Subscription
      Back to home
      1. Support Knowledge Base
      2. License Support
      3. Subscription

      KeyShot 2025.2 Activation Troubleshooting

      This article will address common errors and troubleshooting steps for activation issues.

      Issue

      There may be log in issues with a variety of different causes. This article will provide steps for possible solutions depending on the problem.

      Environment Details

      • KeyShot Studio
        • 2025.2.1

       

      The Patch

      Please be sure to install the patch. A proper patch will be available at a later point, but in the meantime, please download the build with the manual auth handler bypass

      Windows: KeyShot Studio 2025.2 (14.1.0.155)

      MacOS: KeyShot Studio 2025.2 (14.1.0.155)


      Issue 1: Browser or Auth-Handler

      There may be a delay in the browser launching the auth handler or the browser may fail to open the authentication handler altogether.

      Cause

      For a number of reasons, the authentication handler may fail to launch or connect properly with KeyShot. This may be caused by network issues, firewall or antivirus restrictions, blocked popups, OS-level permission conflicts, or other factors.
      Normally, after signing in to your KeyShot Cloud Account in the browser, the browser should initiate the auth handler popup. If this does not occur, or if clicking on Open Link does not activate KeyShot Studio, you can activate it manually.

      Resolution

      In order to activate KeyShot Studio manually and bypass the authentication handler, you can use a code by clicking "here" in the browser or if that message does not appear, you can copy the URL address and paste it as the code

       

      Please note that waiting more than three minutes may cause the token to expire, making the link unusable and triggering an error.
      In that case, please retry and enter the code or URL without much delay.
      If it still fails, please delete the tokens as specified in Issue 2

       

      Issue 2: Token or Old License File Conflicts

      Checking License Status may be processing for a long while or there could be an error code. 
      If the error code is N3 C0, it is indeed an issue with the internet connection.
      However if the error is N99 C0, it might not be the connection but actually a conflict with a pre-existing license or tokens.

      Cause

      There could be an error writing or replacing the pre-existing settings, tokens or license files

      Resolution

      • In the Resource Folder, delete any old .lic files and the KSSettings.xml
        Please note that if a custom Resource Folder was chosen during installation, these files would still be in the default Resource Folder install location.

        Windows:

        • Installed Just For Me:
          %UserProfile%\Documents/KeyShot Studio or 
          C:\Users\<username>\Documents\KeyShot Studio
        • Installed For Everybody:
          C:\Users\Public\Documents\KeyShot Studio or 
          %Public%\Documents\KeyShot Studio

        macOS:

        • /Library/Application Support/KeyShot Studio

      • In the Appdata, delete auth_cache.json, auth_tokens.json, auth_tokens.json.lock

        Windows:

        • Installed Just For Me:
          %LocalAppData%\Luxion\KeyShot or
          C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Luxion\KeyShot
        • Installed For Everybody:
          %AllUsersProfile%\Luxion\KeyShot or
          C:\ProgramData\Luxion\KeyShot

        macOS:

        • /Users/<Username>/Library/Application Support/Luxion/KeyShot or
          ~/Library/Application Support/Luxion/KeyShot

      • Try signing out of the local network, then signing back in.

      • If possible, leaving the local network and signing in to a different one, e.g. mobile wi-fi

       

      Issue 3: Error Message or rarely Loop to Activation Screen

      There may be different causes for log in issues with different causes

      Cause

      There are three major causes that may cause an error. Rarely it will loop back to the activation screen with the Browser Login window briefly flashing and the duration being too short to display an error.
      • No connection to the internet
      • URLs required for our SSO sign in are being blocked by the firewall
      • DNS error

      Resolution

      Please add the following KeyShot URLs to the Firewall Whitelist for the organization:

      You can click the links to check if the browser is able to open them.

      The Log file which is located in
      Windows:

      • Installed Just For Me:
        %LocalAppData%\Luxion\KeyShot\logs or
        C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Luxion\KeyShot\logs
      • Installed For Everybody:
        %AllUsersProfile%\Luxion\KeyShot\logs or
        C:\ProgramData\Luxion\KeyShot\logs

      macOS:

      • /Users/<Username>/Library/Application Support/Luxion/KeyShot\logs or
        ~/Library/Application Support/Luxion/KeyShot\logs

      would have entries like 

      "Failed to fetch "http://cognito-....."

      Failed to get valid JSON from: "http://cognito-...."

      SSO: Failed fetching info. Retrying in one minute..."


      If there are DNS issues mentioned in the logs, you can try flushing the DNS:
      You can double-check by entering 
      nslookup login-configuration.keyshot.com
      in the Command Prompt on Windows or Terminal on macOS.

      It should look similar to these response

      Please try the following: Be sure to shut down KeyShot prior to starting the below steps.

      Windows

      Open the Command Prompt (Open the Start menu or press the Windows key + R. Type cmd or cmd.exe in the Run command box. Press Enter.)

      Type in the following commands in this order.

      1. ipconfig /release and hit Enter (This will disable internet access)

      2. ipconfig /flushdns then hit Enter

      3. ipconfig /renew then hit Enter (This will enable the internet access again)

      Mac

      1. Click Apple menu | System Settings | Network

      2. From the right panel, select the affected network service

      3. Click Details | TCP/IP | Renew DHCP Lease

       

      Issue 4: SSL Error

      There may an SSL error, with the browser login window being show too briefly to click anything. This is due to a connection issue that needs to be resolved before a code can be entered.

      Cause

      The most likely cause for an SSL issue could be 

      • the system time being out of sync
      • a proxy

      Resolution

      In order to fix issues with the system time, please

      1. Open Settings:
        • Click on the Start menu and select the Settings gear icon.
        • Alternatively, press Windows + I on your keyboard.
      2. Go to Time & Language:
        • In the Settings window, click on Time & Language.
      3. Access Date & Time Settings:
        • Click on Date & Time on the left-hand menu.
      4. Sync Now:
        • Scroll down and click on the Sync now button under the Synchronize your clock section.
      5. Check Sync Status:
        • Verify that your clock is now synchronized. You should see a message indicating that the sync was successful.

      For additional troubleshooting, please try the steps in this JWT article.



      For the proxy, please set up an Environment Variable.

      1. Right-click This PC or Computer on your desktop or in File Explorer.

      2. Choose Properties → then click Advanced system settings on the left.

      3. In the System Properties window, go to the Advanced tab.

      4. Click the Environment Variables… button near the bottom.

      5. In the Environment Variables window:

        • Decide if you want to set it for just your user (User variables) or for all users (System variables).

        • Click New… in the appropriate section.

      6. Fill in the fields:

        • Variable name:  HTTPS_PROXY

        • Variable value: e.g., http://yourproxy:yourport

        Replace YourProxy and YourPort with your proxy details, e.g. http://127.0.0.1:8000

      7. Restart KeyShot




      Issue Still Persists

      If the issue still persists, please reach out to support.
      Please provide

      1. A screenshot of the error as well as the
      2. KeyShot Studio log and
      3. auth_handler error log.
      4. Additionally, please provide a screenshot of what you see when you enter http://login-configuration.keyshot.com/ in your browser.

      The Auth Handler error log is currently called ssotest.txt

      Windows:

      • Installed Just For Me:
        %LocalAppData%\Luxion\ or
        C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Luxion\
      • Installed For Everybody:
        %AllUsersProfile%\Luxion\ or
        C:\ProgramData\Luxion\

      macOS:

      • /Users/<Username>/Library/Application Support/Luxion/  or
        ~/Library/Application Support/Luxion/



      The KeyShot Studio logs are located in
      Windows:

      • Installed Just For Me:
        %LocalAppData%\Luxion\KeyShot Studio\logs or
        C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Luxion\KeyShot Studio\logs
      • Installed For Everybody:
        %AllUsersProfile%\Luxion\KeyShot Studio\logs or
        C:\ProgramData\Luxion\KeyShot Studio\logs

      macOS:

      • /Users/<Username>/Library/Application Support/Luxion/KeyShot Studio/logs  or
        ~/Library/Application Support/Luxion/KeyShot Studio/logs

      Please send us an archive of that folder.

      Additional Resources