TurboTax 2024 keeps asking for Activation Code on SAME EXACT PC

[CatinaT1]

When you originally installed your software, did you have a thumb drive in one of your USB drives? Or do you have your software installed in OneDrive instead of a local drive?

I keep my TurboTax files in a secure personal vault on OneDrive. It appears that OneDrive might be related to the issue. I moved my saved file to the local computer drive and launched by double clicking the saved file. This bypassed the repeated activation codes, and when I closed Turbotax and then used the normal icon it did not ask for activation. However it comes back as a problem, when it does I just close out, and opening from the local saved file is needed to get back to normal.

[dmh123456]

> When you originally installed your software, did you have a thumb drive in one of your USB drives?

> Or do you have your software installed in OneDrive instead of a local drive?

Not me. Nothing unusual about my setup. Installed it on the internal drive, where the saved files are as well.

The 2024 version of Home and Business, which I've only launched 3 times on this machine has now made me authenticate again and used up a second seat of the license. My 2023 version, which I tried to view last year's taxes in, has 0 seats left, and I'll need to get a new code from Intuit for that version as well. I hate wasting my time on customer support calls about this, and yes they've had me reinstall before as well. It doesn't help. The support agents never know what's going on and are less familiar with the problem than the people on this message thread.

Can anyone at Intuit confirm that this is a known bug, and give us something to reference when we call? It's been a problem in Turbotax versions for years. How can we report bugs in Turbotax so they get some attention?? Clearly this support forum isn't sufficient.

[JvdA]

Here is an update on my issues with burning TurboTax activations:  

My configuration:  Dell Win 11 Pro on a Dell 8950.

Installed TurboTax 2024 (TT) locally and store program and data files files locally on my C: drive.  No USB Drives installed during installation, but I do use Onedrive for other things.  However, I DO NOT USE ONEDRIVE FOR TT AT ALL.

I have verified on my computer that IF I unlock my Onedrive's personal vault,  starting TT causes TT to think that this is a new install.  Locking my personal vault and starting TT does NOT require a new activation.  I can repeat this lock/unlock process, and sure enough, every time my personal vault is unlocked TT asks for activation.

There you have it.

JvdA/02-05-2025

[Forrest Gump]

This same issue is happening to me. Turbotax, please post a fix.

[CatinaT1]

Here are several troubleshooting steps that you can try:

• Make sure your Windows Software is up to date.
• If you are using a downloaded version, uninstall and reinstall the program from your MyDownloads folder.  How do I find my TurboTax for Windows software download?
• If that doesn't help, try a manual update. What is a manual update?
• Turning off your VPN and anti-virus software during the update can help as well.

[ML678]

Uninstalling and/or reinstalling is not really a solution - the only guarantee is consumption a new license activation.   Once activated again, as long as the conditions for identification won't change, it likely will not ask for reactivation again but would already consume one more license. 

Repeating an earlier post, the key solution to avoid reactivation again is to try to mimic the same "identification of the same pc" condition in which activated originally occured.  i.e.,

• Start TurborTax as same user as during original activation (if installed as Administrator but you restarting turbotax as a different user, not administrator, it will ask for activation again)
• Ensure mapped network drives, USB Drives, Mapped Backup drives (Google Drives, OneDrive, etc) are the same as during original activation
• other non-software changes on the PC 

[ML678]

As others have noted - using or not using thumb drives, mapped drives, OneDrive, GoogleDrive, Vault, etc for TurboTax to store files or not has NOTHING to do with this problem of reactivation. 

It is the appearance of these drives vs. not during startup of TurboTax compared with original activation - that delta that the program thinks it is not the same computer (which is idiotic) and asks for reactivation.

[dmh123456]

None of these "solutions" will make a difference. People need to stop with the "unplug it and plug it in again" type of suggestions. They are completely unhelpful and it's frustrating to hear them over and over.

There is a bug related to computer identification in TurboTax. I realize it doesn't happen for everyone, but for those of us it does happen to, it's repeatable across versions of Turbotax.

Also, I'm on a Mac; it's happening on both Windows and Macs. I only have one user account on my system, so it's the same one I'm using to run Turbotax.

Once again, I'll ask: Is this in Intuit's bug tracking system and is the issue being worked on?

I'm happy to provide a system report, capture logs, test bug fixes or whatever else Intuit needs, but Turbotax has a problem, and it has for years. I can easily reproduce this issue and someone needs to debug and fix it.

[Tidal_Wave_One]

I suggest people leave bad reviews at Amazon and elsewhere warning other users of this problem... if there are enough bad reviews about this, then Intuit might notice, figure out the problem, and provide a solution.

[Gambit135]

Same issue here. Never used the install on another machine, but I'm about to activate my 3rd code. So I called customer support as suggested.

Let me articulate the details of the call for entertainment purposes.

After spending 10min on the phone with the support rep, just going through verification, I explained the situation. I said its asking me for a license code now for the 3rd time on the same machine. And I reiterated multiple times to him I have never uninstalled the software.

He goes whats the issue then?

Well its the same machine and it shouldn't ask for a license code again on the same machine after the first install, and if it continues I'm going to run out of codes. 

He asks for the code to check on his end, I give it to him.

He goes well it says here its been installed on 2 machines (insert face palm here). After some more painful explanation and now 30-35 minutes in he finally agrees to escalate to next agent.

Here is the best part, next tier agent picks up, breathes into the phone, and then hangs up on me after I say hello.

[CatinaT1]

When you originally installed your software, did you have a thumb drive in one of your USB drives? Or do you have your software installed in OneDrive instead of a local drive?
 

Here is one users solution:
I keep my TurboTax files in a secure personal vault on OneDrive. It appears that OneDrive might be related to the issue. I moved my saved file to the local computer drive and launched by double clicking the saved file. This bypassed the repeated activation codes, and when I closed Turbotax and then used the normal icon it did not ask for activation. However it comes back as a problem, when it does I just close out, and opening from the local saved file is needed to get back to normal.

[dmh123456]

> When you originally installed your software, did you have a thumb drive in one of your USB drives?

> Or do you have your software installed in OneDrive instead of a local drive?

Not in my case, (as already stated in this thread).

It's amazing to me that no one from TurboTax has let us know if they're looking into this bug, which has existed for years. Does the Turbotax product team even look at this forum?!

You can't get support here, and the phone reps are unaware of the issue and only give completely useless support prior to issuing new license codes for us to burn through until we call them again.

What a completely AWFUL customer experience.

[MarilynG1]

Here's some things to try for Multiple Activation Requests.

@dmh123456 

[dmh123456]

> Here's some things to try for Multiple Activation Requests.

Thanks, but I don't think this is the same issue as we're running into. It sounds like the referenced issue has to do with network connectivity and not being able to get into Turbotax at all because of that. In my case, Turbotax is connecting to the Turbotax backend fine, it's just determining that, every few launches, I need to use another seat on my license for the exact same machine that already has a seat. Logging into my account, retrieving my license and allocating a new seat all requires internet access to accomplish, so connectivity is not an issue.

Anyway, I've tried some of these steps in the past, and others don't make sense:

> Method 1: Temporarily disable your antivirus/anti-malware/firewall software

Tried, had zero effect. (I'm using MalwareBytes on Mac, by the way, not Norton which was mentioned by others in this thread).

> Method 2: Disable your VPN connection

No VPN is running on my machine.

> Method 3: Restart your router/modem

Seriously, unplug and plug in the router? Connectivity is not an issue. If it were, I wouldn't even be able to log into my Turbotax account to have the software eat up another license seat.

> Method 4: Configure the TCP/IP settings

Not relevant, everything is correct.

> Method 5: IP config command line tool

I'm on a Mac, so I'm not even going to get into this. My internet access works great--that's not the issue.

The solution is for someone from the development team to reach out to myself (and others) to debug this. This has been a problem for at least the last 2 years--I've run into it with the last 3 versions of Turbotax.

[BrittanyS]

If you have tried all the steps above and are still having issues, you can call us at 800-446-8848 and have a case opened.