What’s the best/quickest way to get in touch with ADSK for support these days?
And how can this product have such fundamental licensing problems? I’ve had my reseller troubleshooting it for hours. I can not launch Flame on either box. I know many others have experienced this. Is Montreal doing anything about it??
I think this might be an issue that effects 2025.
Check in /etc/ssl/certs
You may have tried those already, but just in case, two known current issues:
Browser app database is outdated: Run
sudo update-desktop-database /usr/share/applications (Linux only)
The other one is an out-dated cache of the identity manager:
Download: /opt/Autodesk/AdskLicensing//helper/AdskLicensingInstHelper from https://damassets.autodesk.net/content/dam/autodesk/external-assets/support-articles/licensing-support-tool/AdskLicensingSigninHelper-2.5.2.1579-linux.tar.gz
Then run this (as sudo):
AdskLicensingSupportTool --clean-cache
I’ve had to use both of those a few times recently and both brought Flame back. But your mileage may vary.
And the ADSK licensing deserves its own special place in purgatory for still being so unreliable in 2026. If they can’t figure out the code themselves, they might want to ask Claude for help. It may have a few suggestions.
And for what it’s worth, I think this is out of Montreal’s hands. It’s all on Autodesk overlords.
Yes, this is a centralized component that serves all ADSK products.
What’s the best way to get in the game of selling software and services that don’t work, in such gigantic quantities that you can afford to show up with lawyers and say clever phrases like “I don’t remember “
Is that how you sell help desks?
Maybe I need to take up golf or join a sex dungeon.
here is a script i use to fix it.
name the file flamefix.sh
Run it ./flamefix.sh
#!/bin/bash
sudo systemctl stop adsklicensing.service
pkill -9 -f AdskIdentityManager
pkill -9 -f AdskLicensingAgent
pkill -9 -f AdpSDKUtil
pkill -9 -f ADPClientService
sleep 2
rm -f /dev/shm/IDSDK* /dev/shm/sem.IDSDK* /dev/shm/sem.Autodesk.IDSDK*
sudo systemctl start adsklicensing.service
sleep 3
echo “cleared - launch flame now”
It’s been a while since I worked directly with a Flame.
Just call 800 925 6442 and it should be no problem getting a QFE worked on and shipped.
Should be pretty simple since it is impacting other users and causing work delays.
I know that the licensing problems that many ADSK users are experiencing across many of their products (not just Flame) is not the domain of our friends in Montreal.
But since there is no knowledgable or seemingly capable support from the “ADSK Licensing Team” in Asia, I need to flag and alert the only people that we know who seem to care.
No one else’s names come up to tag, since I suppose ADSK laid them all off.
ADSK’s licensing problems are a showstopper and have cost us immeasurable time and money. For the first time in my 30 years as an unofficial Flame ambassador, I am now having to look at F’ING NUKE. Which is an inferior product to push pixels, but does not have this bullshit with stupid licensing. I have spent thousands of dollars in IT support (including today), due to this nonsense and I am at risk of losing my biggest client Disney.
Who is doing anything about this??
I lost an entire shift of work today, unable to do work with my multiple artists working through the weekend. Because of the stupid licensing stuff. I could not launch Flame, on either of my Linux boxes. I am paying for this service every month, and it does not deliver.
I am not aware of any other software that charges.$650/month for a product that the customer cannot use. When I brought this point up to ADSK a few months ago, after another licensing problem which cost me multiple months of unusable fees, and asked if I could please get my paid subscription fee fees refunded, the answer was “our policy is that you can only have a refund for 30 days of non-service.”
The ADSK representatives are only reading from a script, have no agency, and their managers do nothing either.
So I lost multiple months, and I got one month of a refund. This is very poor customer service, and it does not engender good will toward Autodesk from its paying customers. Customers will flee and find other options which are way cheaper and do not have such crappy customer service.
Due to licensing, Flame is now an inferior product.
Nuke launches.
That sux @GPM
I think you’re more than justified to get a partial refund (or credit towards your next license) for any downtime due to flawed licensing
We’re yet to experience the licensing issues everyone else seems to be having. Is this a 2027.1 thing only? Is it only on Linux systems? Have you experienced this before? Most importantly, has it been fixed yet?
I can say that FlexLM Nuke licensing can be a PITA as well
I do like a license dongle. Sure, it’d be a pain in the arse if you don’t have it with you and then you want to unexpectedly jump on the software but at least when you do have it, you just plug it in, launch the software and it works. I actually know a few Resolve users (which would apply for Fusion Studio as well) who own a couple of license dongles as it’s so cheap. They keep one plugged into their main system and take the other one wherever they go for when they might need a license.
Anyway, hope your issue has been solved @GPM
Hey, thanks Adam.
Both boxes are Linux, not sure but I think the licensing issues are fully cross-platform – just to be consistent for the user experience. We’re on 2025.2.
The problem was fixed. Jack Horrocks (@Jack) saved the day with some kind of sorcery. He got my Flame 2 up in about 20 minutes. Flame 1 took a complete system reinstall (from another continent), and took longer. But both are totally fine now.
If I tried to describe in detail the solution I would only confuse matters more. But obliquely, it seems ADSK did some patch last weekend on Sep 7 on the back end, which affects us even if we don’t explicitly upgrade our software. If you’re not current on the OS, etc., then you can be screwed with these kinds of patches. I was behind on my Rocky Linux, and was thus apparently screwed. That’s the layman’s ignorant description.
However, we had identical licensing problems in months before this.
Anyone dealing with this mess, I heartily recommend giving Jack a shout.
If you had a support case for this issue, can you send me over the case number?
I should clarify – the licensing problems that we had seemed to be identical on both Linuxes. Only one of them required an updated Rocky Linux. So I don’t believe the OS version is the sole cause here.
Considering how many people I have seen or heard mentioning this issue and myself running into stalled startup times only to face “could not contact license server” or something similar it seems or sounds like (to me) that ADSK made some kind of tweak that is adversely affecting many users.
so did you end up with an updated rocky linux OS, a version relevant DKU and a version of flame and the related licensing components running on said new rocky linux?
if so why were your rocky linux versions different?
Because one of the boxes is barely used, and I don’t have a full-time IT staff to be on top of this kind of thing. I was unaware that one of my previously functioning boxes would be disabled without me opting in.
If ADSK makes backend changes that affect customers who do not explicitly choose to upgrade the software — it creates problems.
Hey Quinn. Over how long have you been seeing and hearing these things? Do you mean the apparent most recent ADSK patch from 9/7, or from some time before?
I’m afraid to even reboot a box, even when needed — because sometimes rebooting has caused ADSK licensing to get angry and shut me out.
The best and fastest way to combat these whacky licensing issues is with a $20 a month Cursor or Claude subscription and use the CLI interfaces over ssh. You literally don’t have to know how to do any of this. Just get a command line interface installed with an llm, describe your problem, it’ll walk you through it. You can even setup Cursor cloud agents to combat this shit from your phone.
I’m running the latest ADSK Rocky and 2027.1 and within a few minutes had identified the problem, and created a patch script. I did have to update said script over the next few days as my users found new ways to expose the problem, but was able to keep working. We do have some down time but minutes not hours or days. And now it self heals as artists crash.
And it wrote the fucking ticket and hopefully provided diagnostics.
Yes, I know this shouldn’t happen.
Yes, it’s frustrating.
Yes, paying $30k a year for multiple flame licenses oughta mean I shouldn’t have to do this.
But that’s the world in which we live and my Lexapro won’t pay for itself. Yet.