Common activation errors on Mac:

1. Could not obtain a license please contact technical support
2. DraftSight activation failed, serial number not entitled to version.
3. “Unable to reach the license activation website”.
4. Crash when activating DraftSight or at start-up on Mac

Cause:

These errors can occur due to incorrect\\invalid license information on  a system. 

To check which serial number is being used for activation on Mac system:

Go to: ~/Library/Preferences/com.solidworks.licenses.serialnumbers.plist
(FYI ~/Library is a hidden folder but you can navigate directly to it from Finder -> Go -> Go to Folder… and entering the above path.)

.plist file stores the information about DraftSight serial number as below:

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We can open this file and check which serial number is used during activation. Make sure serial number being used is correct and valid for DraftSight version that is installed on a system. DraftSight standalone licenses are valid for one year after date of purchase hence check if license is not expired and consider license renewal in such cases.

Follow below steps to remove invalid license information:

- Go to: ~/Library/Preferences/com.solidworks.licenses.serialnumbers.plist
- Deleting the above .plist file so that when DraftSight is launched next time it will request for activation code and the user can enter the correct serial number to perform activation.

If this does not fix the issue try clean reinstallation of DraftSight following steps in below article:

Clean reinstallation on Mac​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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