All Omni applications purchased prior to June 2020 from our online store or any other location outside of the Mac App Store utilize a license key to fully unlock the app. This applies to the following versions of our apps:
- OmniFocus for Mac 3.8.1 and earlier
- OmniGraffle for Mac 7.16 and earlier
- OmniOutliner for Mac 5.6.1 and earlier
- OmniPlan for Mac 3.14.2 and earlier
In these earlier versions of our Mac applications, you must manually enter your license details by going to Menu Bar > Application Name > Licenses, then clicking Add License. In addition to the Owner and License Key fields, there’s a pop-up menu with options for Personal and Computer licenses which is greyed out by default on most modern versions of macOS (you can learn more about each option in the following help article: About Omni’s software licenses).
Our latest apps no longer require a license key!
In June 2020, we introduced an Omni Accounts login-based unlocking method for all of our latest applications. New purchases now automatically register your license to your account, and earlier purchases can be registered to an account for easier license management. Refer to our article Unlocking our apps with your Omni Account if you are running OmniFocus 3.9, OmniGraffle 7.17, OmniOutliner 5.7, or OmniPlan 4.0 and later.
Why can’t I select “Computer” for the license type?
As a result of sandboxing in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and later, a folder needs to be manually created at the location /Library/Application Support/Omni Group/Software Licenses/. This can be done manually via the Finder, or by using the Terminal application. Open Terminal (from the Utilities folder inside your Applications folder), then paste the following line:
mkdir -p /Library/Application\ Support/Omni\ Group/Software\ Licenses
…and press return. Next, paste this line:
sudo chmod -R g+w /Library/Application\ Support/Omni\ Group/
…and press return again. Enter your password when prompted, then press return to confirm. Once the folder has been created, reopen the app and you’ll be able to select “Computer” as your license type.
If the license type selection is still unavailable, you’ll need to verify the permissions on the Software Licenses folder. Right-click (or control-click) the Software Licenses folder in the Finder and click Get Info, then look to the Sharing & Permissions section at the bottom. In addition to Admin: Read Only and Everyone: Read Only, your current user account must have Read & Write privileges for the folder in order to add the license. If you don’t have those permissions, you may need to manually unlock the permissions and add Read & Write. After doing so, quit and reopen the application and the Computer option should become available.
As always, keep in mind that the licenses that we use in all the Omni applications are two-part codes: the License Owner, and the License Key. Both need to be typed in exactly the same way they appeared on your original invoice, or the license won’t be accepted.
