MakeMKV beta key

[cmg1818]

Same. Bought a key and nothing. Money taken. Let go man...

[Poloff]

Have run into the same issue. Purchase went through, then radio silence.

[G Kaplan]

If you really need to use it (or just really want to like me) you can manually change your systems date & time settings to 4-5 days ago and it'll work perfectly, the key only checks the end date. Changing the time back to today during the disc loading process made it crash though so it might have to stay like that for the duration of the rip.

[mhochman]

Lol, I'm glad I found this thread, as I've been using MakeMKV for years and was curious why it stopped working when I used it just a few days ago, then I noticed that the beta key expired at the end of July 2025... I Can't even try and purchase a key, i just get The action is temporarily unavailable

So I just set my computer's date back to 7/31/2025 and voila...

[weisenburgerl]

Have run into the same issue. Purchase went through, then radio silence.

Have you guys that purchased the permanent key received a response yet?

[ShalomMike]

Have run into the same issue. Purchase went through, then radio silence.

Have you guys that purchased the permanent key received a response yet?

I purchased a permanent key on Aug 1 and did not receive an email with a key. I sent an email to support@makemkv.com on Aug 1 and did not receive a reply. I received an email yesterday morning (Aug 7) from PayPro Global (the payment processing vendor) that my transaction was refunded (which I did not request a refund).

I have not heard anything else. I have been resetting my OS clock to before 8/1 so that I can rip some DVDs but I cannot rip Bluray until I get my permanent key.

[Blyth]

Have run into the same issue. Purchase went through, then radio silence.

Have you guys that purchased the permanent key received a response yet?

I purchased a permanent key on Aug 1 and did not receive an email with a key. I sent an email to support@makemkv.com on Aug 1 and did not receive a reply. I received an email yesterday morning (Aug 7) from PayPro Global (the payment processing vendor) that my transaction was refunded (which I did not request a refund).

I have not heard anything else. I have been resetting my OS clock to before 8/1 so that I can rip some DVDs but I cannot rip Bluray until I get my permanent key.

There is no reason why you can't rip Blu-ray, suggestion paste in the beta key again while you have changed the month back to July.

[ShalomMike]

Have you guys that purchased the permanent key received a response yet?

I purchased a permanent key on Aug 1 and did not receive an email with a key. I sent an email to support@makemkv.com on Aug 1 and did not receive a reply. I received an email yesterday morning (Aug 7) from PayPro Global (the payment processing vendor) that my transaction was refunded (which I did not request a refund).

I have not heard anything else. I have been resetting my OS clock to before 8/1 so that I can rip some DVDs but I cannot rip Bluray until I get my permanent key.

There is no reason why you can't rip Blu-ray, suggestion paste in the beta key again while you have changed the month back to July.

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

[drewmaster]

I know, this sounds crazy...... Maybe either Internet issues with the payment system or done with continuing with this program all-to-gether maybe? if so, Why not tell us in forum and tell us "hey people ......" fill in the blank, so again... which way He goes....in event like this is not good for anyone. Staying positive. just throwing out there and see what may happen or not... I was gonna buy a Key this month but now...the payment webpage isnt working. not feeling it. I know my Internet has been going up and down all day. Peace everyone!

[NixDa96]

Any NEWS? Just a holiday issue or anything serious why the beta is down?

[cjthedj53]

I know, this sounds crazy...... Maybe either Internet issues with the payment system or done with continuing with this program all-to-gether maybe? if so, Why not tell us in forum and tell us "hey people ......" fill in the blank, so again... which way He goes....in event like this is not good for anyone. Staying positive. just throwing out there and see what may happen or not... I was gonna buy a Key this month but now...the payment webpage isnt working. not feeling it. I know my Internet has been going up and down all day. Peace everyone!

The payment processing company says they've tried unsuccessfully to reach the developer, and have automatically issued refunds to anyone who has not received the key that they paid for.

As such -- and DISCLAIMER: The following is *speculation* based on context:
I highly doubt this is a voluntary end to MakeMKV, or a conscious marketing plot.

In my opinion, there are two possibilities:

1) Mike may not be physically able to address this -- either because he's ill, injured, dead, in jail, or just dealing with something more pressing in his personal life that's taking awhile. Might even be something as simple (though upsetting) as not paying his Internet bill on time, or his computer dying and not remembering any of his passwords.

2) He may be facing legal trouble regarding MakeMKV.
Think about it. The core purpose of the software is to make pixel-perfect copies of physical media, defeating the copy protections on the discs. And history has proven that the less you degrade the quality with each generation of duplication, the bigger target you are to rights holders claiming you're promoting piracy rather than time-shifting or archiving.
I'm pretty sure Mike knows this, hence registering the website in Russia, calling MakeMKV a "converter" on the home page, and never using his last name.
In fact, I wouldn't at all be shocked if having the software "perpetually in beta, with indefinitely expiring free license codes" is trying to exploit a legal loophole... i.e. "I'm not giving the software away for free, I'm just allowing temporary free access to anyone willing to help me test it" ... but also, "Anyone financially backing the project before its release will get a free perpetual license as a gift."

And, sadly, the current state of the site and software has the earmark of someone who's either being actively sued, or has been spooked into freezing operations.
I can definitely imagine a lawyer saying, "Stop actively distributing it; and stop responding to any correspondence about the program, so you don't further incriminate yourself. But don't shut the whole site down since that'll look like you're destroying evidence."
Which MIGHT explain why the FAQ page, specifically, is broken.
Notice what the actual message says: the globalfunctions.php file is missing from the site's faq directory. This would be convenient if they were trying to bury the contents of that page, because while the layperson just thinks there's a general technical error with the site... it also means The Wayback Machine can't display any of the archived copies of the page (I went back as far as 2023 and kept getting the same error).

***
TLDR: If Mike is actively freezing or shutting this thing down, and not talking to anyone about it... there's something wrong.
But it's also possible that the FAQ page is broken by coincidence, and everything else is just in limbo because it involves active participation that Mike is not physically capable of doing right now.

[Smithcraft]

When Slysoft went down, it just went down. There was no longer any website.

Same thing with Redfox. It just went Poof!

The MakeMKV forum is still up, you can still get the software, you can still use one of several workarounds.

If you have a new disc that isn't in the db, you'll just have to wait just like we always have.

If Mike never comes back, we will just have to move on.

SC

[smol_birb]

Which MIGHT explain why the FAQ page, specifically, is broken.
Notice what the actual message says: the globalfunctions.php file is missing from the site's faq directory. This would be convenient if they were trying to bury the contents of that page, because while the layperson just thinks there's a general technical error with the site... it also means The Wayback Machine can't display any of the archived copies of the page (I went back as far as 2023 and kept getting the same error).

If Wayback Machine can’t display the FAQ in the copies of the page from 2023, it would mean that the FAQ wasn’t working in 2023. I had the same issue with the FAQ page when I started using the software months ago, so that’s nothing new.

[cjthedj53]

Which MIGHT explain why the FAQ page, specifically, is broken.
Notice what the actual message says: the globalfunctions.php file is missing from the site's faq directory. This would be convenient if they were trying to bury the contents of that page, because while the layperson just thinks there's a general technical error with the site... it also means The Wayback Machine can't display any of the archived copies of the page (I went back as far as 2023 and kept getting the same error).

If Wayback Machine can’t display the FAQ in the copies of the page from 2023, it would mean that the FAQ wasn’t working in 2023. I had the same issue with the FAQ page when I started using the software months ago, so that’s nothing new.

Interesting -- I haven't been using the software for that long, and was admittedly going off half-baked info on how TWBM works - so thanks for catching me on that!

[cjthedj53]

When Slysoft went down, it just went down. There was no longer any website.

Same thing with Redfox. It just went Poof!

The MakeMKV forum is still up, you can still get the software, you can still use one of several workarounds.

If you have a new disc that isn't in the db, you'll just have to wait just like we always have.

If Mike never comes back, we will just have to move on.

SC

I was a webcaster when SWCast was caught taking licensing fees from broadcasters but not paying SoundExchange, thus violating copyright law. The site was up for a little while, but with the functionality shut down, and a cryptic message saying they "hope to be back soon" or something like that, before finally being shuttered altogether after a couple of months. So it's not unprecedented territory for a product operating in a "gray area" to half-shut down as a twinge of optimism while they navigate legal matters.