Product cannot be activated because the license key is of a previous version. Upgrade license key or purchase maintenance from https://customer.3cx...

[Cvill]

Hi 3CX Community

Please do bear with me as I'm not very experienced with 3CX.

We've got an old on-prem 3CX phone system (probably Debian v16) that we would like to upgrade to (Windows v20). I'm not entirely sure if this is possible, but we have created a backup of the old system and have reset to Win10, installed v18 (to be able to create a system owner first) and unfortunately encountered a few errors.

First error was that the license key was incorrect and we no longer had access to the old 3CX portal account so we had to purchase a license key directly from our suppliers.And upon changing the license key in the XML file and uploading it during PBX setup, we now receive this error: "Product cannot be activated because the license key is of a previous version. Upgrade license key or purchase maintenance from https://customer.3cx.com/orderform/default.aspx". Assuming its because the license key is already in v20.


Would appreciate any help on this matter. Thank you in advance!

 

[KyriacosS_3CX]

Hello,

If you have a backup of v18 with system owner you should be able to restore it to a clean v20. I would recommend you find a local 3CX partner to assist you with the move in general.

 

[VoIPTools]

Look at this as an opportunity. I don't know how big your 3CX implementation is, but the changes between V16 and V20 are significant.

Having implemented 3CX for nearly 20 years, I suggest that you take this opportunity to rebuild your phone system from scratch. Start with a new server and recreate the users, and take this opportunity to truly learn 3CX, and do it without impacting your existing production 3CX.

You have to purchase a new key anyway, so now you can test and try out new features and ways of handling calls, office hours, inbound routing, AI, and more all with zero pressure. When everything is working perfectly, then cut over to the new server. This avoids all the complications of multiple version upgrades too.

Just as Windows users periodically reinstall their operating system to "clean things up", the same benefits come with a fresh install of 3CX.

 

[SweetAction]

It's possible to do this, but requires some careful planning.
The simple version of the steps are:
1. Ensure in your v16 system that you have mail servers, email address, etc all configured correctly. Make sure you know the webclient password for a user. Take a backup without key/fqdn
2. Install a brand new v20 system and install a blank pbx. Make sure you get to the finished / webclient / normal screen. I would create a system owner with same extension / email address as the user in your v16 system
3. Upload the backup to 3cx and restore
4. One of a few things will happen here. I haven't tested this, but I think you'll be able to login to v20 webclient with that user (may need a password reset) and have sys owner permissions. But if you don't, you can then take a v20 backup via command line, modify the backup file, and restore it via command line.