topic Cannot Activate Turbotax 2023 in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Cannot Activate Turbotax 2023

kbrems — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 03:55:34 GMT

I purchased TurboTax Premier 2023 Windows download. Product installed and updated itself but I cannot activate it. I get the blank screen with blue dots forever. My internet is fine, I can log into my Intuit account and see my activation code and I am not using VPN. I Rebooted computer and modem. I tried setting my display resolution to 800x600 as suggested by others, but then I just get bigger blue dots. I have Windows 11 on a Dell laptop with 13" screen. I have used TurboTax on this computer for several years without issues however I recently upgraded from Windows 10 to 11.

Re: Cannot Activate Turbotax 2023

CatinaT1 — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 17:09:57 GMT

Were you able to solve your issue?

If not, please call TurboTax Customer service.  Here is a link:  Turbo Tax Customer Service

Re: Cannot Activate Turbotax 2023

kbrems — Sat, 17 Feb 2024 22:59:28 GMT

I finally figured this out - had to turn off McAfee Advanced Firewall (temporaritly) to get the TurboTax Activation window to come up. Apparently the Intuit Activation website is somehow "suspicious" to McAfee and outgoing traffic to it gets blocked.

Re: Cannot Activate Turbotax 2023

kpcoryat — Sun, 18 Feb 2024 04:48:34 GMT

I have 2023 home and biz

Windows 11

I've turned off the firewall and virus protection

Changed screen resolution to 800 x 600

Uninstall and reinstall

Rebooted and did it all over again

And I still get nothing but blue dots on the activation screen!!!!!!

This is totally absurd. I've used TT on this same computer with the same display for five years. I have never had this problem before. I have wasted hours with this problem.

What other suggestions do you have?

Re: Cannot Activate Turbotax 2023

kbrems — Sun, 18 Feb 2024 23:04:31 GMT

I understand your frustration as I was in the same boat. I even tried calling Intuit support but just got disconnected after 10 min on hold. I highly doubt screen resolution has anything to do with the activation failure (but I tried all those suggestions too).

Note it was the McAfee firewall I had to turn off, not Windows Defender. The only other thing I did was to run TurboTax as Administrator as suggested by this Community. That alone did not fix my issue, but I did have that setting still on when I disabled my firewall so perhaps both are needed.

Re: Cannot Activate Turbotax 2023

CatinaT1 — Sun, 18 Feb 2024 23:48:24 GMT

Refer to the TurboTax Help articles Troubleshoot TurboTax for Windows downloading issues and Troubleshoot installation and running TurboTax for Windows to see if there are any helpful actions you haven’t tried yet.

Re: Cannot Activate Turbotax 2023

kpcoryat — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 00:10:58 GMT

I spoke to Intuit tech support today, and while I had all my security off and the screen resolution at 800x600, he suggested I start TT with "Run as Administrator". I did that, and it worked.

I had read all the guidance I could find on this topic. There is, unfortunately, too much "ink" now, making it harder to dig through to find the solution that works for you.

This is ridiculous that making TT work requires so much effort and frustration. Don't the developers realize that ordinary people buy this product? Can't you sell a product that has been tested for all aspects of operation?

Re: Cannot Activate Turbotax 2023

SteamTrain — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 15:35:27 GMT

Whatever works.....perhaps we should suggest both

1) Temp shutdown of Firewall ? (McAfee mainly?)

then

2) Run As Administrator?

Re: Cannot Activate Turbotax 2023

bnkhoi — Sat, 23 Mar 2024 08:16:30 GMT

I got exactly the same problem as yours. The installation went smoothly but it didn't ask for the license key and I wasn't able to activate the program. I then went to website turbotax.ca./activate. It asked me to enter the activate code (license key), which came in the email from Amazon, from which I bought the software. I entered the code but it kept getting rejected. I uninstalled the whole thing, re-installed it and this time the installation asked for the license key. I entered it and it got accepted. Done. My suggestion: uninstall and reinstall.

Re: Cannot Activate Turbotax 2023

edgar41161 — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 16:09:51 GMT

i am having difficulty to activate the turbotax code

Re: Cannot Activate Turbotax 2023

CatinaT1 — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 16:17:06 GMT

There will be a license code in the disc you purchased. Follow these instructions to download TurboTax to your machine.

If you are unable to install it on your machine following the above instructions, then you would need to contact product support to further assist you as we are unable to issue codes in the community.