I moved my site to a new host or domain. What happens to my license?

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After moving your site to a new host or a new domain, you might see one of these messages in your WordPress admin area:

Your Daan.dev license(s) failed to validate, because required encryption keys are missing.

Your Daan.dev license(s) failed to validate, likely because the encryption key has changed

Your license itself is fine. Your site just can’t read the license key it stored anymore, so it can’t check for updates.

Why does this happen?

The Daan.dev License Manager encrypts your license keys before storing them in your database. The encryption key it uses is stored in your wp-config.php  file, in a line containing DAAN_LICENSE_ENC_KEY .

Many hosts and migration tools create a new wp-config.php  file on your new server. Your database (with the encrypted license keys) is moved, but the encryption key isn’t. When that happens, the License Manager adds a new encryption key to wp-config.php , and the license keys stored with the old one can no longer be read.

Solution 1: Re-enter your license key

This is the quickest solution, and it always works.

  1. Go to Settings › Daan.dev Licenses, or click the Manage License tab in your plugin’s settings.
  2. Enter your license key in the empty field next to your plugin. You can find it under License Keys in your account. Can’t find it? See I lost my license key.
  3. Click Activate License.

Still seeing the “required encryption keys are missing” message? Then your wp-config.php  file can’t be edited by WordPress. Follow the steps in Licence(s) Failed to Validate in Activating your License to add the encryption key yourself, then re-enter your license key.

Solution 2: Copy your old encryption key

Do you still have access to the wp-config.php  file of your old site? Then you can restore the old encryption key instead. This only works if you moved your database as well.

  1. In your old wp-config.php , find the line containing DAAN_LICENSE_ENC_KEY , e.g. define('DAAN_LICENSE_ENC_KEY', '…');
  2. In your new wp-config.php , replace the line containing DAAN_LICENSE_ENC_KEY  with the line from your old site. If there’s no such line, add it near the top of the file, right below <?php . Make sure the file contains only one DAAN_LICENSE_ENC_KEY  line.
  3. Reload your WordPress admin area. The message should be gone.

Moved to a new domain?

Your license is activated for your site’s address (URL). After moving to a new domain, it’s still activated for the old one, so you’ll need to activate it for your new domain, too:

  1. In Settings › Daan.dev Licenses of your new site, click Deactivate License (if your license key is shown), enter your license key again and click Activate License. Already re-entered your license key using Solution 1? Then you can skip this step.
  2. Your old domain still counts as an activation. To free it up, go to License Keys in your account, click Manage Sites and deactivate your old domain. See Deactivating a License.

Updates still not showing up?

It can take a few hours before updates appear again. If they still don’t show up after that, see My premium plugin doesn’t update automatically.