Getting started
Activate trial or license
What the trial gives you, how to activate a paid license, and how Tusk handles offline activation.
Every Tusk install has one of three license states: trial, beta, or activated. The first launch starts the trial automatically, so for most people the next decision is whether to activate a paid license before the trial runs out.
The 14-day trial
On first launch, Tusk asks the activation server to start a 14-day trial against your Mac's machine ID. No email, no account, no credit card. Every feature is available during the trial. You can create projects, run offloads, configure cloud destinations, and delete local files exactly as you would on a paid license.
When the trial ends, Tusk locks new actions until you enter a license key or beta code. Existing projects stay intact and your data stays where it is, on your Mac and in your destinations. None of it is touched by an expired trial.
The trial needs an internet connection on first launch
Activate a license key
When you buy Tusk, you get a license key by email in the format XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX.
1
Open Preferences → Account
From the menu bar at the top of your screen, choose Tusk → Preferences (or press ⌘,), then go to the Account tab.
2
Paste your license key
Paste the full key into the License key field. Whitespace and casing don't matter; Tusk normalizes both.
3
Click Activate
Tusk contacts the activation server, validates the key against your machine ID, and switches to the activated state. The status in Preferences shows your registered email and a masked version of the license key.
Screenshot
Preferences > Account in Tusk. Show the not-activated state with the license-key text input and Activate button. Include the helper copy about pasting the key from your email.
alt: Preferences Account tab with the Activate license form
Activate a beta code
Beta codes have the format XXXX-XXXX-XXXX(12 hex characters). They're issued during Tusk's closed beta period and behave like a 14-day rolling license: Tusk refreshes the grace period every time it talks to the activation server.
Use the same Preferences > Account flow as for a license key. Tusk recognizes which kind of code you pasted and activates accordingly. A beta code is bound to one Mac (the first one that activates it).
Offline grace period
Tusk caches a signed grace token from the activation server. As long as the token is valid, Tusk runs fully offline. On every launch (and periodically while running), Tusk tries to refresh the token in the background.
If the activation server is unreachable for more than a few days, you'll start to see how many days of grace are left in Preferences. Within that window, everything keeps working normally. Once the grace period runs out, Tusk locks new actions until it can reach the server again.
Travel-friendly by design
Moving to a new Mac
A license key allows two active machine activations. Activating it on a third Mac will fail. If you're replacing your Mac, ask us to deactivate the old one (or reset the activation count) and activate fresh on the new machine.
What happens to your data when the license expires
Nothing on disk is touched. Your projects, your file index, your backups, your Mac, everything stays exactly as it was. Tusk locks the in-app actions but does not modify your files. Reactivate a license to unlock the app again; everything picks up where it left off.
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