Activate your license

Thanks for choosing MacVisor! Whether you bought a license or are starting the free trial, the key arrives by email from Polar, our store, and activates the same way.

Every MacVisor license is a key beginning with MVZ-. There is no offline license and no separate trial mode: the trial is a key too, issued free for 30 days.

Prices and a full comparison are on Pricing and licensing.

A key gates only adding to your library: creating, cloning, and importing VMs, and downloading cloud images and macOS installers. The VMs you already have run without one, and nothing about them changes when a trial or license ends.

Get the free trial key

1. Open MacVisor. After first-run setup a welcome sheet offers the trial; it is also under Settings → License. Or, checkout from the product page.
2. Click Get a Free 30-Day Trial Key and enter your email in the checkout.
3. The key arrives within minutes. Paste it into the sheet (or Settings → License) and click Activate.

The 30 days count from the day the key is issued, and it works on one Mac. Buy a license whenever you are ready, during the trial or after it ends, and activate the new key in the same field. On a trial, Buy MacVisor goes straight to the checkout.

When the trial ends, the sidebar badge reads Trial ended, the prompt at launch says your trial has ended, and Settings → License (a click on the badge) says to buy a license and enter its key there. Creating, cloning, and importing VMs pause until you do; the VMs you have keep running.

Activate a license key

1. Open MacVisor → Settings → License, or use the welcome sheet if it is showing.
2. Paste the key from your email.
3. Click Activate.

MacVisor confirms the key with Polar and registers this Mac against it. The License tab then shows the edition, the masked key, the email it is licensed to, and when it was last verified.

Upgrading from the trial

During a trial the key field stays in Settings → License, under Upgrade from the Trial, and in the prompt MacVisor shows at launch. Enter the key you bought there: it replaces the trial on this Mac, and the trial's activation is released. There is no need to deactivate the trial first.

From the command line

The license is kept by MacVisor's background service, so a Mac you only reach over SSH can be licensed without opening the app:

mvz license                      # what this Mac is licensed for
mvz license activate             # asks for the key in a terminal (a trial key works too)
echo "$KEY" | mvz license activate -   # reads it from standard input
mvz license activate MVZ-…       # or takes it as an argument (it then lands in your shell history)
mvz license refresh              # check with Polar now
mvz license deactivate           # release this Mac; asks first, --yes skips the question

mvz license activate asks for the key only in an interactive terminal: over SSH use ssh -t, or pipe the key in with -. Without a terminal, deactivate needs --yes. --json prints the status as JSON for scripts.

Settings → License and mvz license show the same license, and a change in one shows in the other at once. On an unlicensed Mac, create, clone, import, and images pull fail with a message saying how to activate; everything else works.

The background service runs while you are logged in to the Mac, so a Mac you reach only over SSH needs automatic login (and one session at the screen, or Screen Sharing, for first-run setup). Without a logged-in session, mvz can't reach the service.

What MacVisor checks, and when

A Mac that cannot reach Polar keeps working, and MacVisor tries again every few hours. After 30 days without a successful check, adding VMs pauses and the License tab says the license needs verification: connect and click Refresh License, or wait for the next automatic check. Existing VMs keep running throughout. The checks send the key, this Mac's activation record and its hardware UUID (which ties the activation to this Mac), and nothing about your VMs.

Where the license is kept

The background service keeps the license and runs every check; the app and mvz only show it and pass on what you do. The checks come from MacVisorService, to api.polar.sh on port 443, which matters on a Mac behind an outbound firewall.

Its record is signed with a key tied to this Mac's hardware, so a record copied from another Mac, or edited, doesn't verify. When the record can't be verified, MacVisor doesn't simply lock you out: it confirms the license with Polar, which knows the key, its activation, and this Mac. The sidebar badge says Confirming license, Settings → License says Confirming with Polar, and mvz license says it is being confirmed. Online that takes a moment; offline, adding VMs pauses until it can check (it tries again within minutes, then hourly), and your VMs keep running. If the record can't be read at all, the badge says Activate again: enter your key again in Settings → License or with mvz license activate.

Winding the clock back extends nothing: licensing goes by the latest date this Mac has seen. If the clock ran ahead by mistake, set it right; the next successful check compares it with Polar's time and, when the two agree within an hour, licensing goes by the corrected date again.

Move a license to another Mac

1. On the Mac you are leaving, open Settings → License and click Deactivate on This Mac…, or run mvz license deactivate. That releases its slot and removes the stored key.
2. Activate the same key on the new Mac.

A Mac holds one key at a time. A trial key is replaced by a paid key without deactivating it first, but a valid paid key has to be deactivated before a different key can be activated, and a trial key can't replace a paid one.

Every key covers one Mac, with a little headroom, so replacing a Mac does not need support. If the old Mac is broken, lost, or erased, release it from the Polar customer portal with the email on the order. A key at its limit is refused with that reason.

If the Mac you are leaving can't reach Polar, the License tab shows Deactivating: adding VMs is paused, and MacVisor releases the slot the next time it reaches Polar. Activating a key in the meantime works as usual. If Polar refuses the release, MacVisor removes the key and stops trying; release the Mac from the customer portal if it is still listed there.

If something goes wrong

• The key is refused. Copy the whole key without extra spaces, and check it is a MacVisor key (MVZ-), not one for another product.
• "Trial ended." The trial's 30 days are over. Click Buy MacVisor in Settings → License or the launch prompt, then enter the new key there.
• "This license key is no longer valid." Polar no longer recognises this Mac's activation: the key was refunded or disabled, this Mac was released from the customer portal, or the record came from another Mac (Migration Assistant, for example). In the last two cases, activate the same key again; otherwise buy a license, or contact us if that seems wrong.
• "This key is already active on all the Macs it covers, or is no longer valid." Deactivate a Mac you no longer use, as above. Polar gives the same answer for an expired key, including a trial key past its 30 days.
• "Needs verification." The Mac has not reached Polar for 30 days. Connect and click Refresh License, or run mvz license refresh.
• "Confirming license." MacVisor couldn't verify its licensing record on this Mac, for example one copied from another Mac or edited, so it is confirming the license with Polar. Connect the Mac and click Refresh License (or mvz license refresh); it also tries by itself within minutes (then hourly) and when you next add a VM.
• "Activate again." The licensing record on this Mac couldn't be read at all. Activate your key again in Settings → License or with mvz license activate. If Polar says the key is already active on all its Macs, release this Mac in the customer portal first.
• The License tab says the background service hasn't reported the license. The service keeps the license; see The library or CLI cannot reach the service.
• "Reinstall MacVisor." This copy of MacVisor is damaged or was changed, so activation is off: it can't license a damaged copy, and would use up one of your key's Macs. Download MacVisor again from the badge, Settings → License, or the product page, and reinstall it. A key already activated on this Mac works again afterwards, and your VMs are untouched.
• "MacVisor couldn't understand the license server's reply." Polar answered in a way this version doesn't recognise. Nothing on this Mac changed, and a re-check that gets such a reply counts as no answer. Check for a MacVisor update; if it keeps happening, contact us.

More in Troubleshooting; terms in Pricing and licensing.