CCleaner Pro "Lifetime" Licence - why has it expired?

[Bluetac]

1 hour ago, Derek_S said:

I was going to write the following:

"Be aware you cannot download and install the latest version from the CCleaner website and register it as the Professional version using your original serial number though. The latest versions are subscription type. You can install your original installation file if you still have it and register that, or you can go to https://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/history/ and download a newer version that should still accept your original serial number. As I have posted previously, in my experience you're OK up to version 5.58.7209 which was published on June 6th last year but be sure to turn off automatic updates as soon as it's installed. Anything newer than that will disable certain Professional features such as automatic cleaning".

However, I just checked my own copy which was  version 5.58.7209 installed last year and has been working OK with smart cleaning prompting me to run the cleaning function every few days to save x amount of wasted space until just a couple of days ago and find it has mysteriously updated itself to the latest version despite ignoring getting several spurious messages about the licence expiring over the Christmas/New Year period. This should not have happened. I have automatic updates turned off, CCleaner and Piriform have been blocked from incoming connections in Windows Firewall since last year. I last got the prompt to clean the PC just a couple of days ago but had to ignore it because I was in the middle of running some app or other. I did run it manually afterwards though so I'm wondering whether that triggered something. I can't see anything has changed in the settings when I opened CCleaner a few minutes ago to check the version, whereas when I was automatically updated to a newer version last time certain key functions were disabled hence why I got involved in this discussion in the first place.

I'll have to see whether I still get the automatic prompts to clean my PC in the next couple of days. If I don't, I wont be happy as that is the key reason I use the product.

I have not had the same issue when i use my key to unlock the latest trial downloads , my key purchased many years ago successfully unlocks all pro features , admittedly i get the nag box , but is otherwise fully functional?

[Derek_S]

Well, the discussion has been going on for over a year now and things may have changed more than once. The first time I needed to reinstall was when I built my current PC at the end of 2017 and discovered when I downloaded the latest version at that time that it would not accept my registration details and said they had expired. I used my original CD to reinstall, registered that instead, upgraded to the latest version and it kept working. A year later, I was informed my licence had expired and that's when I googled the problem and found this thread. It did continue to work though until last summer when it reverted to the free version and after advice from someone, I downloaded various versions from filehippo and found that any one of them dated after the June 6th version reverted to the free version and lost some key features. If I can now have the latest version and it retains the Pro features, that's changed since last summer.

As I have mentioned in the past, my version was a boxed one allowing multiple installations. A member of CCleaner staff checked the serial number for me and confirmed it was genuine. It's possible there may be subtle differences to the downloadeed versions most people have though.

[Bluetac]

5 hours ago, Derek_S said:

Well, the discussion has been going on for over a year now and things may have changed more than once. The first time I needed to reinstall was when I built my current PC at the end of 2017 and discovered when I downloaded the latest version at that time that it would not accept my registration details and said they had expired. I used my original CD to reinstall, registered that instead, upgraded to the latest version and it kept working. A year later, I was informed my licence had expired and that's when I googled the problem and found this thread. It did continue to work though until last summer when it reverted to the free version and after advice from someone, I downloaded various versions from filehippo and found that any one of them dated after the June 6th version reverted to the free version and lost some key features. If I can now have the latest version and it retains the Pro features, that's changed since last summer.

As I have mentioned in the past, my version was a boxed one allowing multiple installations. A member of CCleaner staff checked the serial number for me and confirmed it was genuine. It's possible there may be subtle differences to the downloaded versions most people have though.

My version i bought directly from piriform  so could well explain it.

[Guest]

I was impressed with what I'd read about CCleaner.  I was going to purchase the Professional version...I only have one computer, but I felt I needed some of the advanced features of the Pro version.  They have it marked down from $40 to $30...que vunderbar.  But I couldn't determine from their site if it was a lifetime license or a yearly subscription.  I found this site.  Got my answer.  I've been reading this thread with interest.  I read ALL the posts on pages 1 and 2, then skipped to the last two pages.  Wow.

As far as annual subscription software, I am NOT a fan.  I was an accomplished VBA application programmer (MS Excel), but I switched from Excel to LibreOffice Calc when MS dreamed up the Office 365 subscription plan.

I will not rent my software. I'll look for an alternative to CCleaner.  Anyone have a suggestion?

[nukecad]

10 hours ago, OffGrid9 said:

 I'll look for an alternative to CCleaner.  Anyone have a suggestion?

 

This is an official Piriform company forum, suggestions for rival products are obviously not going to be allowed on any company forum.

In other words - Don't waste your time posting a suggestion for rival software here, any such suggestion will be removed.

[McFly]

Hi new to this forum, Just started receiving these renewal popups out of the blue after buying CCleaner on 29 May 2014 01:02:29 AEST.

After 6 years of use it's suddenly a subscription service? When I bought CCleaner Professional Plus there was no mention at all about a subscription.

If it was a subscription when I bought it why didn't I get a renewal popup the following year? Not 6 years later.

If it was a subscription I would not have bought it in the first place.

Edited February 11, 2020 by McFly

[Dave CCleaner]

@McFly: I had answered this last year (further up the thread) but to summarise the highlights, assuming that you are a home user and not a business:

• If you bought on 29 May 2014 then you bought by version rather than by subscription (would have been version 4.14 at the time) and as with any software product sold by version, you can continue to use the version that you bought indefinitely (at least for the OS that it was built for)
• It would have come with 12 months of updates (up to version 5.06) and 12 months of support - which ended 29 May 2015.
• It is that service component that has expired - as you would have noticed, the product still works and will continue to do so.

[McFly]

6 hours ago, Dave CCleaner said:

@McFly: I had answered this last year (further up the thread) but to summarise the highlights, assuming that you are a home user and not a business:

• If you bought on 29 May 2014 then you bought by version rather than by subscription (would have been version 4.14 at the time) and as with any software product sold by version, you can continue to use the version that you bought indefinitely (at least for the OS that it was built for)
• It would have come with 12 months of updates (up to version 5.06) and 12 months of support - which ended 29 May 2015.
• It is that service component that has expired - as you would have noticed, the product still works and will continue to do so.

 

If that is the case why am I only starting to get notices after 5 years? There was no mention of only 12 months of updates on the ccleaner site at time of purchase. There was no mention that only a certain version branch was supported in the updates within the 12 months of purchase.

Someone mentioned this is like a "bait and switch" early on in this thread. I have to agree.

 

Edited February 12, 2020 by McFly

[Dave CCleaner]

On 12/02/2020 at 22:33, McFly said:

If that is the case why am I only starting to get notices after 5 years?

We started nudging users about this a bit over 3 ½ years ago (July 2016) ... so not exactly sudden, although we haven't been particularly insistent on the matter.

[Quayle]

On 07/03/2019 at 16:06, aLongTimeUser said:

Note that I blocked out my name and license key, but the expiration in the 2016 email is literally a dash.

Yours sounds like a carbon copy of what they have done to me ass well,there trying to have us on but I'm not as dumb as they think its all online so as time has past what are you going to do? mine was a no expiration for years and as of about a year ago  it says expired 2015 just as yours does I just wonder if we had access to people who purchased it prior to 2015,how many peoples story would be the same, WE CAN"T ALL BE WRONG<JUST REMEMBER THAT MY FRIEND> I paid with PAYPAL and they gave me a duplicate receipt for 2014 purchase and ccleaner lied and said it was one year expiry then.Again many people have the same story and we all can't be wrong.

[Quayle]

On 14/01/2020 at 03:02, nukecad said:

 

This is an official Piriform company forum, suggestions for rival products are obviously not going to be allowed on any company forum.

In other words - Don't waste your time posting a suggestion for rival software here, any such suggestion will be removed.

windows 10 and many manufactures like HP are doing there own file delete apps my HP has one there getting onto this service slowly making CCleaner obsolete I also have the defrag,but now you don't need to defrag SSD drives so there goes that money.

[Auftspeed]

It does not matter what their new EULA says they can change that over the years it is legal but they can not legally change a lifetime professional license which my purchase says that would initiate a class action law suit. Seems I purchased my copy long before any of the above copies the same week it was released to the public. the new popup is just an advertisement to get a person to buy a subscription service for automatic updates and call in support , I always save to another hard drive the original purchased version and EULA. I WILL ALWAYS HAVE A PROFESSIONAL VERSION ! I never allow a program to self update that is just insane it could update to anything and at one point in time one of my updates to the program showed a change to the EULA to which I agreed as long as they did not take away my professional version. At any point in time a person can disagree with a new EULA and keep forever the version they have. Glary utilities attempted to do this and was contacted by an attorney. At no point in any of their EULA's did they ever claim that they would not advertise sales of new product versions. The EULA has to say will remove advertisements, I have purchased thousands of dollars of products with such a claim.   Reading the EULA in it's entirety is the only way to protect yourself and your investments and the only way they can change lifetime license is to go belly up and scrap the name of the program. 

[Dave CCleaner]

8 hours ago, Auftspeed said:

It does not matter what their new EULA says 

Indeed.  Which is why previous comments were referencing the old EULAs from the various years that the customers purchased.

8 hours ago, Auftspeed said:

but they can not legally change a lifetime professional license

CCleaner Professional has never been marketed as a "lifetime" or "perpetual" licence.  That term seems to have popped up from its use by folks selling cracked or pirated copies online.  Needless to say, pirated software does not come with any form of manufacturer warranty ...

To re-re-recap, if you bought in 2017 or earlier then you bought by version and can keep using the version that you bought for as long as you like.  As was commonly the case at the time, it came with 12 months of free updates and priority customer support - which by the sounds of things would have expired a long time ago. If you bought in 2018 or later then you bought on subscription. The changes in licensing model only affect new purchases or renewal transactions made after that date.

It's a similar situation for those of us who bought Microsoft Word 97 - it came with a free update to Word 98. And (if we have a PC that will run it) we can keep using Word 98 up to this day.  But that didn't entitle us to a free copy of Microsoft Word 2000/2002/etc.

8 hours ago, Auftspeed said:

at one point in time one of my updates to the program showed a change to the EULA to which I agreed as long as they did not take away my professional version.

No-one is taking away your CCleaner Professional version. (That has not happened to anyone except in cases of rampant piracy)

[McFly]

17 hours ago, Dave CCleaner said:

To re-re-recap, if you bought in 2017 or earlier then you bought by version and can keep using the version that you bought for as long as you like.

 

And that is where the problem is, when I bought it (and many others) there was no mention that I was buying only the current "version".

17 hours ago, Dave CCleaner said:

No-one is taking away your CCleaner Professional version. (That has not happened to anyone except in cases of rampant piracy)

 

You actually are by having renewal popups on my screen when ever I open it, Professional version should not have renewal popups.

 

17 hours ago, Dave CCleaner said:

CCleaner Professional has never been marketed as a "lifetime" or "perpetual" licence.  That term seems to have popped up from its use by folks selling cracked or pirated copies online.  Needless to say, pirated software does not come with any form of manufacturer warranty ...

 

Mine was bought through your site, and I always have thought it was "lifetime" license because there was no mention otherwise on the Piriform websites.

- If there was a mention of yearly subscription on any part of your site I would not have bought it.

- If there was any mention of buying a specific "Version" series I would have not bought it.

 

See here it mentions "The world’s most popular PC cleaning and optimization solution! Full feature set, software updates and priority support. Instant online delivery!", no mention of a specific version set, or expiry after one year. 

https://web.archive.org/web/20140703101544/https://secure.piriform.com/502/uurl-tmnenxd8ra

No mention on payment form:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140702011319/https://secure.piriform.com/502/uurl-poi1k1t9p9

No mention in FAQ:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140703150332/http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/faq

No mention here either... only "Automatic Updating - Software updates!"

https://web.archive.org/web/20140703114020/http://www.piriform.com/CCLEANER/download

No mention in features:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140703175651/http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/features

There was plenty of opportunity to mention on piriform that buying was version related and buying required renewal after one year (subscription). 

But nope, no where at all!

 

Edited March 1, 2020 by McFly

[Sonartech]

7 hours ago, McFly said:

See here it mentions "The world’s most popular PC cleaning and optimization solution! Full feature set, software updates and priority support. Instant online delivery!", no mention of a specific version set, or expiry after one year. 

https://web.archive.org/web/20140703101544/https://secure.piriform.com/502/uurl-tmnenxd8ra

No mention on payment form:
https://web.archive.org/web/20140702011319/https://secure.piriform.com/502/uurl-poi1k1t9p9

No mention in FAQ:
https://web.archive.org/web/20140703150332/http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/faq

No mention here either... only "Automatic Updating - Software updates!"
https://web.archive.org/web/20140703114020/http://www.piriform.com/CCLEANER/download

No mention in features:
https://web.archive.org/web/20140703175651/http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/features

There was plenty of opportunity to mention on piriform that buying was version related and buying required renewal after one year (subscription). 

But nope, no where at all!

 

Well, that was a nice list, but you somehow missed the Software EULA (sections 4 and 5) which DID cover the annual/yearly nature of the product.  But who really reads the whole EULA?  Piriform just chose not to enforce it for many years, and by doing so, they enabled this precedent.  There's 9 pages of detail in this thread, and all of this has already been covered many, many times.  It's a mixture of sour grapes from Avast coming in and choosing to enforce the "nearly non-existent" SAAS model, plus continued abuses in failing to mention the subscription enforcement for ALL of their customers, even ones who purchased the boxed product, past and present. Avast simultaneously failed to consider the ramifications of  how paying customers might react - and it's clear now that Avast has shown they couldn't care less.  That's why I've tossed them to the curb and I no longer use anything that Avast has touched - including CCleaner Pro.  The joke's on Avast, however, because I already have solid verification that I've cost Avast far more business as a result of their willful negligence in this matter than I paid for CCleaner Pro in the first place.  Avast's Exec's needs to learn that they need our business more than we need theirs.

[Derek_S]

@Sonartech If you refer back to my post replying to yours on November 28 2018, showing pictures of my retail box, you can see there was no way to see the EULA before installing the software. In the case of a boxed version like mine, it was sealed, so completely impossible to view before purchase. I don't know at what stage the EULA becomes visible if you buy the product as an online download. I'm no lawyer but find it hard to see how an EULA that's only visible after purchase and installation can be valid and enforcible.

However, I'm not too bothered. Even though I get pop ups saying my licence has expired every now and again, it appears they have been sent in error and my version continues to work as it should. The only thing that does bug me is that it has updated itself at some time since last summer to a newer version despite automatic updates being off. I've even got CCleaner.com and Piriform.com on the block list in my Windows firewall and it still managed to do that.

[Auftspeed]

As in most cases the popups are just annoying and a simple fix. I have purchased cCleaner from Piriform have 3 different license running on windows 10, on two computers and a laptop, I am a computer tech I build and program computers and without rewriting the program I  stopped all popups, I'm running the version 564.7613 64bit and all future updates to the program if done this way will have to be downloaded manually and installed if a person is willing to take the chance that the program will not be rewritten again and more features will stop working or change like custom clean or health check. I am right now satisficed with the way the current version operates with Windows 10 version  Microsoft Windows 10 Professional (x64) Build 18363.720 (1909/November 2019 Update) and I will probably will not update the program ever again. So I created two firewall rules denning any further contact outgoing or incoming  from Piriform on the exe command in the installation files have seen no popups sense Thankyou for the program Piriform I will enjoy it x3. Windows recommends this program and for good reason it does what it says.

[Ariien]

{Comment/suggestion violating forum rules removed}; no way this program is worth having SaaS. I thought Piriform was better than this.

[QCA_MrFixit]

I have the CCleaner Professional Edition owned  Sunday October 28 , 2012 and like you all it now say that this expired Monday October 28, 2013, But I do not have any of the problems you all are harping about. Yes I been getting them little reminder screens that I am expired. But when I go check I always have the most unto date version. And when I click on the support link it say I am expired and need to update my license, I bought a life time version and other than no more person support I am still getting update automatically . I am on a Window10 Pro 64 bit Machine and AMD FX - 8350 Eight Core Processor  16.0GB RAM  AMD Radeon HD-6450 and running version V5.64.7613 (65-bit)

So other than them little ad-noring popup box everything works just like it did the day I down loaded in on October 25, 2012--- And for you Geeky one I Cloned my Window Hard drive to a new computer and than again to a newer computer and all works well.

[Bastet]

20 hours ago, QCA_MrFixit said:

I have the CCleaner Professional Edition owned  Sunday October 28 , 2012 and like you all it now say that this expired Monday October 28, 2013, But I do not have any of the problems you all are harping about. Yes I been getting them little reminder screens that I am expired. But when I go check I always have the most unto date version. And when I click on the support link it say I am expired and need to update my license, I bought a life time version and other than no more person support I am still getting update automatically . I am on a Window10 Pro 64 bit Machine and AMD FX - 8350 Eight Core Processor  16.0GB RAM  AMD Radeon HD-6450 and running version V5.64.7613 (65-bit)

So other than them little ad-noring popup box everything works just like it did the day I down loaded in on October 25, 2012--- And for you Geeky one I Cloned my Window Hard drive to a new computer and than again to a newer computer and all works well.

 

Same for me, I’ve had CCleaner for years & technically it’s been expired for the majority of those years but it’s still updating to the latest version & showing that it’s the Pro version.
I’ve even clean installed Windows & it still worked after entering the license details.

When I purchased CCleaner the license wasn’t a subscription but the yearly cost upgrade was purely to continue to receive official support, this I didn’t require so didn’t purchase.
I believe those who state they have a lifetime license have the same as I. Yes there’s no mention of a subscription in the purchase confirmation but the software continues to work well & there’s pop ups asking to purchase but these can be ignored.

[Phill ODonoghue]

I am buying into this because I feel much the same way as others. CCleaner was sold to me on the basis of a perceptual licence. It is a excellent product however the marketing of this nothing less than dodgy and we all know where dodgy marketing leads to the long term sustainability of the company. My recommendation is that CCleaner validates its offer to its long term original customers and makes the annual subscription process clear to new users.

[Portagie68]

My receipt says it is a life time license. Have no way to load the reseipt

[rslatara]

I was in the same boat, got the spiel that was mentioned here. They like the idea of repeat business and the wording was shady and I felt duped and needless to say I was pissed.  The cloud based model may have wet their appetite for the renewal type models and I am sure Illuminati CEO's, politicians or porn hub staff would find it handy.

On that joke I just want to kill the message, I don't care about the updates as I have other apps that update for me. I am sure they put a lot of work into it but price is as high as my avast premier license. If it was less I would probably renew it. I bought a license just like many have here back in 2016 and do not want to see the buy again message.

Edited April 1, 2020 by rslatara

[rslatara]

On 22/10/2018 at 01:31, Ben CCleaner said:

Hi All,

Just to be clear we have never had a one off license. Please see the following link for the End User License Agreement that was in place a the time of your purchase:

https://www.ccleaner.com/legal/eula-archive/ccleaner-professional

In section 5 (Term and Termination of Service) it states that the term is for one year and that after which we will remove Priority Support and Automatic updates. Expiry notifications should only be recieved at application startup, if you wish to stop these you will need to convert your software back to the free version. This can be done by uninstalling the application and ensuring all files are deleted from CCleaner folder in Program Files, upon re-installing the application should now be the free version.

Thanks

 

I am ok with no priority updates but do not want adware for invalid license etc. If I have to i I will mod the files myself.

[Dave CCleaner]

On 19/04/2020 at 17:30, rslatara said:

Weird my license shows an expiration of 2000? i know it was only a few years ago that I bough it.

I also would like to disable messages for my key being invalid, the only pop ups I want are disk space etc.

 

@rslatara: Your issue is of an invalid licence (hence the "invalid licence" notification and the 2000-01-01 expiry date) which is different matter to the other folks in this thread.  If you DM me your key I can have it checked for you.