License Activation

What the License Does

Your license key unlocks automatic plugin updates and priority email support. It does not gate feature availability. Every Pro feature – watermarks, heatmaps, realtime dashboard, platform imports, exports, LMS integration, weekly digest – works on any site where Pro is activated, regardless of license status.

When your license expires, all features keep working. You stop receiving automatic updates until you renew.

Activating Your License

1. Find your license key in your purchase confirmation email or in your Wbcom Designs account.
2. Go to MediaShield > License. It is its own page in the MediaShield menu, not a tab inside Settings.
3. Paste your key into the License key field and click Activate.
4. The Status card shows Active, along with the masked key, who the license belongs to, the expiry date, and how many activations remain. Updates are now available.

If activation is rejected, the page reports the reason the store gave – for example an expired key or one that has reached its site limit – rather than a generic failure.

Staging and Development Sites

Whether a staging or local site consumes an activation slot is decided by the wbcomdesigns.com store when you activate, not by the plugin. The store treats typical non-production hostnames – names containing staging, dev, test, or local, hostnames ending in .local, .test, or .localhost, and loopback addresses such as 127.0.0.1 – as non-counting activations. If a site of yours is counted when you think it should not be, contact support with the URL.

Developers working locally can skip the outbound check entirely by adding define( 'MEDIASHIELD_PRO_LICENSE_BYPASS', true ); to wp-config.php. The License page then shows Bypass active (development). Do not use this on a production site.

Moving to a New Site

1. Deactivate on the current site first: go to MediaShield > License and click Deactivate. This frees the slot immediately. Deactivating does not remove any features or data – it only releases the store slot.
2. Install Pro on the new site, paste the same key, and click Activate.

If you have lost access to the old site, email support@wbcomdesigns.com with your license key and purchase email address. Slots will be reset within 24 hours.

License Expiry

When your license expires:

• All Pro features keep working.
• Automatic updates stop.
• Email support requires an active license.

Renewal reminders are sent by the store, and renewal extends from the current expiry date rather than the renewal date. Renew at any time from your account page.

Troubleshooting

“Activation rejected” – The page prints the reason from the store. Check for typos or trailing spaces, paste directly from the purchase email, and confirm you have not exceeded your site limit.

“Activation failed” – This is a network failure rather than a rejected key. Confirm your host allows outbound HTTPS to wbcomdesigns.com, and temporarily disable any plugin or firewall rule that blocks outgoing API calls. MediaShield uses the WordPress HTTP API, so allow_url_fopen is not involved.

License page not visible – Confirm both the free MediaShield plugin and MediaShield Pro are active on the Plugins page, then hard-reload the MediaShield admin so the Pro admin script loads.

Status looks out of date – License status is stored in your database and refreshed when you activate or deactivate, and by a weekly background check. It is not on a short cache timer, so if the state looks wrong after a renewal, re-enter the key and click Activate to refresh it immediately.

Support Contact

• Email: support@wbcomdesigns.com
• Response time: 48 business hours (Monday to Friday, IST).
• An active license is required for new support tickets.