@nothappy18I have been dealing with this issue since 2019 tax return software, this is second year it happened, which is unforgivable. Earlier this year I was finally able to speak with an employee in the office of the president of Intuit. He sent me a free download for the 2020 tax return software for me to test and I was able to recreate the problem by downloading the Turbo Tax software with a flash drive plugged into one USB port and an external DVD drive plugged into a second USB port. A few days later I unplugged the flash drive and the external DVD drive and then opened Turbo Tax and it asked for licensing code. The employee recently called me and said that Intuit had identified the issue and it should be fixed for 2021 tax return software. Here is my suggestion for fixes this year, and I implored the Intuit employee to post these suggestions on this forum and to quit accusing customers of having stolen or pirated copies of Turbo Tax.
MY SUGGESTION FIX: PRIOR to downloading the program, UNPLUG all peripheral/external devices in USB ports, including flash/thumb drives. If you are repeatedly asked to enter the licensing code before TurboTax will open, stop and do not do that because if you do it five times you will be forced to buy another program. This problem is caused by a software issue that impacts a small number of customers who had peripheral/external devices plugged into their USB ports when they downloaded the program. Plug the devices back into the USB ports and restart Turbo Tax. If that does not work, save your unfiled 2020 tax return on your hard drive or flash drive. Then: 1) uninstall Turbo Tax; 2) unplug all peripheral/external devices in USB ports; 3) restart your computer; and 4) download/install Turbo Tax again.
