an error messages appear during of the authorization process. Below are some common authorization errors that occur. Select an error message below for possible solutions.

"Error Message for Authorization Server: Your maximum number of authorizations allowed for this license are currently in use..."

If the same version Finale has been authorized on another operating system(s), you must deauthorize it first before you can authorize it on a new operating system. To deauthorize Finale from an old computer:

Open Finale on the old computer. Windows users: Right-click the desktop icon for the program and select Run as administrator.
Choose Help > Deauthorize Finale. Click Yes to confirm.

Has the old operating system crashed or been replaced/replaced? See Managing your authorizations without access to Finale.

How many authorizations are allowed at one time?

"Error Message from Authorization Server: Invalid Serial Number."

This error indicates that there is a typo in the serial number. Please refer to the information at the top of this article for the correct serial number formatting and that this is the correct number for your product.

"Error Message from Authorization Server: Unregistered Serial Number"

This error message indicates that the serial number that was entered is valid, but is not yet registered to a MakeMusic account. In order to use this serial number to authorize a computer, first log into your MakeMusic account by using the Register Now button at the top of this article. If you do not currently have an account, you can create a new account with the same link above by choosing Create New Account at the login page. Once logged in, follow the on-screen steps to register your Finale product serial number. After this you can use your serial number to authorize a computer.

"Error Message from Authorization Server: Serial number is not registered to this email address."

This error message indicates that the serial number entered is valid but the email address entered in does not match the one on the MakeMusic account that the serial number is registered to. Please login to your MakeMusic account and verify the correct email address that is on your account.

Please note that if you have attempted to authorize with an email address that is not on the account that the serial number is licensed to, the email address on the account will receive email notification of this.

Note that if you are using a site license serial number that is registered to an account other than your own personal account, please contact the administrator of that account to get the correct information.

If you run into any issues logging into your MakeMusic account, please feel free to contact Customer Success for further assistance.

"Error Message from Authorization Server: Authorization error..."

Typically this error message indicates that the serial number being used is for a different product or different release version of that product than what the serial number is valid for. Please go to your MakeMusic account and verify the product and version your serial number is valid for.

To verify the version you are attempting to authorize, first cancel out of the Authorization Wizard. Then go to the Help menu on Windows or the Finale menu on macOS and choose About Finale... The About window opens and will have detailed information about the product you are using.

"Error Message from Authorization Server: An email is required on your account in order to authorize..."

This uncommon error can occur if a user has a serial number registered to an account with a username but no email. In this case, you'll need to either log in to your MakeMusic account and add an email address or contact MakeMusic Customer Support.

Deauthorizing your notation product

Deauthorizing Finale on a computer frees up a seat making it available for use on another computer. It is important to deauthorize Finale before upgrading your operating system, reformatting your computer, replacing your computer, or moving Finale to a new computer. There are a few different circumstances under which you could be deauthorizing Finale, please choose the option below that applies to you.

Deauthorizing with the application

If you have an internet connection, you can deauthorize Finale form within the application.

Open Finale. On Windows, please be sure to open the application by right-clicking the desktop icon or start menu icon (not the taskbar) and choosing Run as administrator.
Choose Help > Deauthorize Finale.

If the deauthorization was successful you will see a dialog box saying so. If the program does not deauthorize, or you get a message saying that the deauthorization process failed, please see Deauthorization Failed.

Managing your authorizations without access to Finale

There are many reasons why you may want to manage your current authorizations without access to Finale. You may have experienced a computer failure, replaced a computer without deauthorizing, or maybe you don't have access to the internet on your computer and you have to use another computer to manage your authorizations. Fortunately, you can view and remove authorizations for each of your serial numbers from your MakeMusic account.

After you've logged in, you can click the green Manage Authorizations button in a product section (indicated below) to view your current authorizations.

Before removing an authorization from your account, please uninstall Finale first from the computer you are deauthorizing if you still have access to it. If you do not have access to Finale on that computer, or you have uninstalled the program, you can remove an authorization from your account by clicking the DELETE link for that authorization (depicted below).

You will be prompted for a reason for the deauthorization. Please choose the reason that most closely applies to your situation, or choose other and type a few words describing your situation.

Deauthorization failed

If your deauthorization failed, you can view and remove an authorization from your MakeMusic account online. Before removing an authorization from your MakeMusic account, please uninstall Finale first.

After you've uninstalled Finale and logged in to your MakeMusic account, you can click the green Manage Authorizations button in a product section (indicated below) to view your current authorizations.

You can remove an authorization from your account by clicking the DELETE link for that authorization (depicted below).

You will be prompted for a reason for the deauthorization. Please choose the reason that most closely applies to your situation, or choose other and type a few words describing your situation.