Canvas Docs

How To Activate Your License

Activation ties your license key to one WordPress installation, and it is the step that unlocks everything licensed: the Canvas Core plugin install, premium blocks, the demo library and updates. This page walks the activation itself and then reads through the License screen, because that screen is where every later licensing question is answered.

How To Activate

Starting screenCanvasLicense. On a theme only install this is the single screen the Canvas menu holds; once Canvas Core is installed it lives in the same place in the full menu.

Paste your key from your Canvas account into the License key field and select Activate License. The screen answers immediately: the status badge turns Active, your plan appears beside it, and the details panel fills in. If the site is part of the plugin install order, the Canvas Core install notice appears from this moment, so activation naturally leads into How To Install Canvas Core.

Until a key is activated the screen carries a No license yet panel, and its Get a License button opens the billing area of your Canvas account at https://dashboard.canvaswp.com/billing in a new tab. You are asked to sign in there first, so have your account details to hand. A key the service refuses swaps that panel for Find your license and a Go to My Account button to the same place, because a refused key is more often the wrong key than a missing purchase.

Reading The License Screen

The details panel is worth a one time read, because each row exists for a reason:

  • License key shows your key masked to its last characters, enough to recognise, never enough to leak in a screenshot.
  • Plan names your plan; on a multisite subsite it may note the site is covered by the network license instead.
  • Activated on and, after a move, Moved to this domain are the activation's history.
  • Licensed domain is the address the activation belongs to, and the screen warns when the site is running somewhere else.
  • Expires on carries the renewal date, with a countdown note as it approaches.
  • Last checked shows when the license was last verified; the Check now button forces a fresh verification whenever you want one, for instance right after renewing.
  • Activation ID and Instance ID identify this activation and this installation, each with a copy button. Support will ask for the Instance ID, and having it one click away is the reason it is displayed.
  • Environment reports whether this copy counts as Production or Local / Dev, which decides whether it occupies a seat.

Below the details, "What this license unlocks" lists your plan's entitlements as the licensing service reports them.

The Grace Period

Canvas re-verifies the license in the background from time to time. When the licensing service cannot be reached, your site is never punished for the outage: everything keeps working within a grace period, the status badge reads Active (grace period), and a notice names the date the grace runs to. The check that eventually succeeds clears it. No action is needed from you unless the state persists for days, which usually means the server cannot make outgoing connections at all.

Pitfalls

The key is refused and the badge reads Invalid. The service judged the key itself, so retrying will not change the answer. Re-copy the key from your account (a trailing space is the classic cause), confirm the purchase it belongs to is active, and check whether the plan's site allowance is already fully used.

"Could not connect to the license server." This is transport, not a verdict on your key: the request never got an answer. Try again in a few minutes; if it persists, ask your host whether outgoing HTTPS requests are blocked.

Deactivating asks for confirmation and then premium editing locks. Expected: Deactivate frees this site's seat, and an unlicensed site holds premium features closed. Activate again to continue where you left off.

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