I have a 3-year license for CCleaner Pro, purchased earlier this year (Jan. 2026). I typically remove e.g. commercial tracking garbage (cookies etc.) at least once a day from my browsers (I could use 2-3 different browsers daily) with CCleaner. For example, I clean my computer before I use one browser (in safe mode, via VPN) for paying any bills through online bank.
So far, CCleaner updates have worked fine.
Unfortunetely, tonight, as I started CCleaner, and allowed CCleaner to make changes to my computer, before I could select what I wish to clean or check today, (in fact) an error message was shown:
âThe testing period for CCleaner Alpha has ended
Thank you for participating in testing our new version of CCleaner. You can safely unistall the application, or wait for an automatic update with a new release of CCleaner.â
This shows a faulty service or bug with this software. Firstly, I have not selected or freely joined any alpha testing of this CCleaner software. Secondly, I find it very surprising that you ever replace operational, solid software used by your customers with some test version without her/his permission, as part of regular software updates. When your (unauthorized) test ends, one would expect that this test software version would be replaced with the latest working operational, non-test version of this software. Or you at least offer her/him versions, among which she/he can select, what would be instaled next. Now my working stopped because of this weakly performing software installation, as I regularly clean my browser before I move to another theme (another group or task related browsing). But your test installation does not allow me to continue normally, as your teat installation does not offer a smooth path forward. Thus, this forced, so-called âAlpha testing of CCleanerâ is a service (software delivery) bug or error. Please do not replace customerâs operational software with test software versions in the future.
Did you purchase this licence from Piriform/ CCleaner themselves. or from elsewhere?
I ask because an official CCleaner Pro would usually be for just 1-year.
However what is not unusual is to see â3-yearsâ advertised on unofficial sites for ridiculously low prices.*
(On a quick search I can see a few of them right now).
*if it looks too good to be true then it usually is.
There were both alpha and beta test versions of CClesner 7., however the full version was released October 2025.
Which intetestingly is 1-year ago and Oct 2026 ended yesterday - You might expect test versions to be disabled/removed 1-year after the full launch.
So as educated guesses: Iâm wondering if possibly you have a genuine licence but downloaded an old test version by mistake?
Or if you were given a fake licence with a link to a test version from an unauthorised seller?
Did you ever try the alpha/beta vetsion of CCleaner 7 ?
I think the date may also be significant here.
CCleaner will automatically update if it hasnât been updated for a year, so Iâm wondering if it saw some kind of flag for the (now) year old test version on your machine and got itâs knickers in a twist?
Vielen Dank Und jetzt soll ich auch noch verlĂ€ngern? Wie wĂ€re es, wenn man so etwas mal ankĂŒndigt? Ich zahle dafĂŒr und bin und möchte auch KEIN Betatester werden!
Alle Lizenzen werde ich nun wohl kĂŒndigen mĂŒssen.
Hi @rsc1967 & @Escaping-Logic,
Please check which version of the app you are currently using, my investigating of this indicates you are on a pre full release version of CCleaner.
You can see what version you are currently on by going to Settings> About.
If you are on CCleaner v7.13 and still seeing this message, please send me a screenshot of your version so I can continue to investigate this issue.
Iâm using CCleaner v7.3.2110.0 ⊠This is happening on two separate computers running this version on Windows 10. I have valid pro licenses and downloaded the installer directly from my purchase e-mail receipt.
Hi @lmbmichel,
This message was due to a user being on a year old version of CCleaner. If you update via the link above, this will put you on the latest version, and you will no longer be receiving this message.
If you are experiencing any other issues, please give me details on this so I can investigate this further.
SAME. And I had trouble uninstalling and now canât reinstall without paying again. It has also messed up my Libre office suite so I canât access documents or uninstall and reinstall Libre. Weird message about unavailable path or something.
Hi Laurence, your affirmation is false, i had activated automatic update thatâsâwhy I received this horrible issue with alpha version that broke everything. I was on 7.3 and Ccleaner always said me it was the last version.
Hi @lmbmichel,
The latest version of CCleaner is v7.13, which was released on 27 Oct 2026, so if you were on v7.3, downloading and installing the latest version via the link below will removethis message. https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/builds
This means that automatic update is not working either. Any way, I wonât never reinstall CCleaner pro. This software brokes all my shortcuts for products like adobe acrobat, adobe PSE , Syncbackfree and some others less important because of this totally crazy and unacceptable appearance of the alpha version. And iâm still waiting for any apologies from your side. And I will encourage all my community to unisinstall it as fastest as possible.
Und jetzt soll ich auch noch verlĂ€ngern? Wie wĂ€re es, wenn man so etwas mal ankĂŒndigt? Ich zahle dafĂŒr und bin und möchte auch KEIN Betatester werden!
