Total Security Won't Accept Activation

I purchased Bitdefender Total Security 2016 yesterday, activated it as per your email, and downloaded it from Bitdefender Central. I then installed it, updated it, and ran a scan. Today I have turned on my computer and instead of the red icon in my system tray, there is a greyed out icon displaying the message that I need to sign in to activate my copy of Bitdefender. However, when I launch the program, I can see my name, and all looks as it did yesterday. The top right menu shows my name, and clicking the links takes me to my account on Bitdefender Central. I can run a scan, and I can see that I have 365 days left of my current subscription. There is no link anywhere requiring me to sign in, and no link anywhere requiring me to activate anything again. i am concerned that the software is now doing nothing to protect my system as the icon is greyed out and I cannot take any action to change it or the message about having to sign in. It is not a reassuring start to my first ever use of software from this company.

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jsarnold

Still no reply to my email to Bitdefender Customer Service three days ago, and my software is still telling me that I need to activate it, even though it has been activated. I'm seriously unimpressed with this company and its software. Anyone got any suggestions or thoughts?

neroxxx

Still no reply to my email to Bitdefender Customer Service three days ago, and my software is still telling me that I need to activate it, even though it has been activated. I'm seriously unimpressed with this company and its software. Anyone got any suggestions or thoughts?

Suggestions?....trying to install BD Total Security 2016 for the last months!, to no avail!...given up a week ago,.....now I'm running Norton Security for Windows 10.....it's a beauty!!....absolutely NO problems!

Lanzus

Exact same issue.

What the ###### are u doing BD ? This service is really bad. I'm going with kasperky next time for sure. 2014 was great, 2015 was a bug mess and now this ...

jsarnold

It is now a full week since I opened a ticket with Bitdefender Support, and still no reply at all from anyone. The icon remains greyed out, and I still see the message telling me that it is not yet activated. This is a very unprofessional company, and if anyone is considering purchasing Total Security 2016 my advice is to hold on to your money.

jitzy

It is now a full week since I opened a ticket with Bitdefender Support, and still no reply at all from anyone. The icon remains greyed out, and I still see the message telling me that it is not yet activated. This is a very unprofessional company, and if anyone is considering purchasing Total Security 2016 my advice is to hold on to your money.

Out of Curiosity ---> Did you run a repair ?

A repair will most of the time fix such issues

click on Start menu ---> All apps ---> Bitdefender 2016 ---> Repair/Uninstall ---> Repair

Since it was working fine when you installed it first time there's no point in asking this, but still ---> Do you have bdnc.ipv4 in both C:\Program Files\Bitdefender\Bitdefender 2016 and in C:\Program Files\Bitdefender Agent ?

If not please do what's posted here

jsarnold

I do have the bdnc.ipv4 in both folders, but I don't have any option to run a repair from the start menu.

jitzy

but I don't have any option to run a repair from the start menu.

Well that's weird.....

Then go to Control Panel ---> Programs & Features ---> Bitdefender 2016 ---> right click Uninstall ---> Repair

jsarnold

Well, I followed your advice and...

... the good news is that the Bitdefender icon in the system tray now shows red, with no warning about activation, BUT...

... now every single time I start my computer Bitdefender warns me that my computer must immediately be restarted before configuration can be completed, with a great big warning in the middle of my screen which can't be moved. My machine has now restarted five times, with the warning appearing every time.

I am so regretting ever hearing of Bitdefender!

PS: I've just tried opening up the Bitdefender interface, but can't. All I get is the warning, so I am now completely locked out of my software. Bloody ######.

jsarnold

Another update:

As the 'Repair' tool completely screwed everything up so my computer just kept restarting over and over again, I managed to completely uninstall Bitdefender.

I then downloaded and installed it again from scratch, updated it and...

...now I am back to square one, with a grey icon in the system tray that tells me Bitdefender has not been activated and I need to sign in, even though there is no facility within the program to do so.

I have to question whether a company that is so bad at programming that the software is so riddled with bugs and problems is really capable of effectively protecting against professionally produced viruses, malware and other remote attacks on my system?

(By the way, still no reply from Bitdefender Support to my query over a week ago. I opened another ticket yesterday, but no response to that either yet. I suspect I shall have to request a full refund. Any suggestions as to what alternative to Total Security 2016 I should go for?)

neroxxx

Another update:

As the 'Repair' tool completely screwed everything up so my computer just kept restarting over and over again, I managed to completely uninstall Bitdefender.

I then downloaded and installed it again from scratch, updated it and...

...now I am back to square one, with a grey icon in the system tray that tells me Bitdefender has not been activated and I need to sign in, even though there is no facility within the program to do so.

I have to question whether a company that is so bad at programming that the software is so riddled with bugs and problems is really capable of effectively protecting against professionally produced viruses, malware and other remote attacks on my system?

(By the way, still no reply from Bitdefender Support to my query over a week ago. I opened another ticket yesterday, but no response to that either yet. I suspect I shall have to request a full refund. Any suggestions as to what alternative to Total Security 2016 I should go for?)

YES!!......I had sooooo many problems with BD TS, after about a month of trying, finally decided to lose my $50+tx and installed Norton Security 2016 - 30 days trial - it WORKS like a charm , really good!, eventually will purchase it!

Nesivos

Another update:

As the 'Repair' tool completely screwed everything up so my computer just kept restarting over and over again, I managed to completely uninstall Bitdefender.

I then downloaded and installed it again from scratch, updated it and...

...now I am back to square one, with a grey icon in the system tray that tells me Bitdefender has not been activated and I need to sign in, even though there is no facility within the program to do so.

I have to question whether a company that is so bad at programming that the software is so riddled with bugs and problems is really capable of effectively protecting against professionally produced viruses, malware and other remote attacks on my system?

(By the way, still no reply from Bitdefender Support to my query over a week ago. I opened another ticket yesterday, but no response to that either yet. I suspect I shall have to request a full refund. Any suggestions as to what alternative to Total Security 2016 I should go for?)

Did you manually serach for and remove all Bitdefender folders and files on the system drive?

Did you manually remove all remaining Bitdefender entries in the Windows Registry?

If you did not do both you did not completely uninstall Bitdefender and liked I learned the hard way in a number of instances you need to do this before you can Bitdefender 2016 installed and running correctly.

Unfortunately a lot of Bitdefender users do no know that those two manual steps must be completed before you do a complete uninstall of Bitdefender 2016. In another post I listed the 16 or so steps required to do a clean and complete uninstall of Bitdefender 2016. The New Bitdefender Uninstall Tool does not suffice unless it has been updated within the last several weeks. Bitdefender 2016 added a new program and folder called Bitdefender Agent. The New Bitdefender Uninstall Tool does not remove this and not removing it before reinstalling Bitdefender or another AV product can cause all kinds of problems.

Bitdefender Support was no help to me in figuring it out. It took a many years of Windows experience a lot of hours of failure before I happened to chance on the solution.