This article explains how to activate a Unity license when online activation fails because of interrupted internet access or restricted networks. It clarifies that Unity Personal users cannot activate offline and must upgrade to Pro. For Pro, Enterprise, Industry, and Student or Educator plans, it provides step by step instructions to create a license request, upload it to the manual activation site, download a license file, and complete activation in Unity Hub quickly and easily. ✨
Cause:
If you aren’t able to activate your Unity license online, the Unity Editor won't open. For example, if your internet connection is interrupted or if you use a closed network, the online activation will fail.
Resolution:
Unity Personal Plan users:
Manual activation is not available for Unity Personal users. If you need to activate your license offline, you must purchase a Unity Pro subscription. See the Unity store page for more information.
Pro, Enterprise, Industry, and Unity Student/ Educator users:
If you cannot activate your Unity license online or if you receive errors during the regular activation process, the usual workaround is to activate offline (manual activation).
To manually activate your Unity Editor license, follow these steps:
- Launch the Unity Hub and sign in using your Unity ID credentials.
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Select Licenses from the left-side menu.
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Click Add license.
- Select Activate with license request.
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Select Create license request and save the file to the chosen location on your computer, such as your desktop.
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Click on Open license request to open the manual activation website.
- If prompted, log in with your Unity ID.
- On the manual activation page, click Browse and select the license request file from the location you saved it in step seven.
- Click Next.
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Enter your serial number and click Next.
- Click Download license file and save the .ulf file to your computer.
- Open the Unity Hub’s How to activate an existing license window (Preferences > Licenses > Add > Activate with license file).
- Select the folder icon to open your machine file browser.
- Select the .ulf license file saved in step 13 and click Open or Select file.
- Click Activate.
Your Unity license is now activated.
To manually activate your license via the command line, see the articles below:
How to activate a Unity license via command line on macOS.
How to activate a Unity license via command line on Windows.
More Information:
If you encounter any problems during the activation process, contact Customer Experience, including the steps you took, screenshots of any errors, and your log files.
If you receive the error 'Your serial number is not valid', you might have to return a previous activation.
Refer to the article, How do I return the activations on my Pro/ Plus/ Enterprise license?
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