Nuke License Error - System date invalid

If you are getting problems with Nuke claiming that your license is expired when it is not or just it doesn’t want to run because of some weird date/time change, then keep reading, maybe your solution is the same as mine. If you are short in time and you wanna try if this works, then skip at the end of this wizard at this link!

Time ago I got into this kind of error and Nuke wouldn’t start anymore: 


> Installation of: nukenc_i aborted as license failed to validate: This system date on this computer is invalid.

My PC was old, and the motherboard battery happened to be down. This means the date and time on my computer didn’t update anymore. I don’t remember why but everything was set one year ahead and before I could fix it to the right time, windows started with all his working up, updating and installing stuff.

Long story short, I couldn’t run Nuke anymore even after fixing the date and time, because the license didn’t recognize yet the right settings on my computer. It claimed that I was putting the date backward, trying in some way to trick the software so I would have something like one year more of Nuke usage for free. This was not true, of course, because I still had a valid student license, but no way Nuke would understand me!

So I tried to search on the Internet for some solutions. Here some links in case your problem is not solved after reading this Wizard:

The problem is that Nuke thinks you are getting back in time because the software license is able to analyze files in your computer and check if some of them have a future creation date or modified date.

What I tried first was removing or changing the date to all the files with creating or modify dates in the future as explained on The foundry support. To do this you can use these commands, typing it in the search bar of a folder to find files with future creation and modified date: 


Cmd #1

> datemodified: > 17/04/2020 (or any today date)




Cmd #2

> datecreated: > 17/04/2020 (or any today date)

This will allow you to get all the files dated in the future, if there are.

And you can use this software, called Bulk file changer that allows you to change the metadata on the file so you can change easily all the info you want, but this still didn’t fix my problem, after days changing all the dates in the files.

Cutting short, what worked for me was removing all the programs in my pc that displayed future date installation, so all the windows updates and software that were installed while my system date was set in the future. I know, I know, it’s pretty similar to what The foundry said in their article, but I was dumb enough not to check the installed programs. So, in case you are making the same mistake as mine, now you can solve it!

I was almost formatting my pc but fortunately, I went on Programs and Features before, in order to check what software I had to install after the cleanup. And there it was, some of them, mostly windows updates, had a future date of installation. A weird situation that shouldn’t happen normally but sometimes it can and it makes this problem happen. After uninstalling them, Nuke started running again like before.

Hope you were able to solve your problem, and if it’s still there I’ll be happy to help you if I can, so you can easily get in touch using the form on the contact page!

If you have additional information or links to anything that can help more the users, please leave a comment below. If you think I’m mistaken somewhere, please leave a comment below. If you want to open a discussion, again, leave a comment below!

See you in the next pixel Wizard!