For software that can be installed on x number of devices, what counts as a "device"?

[Ubele]

I ask this out of curiosity, based on my earlier post of trying to switch from an external system drive to my MBP's internal system drive. Let's say, hypothetically, that I have an app that can be installed on three devices. I have my Mac's internal drive partitioned with three versions of macOS. I also have an external drive partitioned with two versions of macOS. What constitutes a device: the Mac itself (and anything I boot from it, including all five installations of macOS), each drive (so the three installations on the internal drive would count as one device, and the two installations on the external drive would count as one device), or each installation of macOS (meaning I could could install the app on three of my five installations of macOS)? Or does it depend on how the app was written and what it checks for?

 

[chrfr]

I ask this out of curiosity, based on my earlier post of trying to switch from an external system drive to my MBP's internal system drive. Let's say, hypothetically, that I have an app that can be installed on three devices. I have my Mac's internal drive partitioned with three versions of macOS. I also have an external drive partitioned with two versions of macOS. What constitutes a device: the Mac itself (and anything I boot from it, including all five installations of macOS), each drive (so the three installations on the internal drive would count as one device, and the two installations on the external drive would count as one device), or each installation of macOS (meaning I could could install the app on three of my five installations of macOS)? Or does it depend on how the app was written and what it checks for?

The answer probably depends on the application.

 

[gilby101]

Or does it depend on how the app was written and what it checks for?

Yes.

I know of apps which would count an external drive (with different OS version) as a second device. And of others that don't enforce any check and rely on you to do the what you consider the right thing.

 

[Ubele]

Yes.

I know of apps which would count an external drive (with different OS version) as a second device. And of others that don't enforce any check and rely on you to do the what you consider the right thing.

That’s what‘s I figured, and it makes sense. It gets confusing when there are no clear guidelines on how to unregister an app from a particular device that you’re selling, retiring, or wiping clean so you can reinstall everything from scratch.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Which apps are you seeing that have "no clear guidelines" to unregister?

 

[Ubele]

It happened a few years ago with Scrivener. I contacted the developer, and he reset things for me. It happened with another app, but I can't remember which one. My question was mostly out of curiosity. The issue that prompted my question was about Microsoft Office 365 for Business, which my employer uses. I have it on my work PC, my home iMac, and the external boot drive for my home MBP. When I tried to switch back to my MBP's internal boot drive, on which Office 365 was already installed, and I opened a Word document, it told me that that installation only gave me permission to read a document, and that I couldn't create or save documents. (It wasn't a "This document is read-only" message, and I could modify the document in Word when I booted from the external drive.) There's a five-computer limit for Office 365 for Business, and I have it installed on four drives. The error message didn't say anything about having reached my device limit, and that I needed to deactivate one, the way Adobe CC does. However, upon opening the Word document, I also got a message saying, "Microsoft requires your keychain password," which I don't know, so I kept clicking "Don't allow" until it went away and stopped popping up. Now I'm thinking that was the problem. I didn't have time to troubleshoot, so I just went back to my MBP's external boot drive.