Fixing Volume Key is Unknown

[Woodstock]

You are sitting watching your UHD-capable drive spin the latest UHD title, anxiously awaiting the rip to complete, and you see this:

Saved AACS dump file as C:\Users\xxxxxxxxx/.MakeMKV/New_UHD_Title_ABCD.tgz
The volume key is unknown for this disc - video can't be decrypted
Failed to open disc

Step one: Send the TGZ file to svq@makemkv.com so that the program's author can create a decryption key for it.

Step two: Wait a few days for the key to be created and made available in the official Hash Key file that MakeMKV downloads when needed. You won't get an email saying this has happened; you need to retry the rip occasionally.

OK, you've been waiting for a while, and no success. Worse, you see where other people are able to rip the disk you cannot, but it still defies you.

That's when you notice this in the log window:

Loaded content hash table, will verify integrity of M2TS files.
Downloading latest HK to C:\Users\xxxxxxxxx/.MakeMKV ...
Automatic HK downloading is disabled or failed.

Oops... The key may be out there waiting for you, but you can't get it for some reason. Failure to get the HK file means something is preventing your computer from talking to the computer that has the file.

First thing to verify is that you've told MakeMKV it can fetch it. That setting is in Preferences->General. Make sure that "Allow internet access" is checked.

Everything below this line is subject to change - hkdata.fairuse.org is no longer used!

If you still are having an issue, check your DNS settings. A number of internet service providers are selective about what domain names you are allowed to access, and the host that has the file, hkdata.fairuse.org, happens to be a domain that is popular to block. At a command prompt for your operating system, this command will tell you if you're using a "friendly" DNS server:

Code: Select all

nslookup hkdata.fairuse.org
Server:         8.8.8.8
Address:        8.8.8.8#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   hkdata.fairuse.org
Address: 185.84.108.20

The result will look a bit different depending on your operating system, but if you get back an address, your DNS is working. If you don't, consider adding the Google DNS servers 8.8.4.4 or 8.8.8.8 to your list of DNS servers. This step varies with the OS, but you can find the instructions easily enough.

If you still cannot get the HK file to download, the next probability is that you have "Geo blocking" enabled in either your firewall or router, or possibly even your antivirus software. MakeMKV finds the address, makes the request, and the computer just ignores it.

Fixing geo blocking depends on what is doing the geo blocking. Both hkdata.fairuse.org and makemkv.com are hosted in the Russian Federation. You can get to the forum, though, because most of us access it through Cloudflare, which isn't in the RF.

Once you identify and adjust the geo block (you can do it for just the one IP, if you want), you should be able to download the HK file.

What? It still doesn't work? Wait, and try it again later. There have been times in 2021 when the server was off-line for several hours. The longest I've seen if offline was about 12 hours. And you really only need to contact it when you have a disk that has been issued more recently than the last HK file you were able to download.

[updated 2024-08-23]

[Woodstock]

When you get the prompt that a TGZ file has been created, make note of the "version number" at the end. Example:

MKB20_v77_Spider-Man-_Across_The_Spider-Verse_98F2.tgz
MKB20_v77_Spider-Man-_Across_The_Spider-Verse_C8EE.tgz
MKB20_v77_Spider-Man-_Across_The_Spider-Verse_0812.tgz

Each of these uses a different "key" to decode, even though it's the same movie.

If someone has already submitted the same file, there is no big reason to submit your file, but it does deal with potential damage to the submission. But, if yours is different from the file(s) already submitted, be sure to submit it, and report the file name you've submitted so that others can know.