Desktop licence verification

ian36 · ‎November 28, 2025

I have been using QB Pro 2014 desktop for many years, it works for me, I can work from anywhere without the need for an internet connection and there are no additional features I need. It cost me £132, so far that is £12 per year. I have no reason to spend £206 a year to move to Simple Start.

My hard drive failed recently and I have had to re-install QB, entered the licence number but can't get a verification code presumably because QB have shut down the server. This seems a little unfair, I bought a perpetual licence and now QB are effectively withdrawing this.

Anybody got any suggestions how to get a verification code or disable this validation?

MoiraskyeT

Hi there, Ian.

Intuit has discontinued support for older versions of QuickBooks, including QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) Pro 2014, and has likely deactivated the servers used for license verification and activation.

If you still have your verification code saved in the email you used when registering your QBDT software, you can use it to reinstall the program successfully.

However, if you no longer have access to your verification code, you can visit our pricing page and consider upgrading to the latest version of QuickBooks as an alternative.

Feel free to reply to this post if you have additional concern related to QuickBooks.

SIAB

@ian36

A license is simply permission to use a product. They retain the right not to provide any activation code at any time. You can use the trial version of QB Desktop 2014 or later as a workaround.

ian36

I agree, I bought a licence to use the product, not a licence to use until QB change their mind. By embedding the need for a verification code and then refusing to supply that code they are preventing me from using it.

SIAB

You will need to use the trial version as a workaround if you prefer to keep using QB Desktop.

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