Activation is quick when the basics line up. If it fails, the app shows a plain-language error — match it to the fix:
Match the error to the fix
- “SocialMate doesn’t recognise this key.” Almost always a typo. The field auto-formats as you type, but copy the key straight from your account → Licenses rather than retyping — the format is
SM4-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX. - “This key is already activated on another machine.” One license = one device. Free the seat first — open your account → Devices and deactivate the old machine — or add a seat to run both. See Managing devices & seats.
- “The subscription for this key isn’t active.” The payment behind the key lapsed — check Billing and bring the subscription current.
- “This license has expired” / “has been revoked.” The key can’t be activated any more — check your account for a current key, or pick a plan.
- “Couldn’t reach SocialMate to verify this key.” Network or firewall. Activation verifies with socialmate.app; a blocked connection stops it. Try again on a normal network.
You don’t have to activate in Settings. An “Already purchased?” box appears in the app’s upgrade prompts, the trial-ending reminder, and the in-app Pricing page — paste your key there and Pro activates in place. And a brand-new key showing “We’ll verify this key with SocialMate when you activate” isn’t an error — the check simply happens when you click Activate.
If Pro drops out later
After activation the app re-verifies with socialmate.app about every 12 hours, and on every launch. A network blip never demotes you: the app only drops to Free after roughly 2 days of running without being able to reach socialmate.app (or 14 days with no successful check at all). Time your machine spends switched off doesn’t count against it. If verification ultimately fails (revoked, expired, or a lapsed payment), the app shows “Your Pro license could not be verified. You’re now on Free.” and restarts itself into Free. Re-subscribing auto-restores Pro within ~30 minutes without re-entering the key — or use “Already subscribed? Check status” on the in-app Pricing page. Suspect an outage on our side? Check status.
Tried all that? Open a ticket with the exact error text.