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Solved: How do I fix Visual Studio Community Edition “Your license has expired” or “Your evaluation period has ended” problem?

Visual Studio 2019 Community Edition showing the post-install message “Your license has expired” or “Your evaluation period has ended”. Follow the below solution to resolve this problem and continue to use it.

[Solved] Visual Studio Community Edition "Your license has expired" or "Your evaluation period has ended"

[Solved] Visual Studio Community Edition "Your license has expired" or "Your evaluation period has ended"

[Solved] Visual Studio Community Edition "Your license has expired" or "Your evaluation period has ended"

Content Summary

Solution 1: Check Proxy Configuration
Solution 2: Check Firewall
Solution 3: Check Internet Explorer 11 Configuration
Solution 4: Create New Microsoft Account to Sign In
Solution 5: Run as Administrator
Solution 6: Run Visual Studio in Safe Mode
Solution 7: Click Check for updated license hyperlink
Solution 8: Reset User Data and Settings
Solution 9: Remove Cache
Solution 10: Fix or Update Visual Studio
Solution 11: Check Activation Server Status
Solution 12: Contact Visual Studio Subscription Support

Solution 1: Check Proxy Configuration

It is important to determine whether your system is behind a proxy server. If unsure, please contact your administrator. If your system is behind a proxy server, you may need to modify the proxy settings for Windows HTTP clients.

Solution 2: Check Firewall

It is recommended to verify if a firewall is present. If so, disable the firewall or adjust the settings to allow access to the standard Microsoft websites.

Solution 3: Check Internet Explorer 11 Configuration

Step 1: Update to Internet Explorer 11.

Step 2: Set Internet Explorer 11 as the default browser.

Step 3: Add the following sites to IE trusted site. Open IE 11, go to Internet options > Security tab > Click on Trusted Sites > Click on the Sites button.

Step 4: Clean up the history data. Open IE 11, go to safety > Delete browsing history > Check all histories for all topics > Click Delete button. Restart IE 11.

Solution 4: Create New Microsoft Account to Sign In

Step 1: Visit the Microsoft Account Sign Up page and create a new Microsoft account.

Step 2: Use the newly created Microsoft account to sign in Visual Studio.

Solution 5: Run as Administrator

Run the Visual Studio Community Edition 2015 as the administrator, it will help us to excludes the permission issue.

Solution 6: Run Visual Studio in Safe Mode

Step 1: Open an administrative CMD window and go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE.

Step 2: Execute commands: devenv.exe /safemode.

Step 3: If it works fine that means the installed extensions may be corrupted the Visual Studio, go to Tool > Extensions and Updates, remove all installed extensions one by one to find the culprit.

Solution 7: Click Check for updated license hyperlink

Visual Studio Community Edition 2019 is still free. The 30 day evaluation period means you have 30 days to sign in with your Microsoft account to activate it.

Community edition is free to use. We use the same infrastructure that allows you to unlock VS w/ an online subscription to manage the requirement of signing into Community edition so some of our strings overlap cross these scenarios. Trial here means the period you can use the community edition before you must sign in to fully unlock the IDE.

You will get that message even if you are signed it. Basically you just need to click on the Check for an updated license hyperlink, and it will update the license for you. In case your Community edition installation prompts you for a license, you might have to sign in to unlock the IDE.

Step 1: Open IE 11 instead of Microsoft Edge.

Step 2: Sign out Microsoft account, then sign in again.

Step 3: Clicked Check for updated license hyperlink.

Solution 8: Reset User Data and Settings

Step 1: Open an administrative CMD window.

Step 2: Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE.

Step 3: Run the command: devenv.exe /resetuserdata to reset the user data in Visual Studio.

Step 4: Run the command: devenv.exe /resetsettings to reset the settings in Visual Studio.

Step 5: Reopen Visual Studio, then sign in with Microsoft account again.

Solution 9: Remove Cache

Step 1: Close any instance of Visual Studio.

Step 2: Delete the following file: %localappdata%\.identityservice\IdentityServiceAdalCache.cache

Step 3: Restart Visual Studio.

Solution 10: Fix or Update Visual Studio

Step 1: Go to Control Panel > Programs and Features > Select Visual Studio in the program list > Click Uninstall.

Step 2: When the dialog box appeared, press the Update (or Fix) button.

Step 3: Restart the computer.

Solution 11: Check Activation Server Status

Since many users meet the similar issue, maybe the related activation server was temporarily unavailable, please wait awhile and try again later to sign in and update the license by clicking Check for updated license hyperlink.

Solution 12: Contact Visual Studio Subscription Support

Step 1: If this issue persists, execute the command: devenv.exe /log in the evaluated command prompt.

Step 2: Upload the activity file (%APPDATA%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\Version\ActivityLog.xml) to OneDrive.

Step 3: Contact Visual Studio Subscription Support and share the link to download the activity log.

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