Error: the activation of AAC (MC) failed

Alessio-Ferrari wrote on 3/24/2024, 4:21 AM

Hi everyone,

after not using my copy of Vegas Pro 21 after a month, I needed it to edit a small mp4 video recorded with OBS. I tried to drag and drop it into the Project Media area, but a message pops up immediately, which says: "the activation of AAC (MC) failed. If you are using the program as a guest, please repeat the activation procedure with administrator rights".

I tried to import a mkv file, and it worked; then I tried to render the mkv video to mp4 but the same error message shows up again.

Then, I opened my old Vegas Pro 14 Copy, and it accepted the mp4 file without any issue!

These are the solutions I came up and did on my PC:

Clearing Vegas 21's cache with the Ctrl + Shift command while double-clicking the program's icon.
Executing Vegas 21 with administrator priviledges (although my Windows account is already Administrator, and Vegas worked perfectly fine about a month ago
Deactivating and reactivating my license
Uninstalling and reinstalling Vegas 21
Uninstalling, deleting any trace of the program (folders, preferences, etc.) and reinstalling
Posing like the Thinker statue while singing the Macarena
Trying other mp4 files from other sources (cameras, screen recording software...) but none of them worked
Installing K-Lite Codec Pack (the installation removed some entries from the System's Registry, stating that they were corrupted).

Other useful informations:

Vegas version: 21.0 (Build 208)

Operating System: Windows 11.0 (64-bit) - Version: 10.00.22631

Not to be polemical, but I feel I wasted my money.

Thank you in advance for any help :)

- AF

Comments

Dexcon wrote on 3/24/2024, 4:44 AM

From point 10 in https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/vegas-pro-faqs-and-troubleshooting-guides--104787/:

10. Can I activate VEGAS Pro offline?
VEGAS Pro 13.0 and earlier can be activated offline. VEGAS Pro (14.0 and later) cannot be activated offline. The following codecs require online additional activation the first time they are used in each version. Therefore if you connect your PC to the internet especially to activate VEGAS, it is recommended to also make short renders in these formats before disconnecting, if you anticipate using them:

Intel HEVC/MAGIX ProRes

Magix AVC/AAC MP4

MainConcept MPEG-2

MP3 Audio

AAC Audio

Dolby Digital AC-3 Studio

Sony XAVC-L/XAVC Intra MXF

Just to for clarity, your computer was online when trying to activate the media? - It wasn't disconnected from the internet or in Airplane mode or the like? If online, there's the possibility that the activation/licensing server is temporarily down so maybe try activating again a bit later.

The media successfully works in Vegas Pro 14 because any media activation/licensing specifically for VP14 was likely done years ago.

Alessio-Ferrari wrote on 3/24/2024, 7:56 AM

Hi, thank you for the quick response.

I confirm that my computer was always online during the most recent reinstall and activation.

I bought Vegas Pro 21 (Suite edition) in November 2023 and activated the license without any issue, and I've been using it until a month ago without any problem, as I was able to work with and export mp4 files.

I'd like to mention again that I can't run mp4 renders because Vegas would present me the aforementioned error:

I followed the guide for codecs common problems and I installed an additional codec package, without success.

Dexcon wrote on 3/24/2024, 8:11 AM

Thank you for the additional information. At this stage, you'll likely need to contact VEGAS Support via https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/support/vegas-pro--1/. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you'll fnd a 'Contact Support' link because something is not quite right here.

Alessio-Ferrari wrote on 3/24/2024, 9:16 AM

Ok, thank you for your time :)

RogerS wrote on 3/24/2024, 11:46 PM

Not sure if this would work but apparently editing the Registry helped another user: https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/the-activation-of-aac-mc-failed-vegas-pro-18--134841/?page=2#ca902543

Alessio-Ferrari wrote on 3/25/2024, 2:16 AM

Hello Roger,

I've already deleted that entry, but without any success and I don't really know how to find the corrupted ones. I'll try and ask on the German thread how to do it.

Alessio-Ferrari wrote on 3/25/2024, 3:28 PM

Ok, this is the solution:

using Procmon by Microsoft, I executed Vegas and monitored its attempts to access Windows' registry entries (to verify licenses). After applying some filters, to include only the events which describe a failure to read or write on a specific registry key, then I copied the path to the broken key and pasted it into regedit.exe's address bar (regedit is the builtin program used to visualize and edit the Windows Registry). After some error messages, I did the following things: 1. right click on the key -> 2. Permissions... -> 3. Add... -> 4. In the blank space I typed my account's name and Verify Name (or Check Name I don't remember) -> 5. Click Apply -> 6. Click Advanced -> 7. Click on Change, right after to Owner -> do the same thing from point 4 to point 5 -> Click OK -> In the Permissions window, click on your Username in Users and Groups and then check the "full control" flag (I use windows in a different language than English, I don't know if these terms match in the English version).

After repeating the same process over all the broken keys, I finally solved the problem.

Thanks to everyone who joined the thread :)

-AF