TurboTax requires Activation every time that I start the program. I have only 2 left !!

[VolvoGirl]

It should be counting the 2023 activations towards the 5 for 2023, not towards the 2024 activations.   Each year is separate and have different License Codes.   You have 5 each year.   

[XAM330]

No. But I use a win 10 comp that is pretty much just used for taxes. I bought it when TT stopped supporting win 7 and I hate win 10 so I use it very rarely. I do update now and then and make sure that all updates are done before I do taxes. I did have problems with it updating win 10 and just freezing in process several times when I did updates before I went back to doing TT. Took me awhile to get back to taxes a few times. Turned out since it would not load to connect to WiFi so I plugged it in with cat 5 and restarted it and worked fine. Just had to do it a few times. I think it may have shutdown before doing a complete update so when started up it needed to update but could not load WiFi drivers. Who knows 🙄

I ran the TT quite a few times since I get it in Dec and just do rough taxes from all my data and wait for all my W, 10s and other stuff to come in. Once that is done I save the .tax and ALL .pdf and wait till mid march to file just in case we have another late update. I did file in Feb though this year but will wait next year due to this stuff they are doing in congress and whether they get it done before the end of the year so the IRS and State are updated in time. If you went to that link and read the posts about the $10,200.00 you will see what I mean. I only let TT update until I finish and ready to send. That year I waited till late march for the update and the day I mailed it when I got home 10 minutes later my sister sent me a txt that the update came in ha ha ha. I checked TT and it had it but I was to late even though I had checked it that mourning. 🤣

Question: Are you going through it with the guide or manually, and do you start from scratch or let it pull your info from the previous years .tax file ?   Just wondering.

If you do get it figured out as to what happened come back and let us know it may help others.

[YT76]

Right now both show 3/5 used. So I have 2 left in each.

2024 seems to open ok now.

2023 still asks me to activate despite being activated 2 more times in the last 24 hours.

[XAM330]

Good. Make sure to save all the .pdf options and the .tax file from that 2023 and put somewhere safe, encrypt if you can and save to multiple drive types so you have copies. I will be looking out next year for any possible issues like this if I open my 2024 TT. Never had a problem before but never had the download TT before either. 

[YT76]

Thanks for this idea.

I was able to chat with what seemed to be a human via FB Messenger. It was a human, but basically just copying and pasting the same answers that we all found, and which don't work.

He then proceeded to ask me to provide very very very detailed personal information. What broke me was that I was asked to provide my social security number. Why does TurboTax need all this personal info in order to help me resolve this technical issue?? Aren't my license keys enough? I refused to go further!

It's crazy enough that they capture every minute detail about our computers' configurations, why do they need social security numbers and more? They're collecting way too much personal data.

I told him that he has my personal details as well as the activation keys in my online profile on their website. It's all in their database. He said that although this is true (yes, he admitted that he already has all this info) he can't continue the chat without this info again.

I figured that he wouldn't be able to help me anyway as he was copying and pasting answers prior to this, so I will use my remaining activation to work on my return in one shot.

It seems like there are many people experiencing the activation issues and TurboTax isn't doing anything to resolve it.

Perhaps next year I will go ahead with another tax return solution.

[XAM330]

Not sure about them asking for your SS #. If they have it (I never gave them mine before) they would only ask for the last 4 digits NOT the whole #. It doesn't sound right to me. FB Messanger? I don't do SM but I do know it is from others it just does not seem to be something TT would be doing. I my be wrong since I don't do FB and I wouldn't do it there anyway. How would you know it was them. How did you get them on FB? 

If you have all your info then I would go for doing your taxes in one shot. Just remember to NOT close the program. Make sure to save ALL .pdf files and print the forms needed to file so that you can mail them if you have to before you file them electronically. I do not know where you are at in the process but you can always start from scratch and just let TT take you through it. If you have the TT from last year then the .tax file is there on your comp somewhere and when you first start TT it will go find the file and pull info from it and then also ask you whether you still need some of the same things again. Whatever you do DON'T CLOSE the TT till you are sure you are ready to file one way or the other. It is going on 2 months past the IRS filing date.

If you have someone in the U.S. that can call TT for you from here and you can FB messenger with them at the same time you might be able to get somewhere with that. Sort of like a 3 way call. Just make sure you can trust them with any info TT wants and send it to them ahead of time by a safe method. Just another thought to get around your contact issue with TT.

I think you will be fine if you just do it in one shot though. Good Luck

[YT76]

Thanks for your message.

I'm not giving someone that I don't know my SS# or any part of it.

By the way that he was guiding me prior to this, I knew that his support wasn't going to get me anywhere anyway. He was just telling me to do steps that I already found on Google, Chat GPT and this community of volunteers.

Yes, as someone suggested here, there was a response from TT via FB Messenger. So that's a good way to contact them. Possibly the only way in addition to Twitter.

My licenses are registered using my username and password. This is how I activated TT each time. So they have all of my necessary info if they really want to be helpful. 

I'll follow all of the tips that you provided.

Thanks again for your willingness to help. I appreciate it.