Describe the problem/error/question
I’m encountering an issue when trying to activate my self-hosted n8n Community Edition with a free license key I just received.
I recently got an email from n8n with a “free license key to unlock selected paid features.” The key is: 9887a0fc-47e1-453c-9f86-b970d436f4a8.
When I first attempted to enter this key, I received an error stating “The activation key is in the wrong format.” I later discovered this was due to an invisible space introduced by my browser’s translation extension while copying the key from the email.
After meticulously correcting the key by removing the extra space, the error message changed back to: “Activation failed. The activation key has already been used on this instance.” This happens despite the key being brand new and just received.
It seems the initial, malformed attempt might have marked the key as “used” prematurely, or there’s an issue on the license server side. I am unable to proceed with activating the selected paid features.
What is the error message (if any)?
Initial error (now resolved after correcting key format):
Activation failed. The activation key is in the wrong format.
Current and persistent error:
Activation failed. Activation key has already been used on this instance
(Also displayed as: “Activation key has already been used on this instance”)
Please share your workflow
(Select the nodes on your canvas and use the keyboard shortcuts CMD+C/CTRL+C and CMD+V/CTRL+V to copy and paste the workflow.)
N/A - This issue is with license activation, not a workflow. No nodes exist in this context.
Share the output returned by the last node
<N/A - This issue does not involve a workflow execution or node output.>
Information on your n8n setup
- n8nio/n8n: ( 1.95.2)
- Database (default: SQLite): SQLite
- n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main): default (own)
- Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): Docker (via EasyPanel)
- Operating system: Linux (on a server)
