# How to extend the expiry date for a customer?

**TRIAL KEYS OR SUBSCRIPTION KEYS THAT REQUIRE ACTIVATION**

If you are using trial keys that require activation or subscription keys, you can easily extend the evaluation period by updating the expiry date on the server. Once the expiry date is updated on the server, an expired client will automatically pickup the new expiry date (if you are using the LicenseValidator class).

To extend the expiry date on the server:

* Go to the Manage Keys tab
* Locate the license that you would like to extend
* Click Extend Expiry Date (used to be called Renew Subscription)
* Enter a new Expiry Date and click Ok

In order for a client to pick up the new expiry date, you have several options. Here are a few:

1\. If you are using the LicenseValidator class generated by the Protect Your Application wizard, then set the QlmLicense.ValidateOnServer property is set to true and regenerate the class and the xml settings file. Once the client license expires, the LicenseValidator class will automatically contact the License Server and check whether the expiry date has been extended. If the expiry date was extended, the LicenseValidator class will automatically reactivate the license without any user input.

2\. Ask the customer to reactivate their existing key, the same way they activated it initially.

3\. Call the LicenseValidator.ReactivateKey method

 

**TRIAL KEYS THAT DO NOT REQUIRE ACTIVATION**

**Option 1**

You can extend evaluation keys by sending the customer a new license key with a new duration. The date information stored after the first call to ValidateLicense is now license key specific. So each license key starts a new trial period.

**Option 2**\
You can extend evaluation keys by sending the customer a new key that has a permanent expiry date.\
\
For example, to extend an evaluation period by 1 month, assuming today is August 5 2007, create a license key as follows:\
\
(x) Evaluation License\
\[ ] Expires --- days after installation\
\[x] Expires on September 5 2007\
\
Note that QLM stores the date of the first call to the ValidateLicense API. This date is never reset. This is by design to prevent users from uninstalling and reinstalling your software to reset their trial period. The drawback of this approach is that the only way to extend a license key is by issuing a key with a permanent expiry date instead of a duration as shown above.


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