Windows 10 suddenly deactivated

Sumit 44,306 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2018-11-08T11:09:46+00:00

Hi,

There is an ongoing issue about Windows 10 suddenly shown as deactivated. The affected users need not to do anything as it is a known issue. Here is what was told by Microsoft Chat support:

Microsoft has just released an Emerging issue announcement about current activation issue related to Pro edition recently. This happens in Japan, Korea, American and many other countries.I am very sorry to inform you that there is a temporary issue with Microsoft's activation server at the moment and some customers might experience this issue where Windows is displayed as not activated.

Our engineers are working tirelessly to resolve this issue and it is expected to be corrected within one to two business days

Thanks to Vijay_Verma and Danielfor the information.

Thanks to PaulSey..., a Microsoft employee in this thread which has explanation about this in more detail:

We are aware of reports that some customers’ Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise machines are not recognizing their licenses as activated. Users may receive the following notification: “Error: you are running Windows 10 Pro, but you have valid digital license for Windows 10 Home," or one of the following error codes 0X803F8001, 0xC004C003.

We are actively working to resolve this within 24 hours. You can still use your PC; however, the watermark will appear until activation is restored. Thank you for your patience.

We will update this post with additional information as needed and once activations are restored.

Edit 1: Users report that Windows activation troubleshooter might say You have a Windows 10 Home license but you are running Windows 10 Pro. You are advised to ignore that message and wait for the fix.


Edit 2: Update as of morning 11/9/2018 Morning EST.

Any affected customer can continue to use Windows 10 Pro as usual, and the watermark will disappear within 24 hours as activation is automatically restored.

To manually resolve the issue:  Select the Start button, select Settings > Update & security > Activation, and then select Troubleshoot to run the Activation Troubleshooter.  (If the device is already activated, the Troubleshoot option will not appear.)

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Licensing and activation

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2018-11-08T21:50:17+00:00

We are aware of reports that some customers’ Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise machines are not recognizing their licenses as activated. Users may receive the following notification: “Error: you are running Windows 10 Pro, but you have valid digital license for Windows 10 Home," or one of the following error codes 0X803F8001, 0xC004C003.

We are actively working to resolve this within 24 hours. You can still use your PC; however, the watermark will appear until activation is restored. Thank you for your patience.

We will update this post with additional information as needed and once activations are restored.

Paul...

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-11-08T20:48:30+00:00

    same issue here. I have two errors in activation tab of the settings which both of them have error code 0xc004f034. One says that I might have changed my hardware which is ridiculous and the other says that we can't activate windows right now and try to troubleshoot. In both cases when I click on troubleshoot, windows understands that I have a legit license for win 10 pro and it restarts my laptop. After that, the same problem remains and the same procedure is suggested!

    Guess I have to wait a little more till Microsoft resolve this issue!

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-11-08T20:13:42+00:00

    My copy did the same, and I had a digital license. Perhaps their Store is down and no longer is accessible. I even have a receipt for purchase of up my copy of Windows 10 Pro Upgrade from Home.

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-11-08T20:11:01+00:00

    Checking my Even Logs shows that the deactivation happened at 6:06pm CDT which is 12:06am UTC.  I wonder if the fact that it was right after midnight UTC is just a coincidence or if something happened at that time to trigger the failures.  Did anybody else have theirs occur earlier than that time?

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-11-08T19:57:41+00:00

    Just noticed my Windows 10 pro is no longer activated as well. Hope they fix this soon.

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