Start up notification saying song has more than 8 tracks

Ron-Coutts wrote on 11/16/2020, 10:21 PM

I'm hoping someone can help with this ... I have a fully purchased, registered Music Maker 2021 Premium Edition running on Windows 10. Just lately (over the past month) when I start up MM and go to open an existing track, more often than not - about 80% of the time - I'm getting a pop up message telling me (refer attached pic) "There are eight tracks currently available. To use more tracks, sign in here and purchase the item. More tracks & Formats in the store." Obviously, if there are more than eight tracks, it's because the last time I opened MM it recognised that I was a registered user and allowed me to create more than eight tracks. If I re-enter my serial number (P3-xxxxx) it tells me the product is already registered, and if I click on the 'Manage your Subscriptions', it tells me I'm subscribed. If I go to my account on the MM website it shows subscription details for 2019, 2020 and 2021 with the latter registration date as 30/06/2020.

This wouldn't be such an issue, except, I can open/close, open/close, open/close MM a dozen times; reboot my laptop; clear out cache's; and MM simply will not let me load a song (with more than 8 tracks) that I worked on the night before!! Over the past week I have twice, literally given up in frustration, only to try later in the evening or the following day when miraculously MM just opens the song - all 20 tracks. If it was simply a case of closing MM and reopening - once - I could probably grumble but put up with it, but after spending 45 minutes unsuccessfully trying to open an existing song to work on, I gotta tell ya, the creative juices are all dried up!!

Guys, it's doing my head in. My system is stable, there's nothing of significance changes from day to day. It doesn't seem to matter if there are other programs running or not. It just seems so completely random. Once in a while, one close and reopen will set it to rights, other times 20 shutdowns and reopens make no difference. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Comments

emmrecs wrote on 11/17/2020, 3:31 AM

@Ron-Coutts

First, did you notice that your screenshot includes your personal email address? I would strongly urge you to either remove the image or edit it to hide that address. I can remove the image but would prefer that you decide what you want to do with it!

I have only one suggestion which might help: on that initial splash screen, select the MAGIX account tab and then (top right) "log out". Close MM. Perhaps, reboot the computer. Reopen MM (you may need to log back into the store and your account). Any difference?

Jeff
Forum Moderator

Ron-Coutts wrote on 11/17/2020, 6:24 AM

Hi @emmrecs,

Thank you very much for your response, much appreciated. I did realise I had left my email address showing, but to be honest I wasn't overly fussed about it. However your concern over it prompted me to amend the image. I had tried logging in and out to no avail, but I couldn't remember if I'd tried it *with* a computer reboot. So I tried it following your suggested steps, and it didn't work ... though MM did open the song after closing and an immediate reopening - which it sometimes did, sometimes one open and close was enough, go figure?!?!

Anyway, I was getting (let's just say) annoyed. This has just started happening in the past month, so utilising Glary Utilities, I trolled back to see what changes - however insignificant - I may have made to my system in the past 6 weeks. The only change that I could determine was I'd downloaded and installed the free version of EaseUS Todo Backup software and started running scheduled backups. That led me to (of all places) Windows Security Notifications which in turn led me to a notification indicating that the 'Administrator' (me), had blocked MusicMaker.exe from a protected folder %Userprofile%\Documents. So I'm like "What!?!?!?" I've never in thirty plus years of using a computer, ever blocked anything as an Administrator, let alone anything as specific as a program file from a folder I wouldn't even know existed!! So, long story short (yeah, this is the short version 😂), I gave MM permission to access that folder and that seems to have alleviated the problem. MM starts up and opens multi (8+) track songs without fail (touch wood). I'm both nonplussed and relieved. I'm reasonably computer savvy so why or how such a change occurred is a mystery, and why 'sometimes' it opened these songs without specific access to that folder leaves me scratching my head. However, it seems to be fixed. I guess I'll know for sure over the next few days.

Best regards

Ron

emmrecs wrote on 11/17/2020, 6:35 AM

@Ron-Coutts

Hi Ron.

Delighted to hear you've solved the problem! Quite a number of users are meeting problems like yours, caused, usually, by various AV and security programs, putting certain folders and/or files "out of reach" to "undesignated" apps. It seems that some of these security programs "decide for themselves" exactly what, or what is not, a "designated" app.

BTW, re your image: did you notice your email address is highly visible at the top right of that Account screen?!!! 😱😱

Jeff

Ron-Coutts wrote on 11/17/2020, 6:52 AM

@emmrecs

That seems to be where the issue lay ... there was nothing I had specifically changed, but it would appear that EaseUS Todo Backup decided to give me a 'helping hand' 😂

You're not going to believe this, I saw the email address at the very top right, I knew it was there from the start. But I never even noticed the one on the "Account" screen at all!! You gotta wonder sometimes 🙃

Many thanks.

Regards

Ron