Help Needed: Unlocking Full Features of DaVinci Resolve Stud

Hello Blackmagic Design Community,

I am reaching out because I recently purchased DaVinci Resolve Studio from the Apple App Store, hoping to use its full range of features. Unfortunately, I have encountered significant issues accessing the features that motivated my purchase in the first place.

Background Information:
According to Peter Chamberlin, both the App Store and Dongled versions of Resolve Studio have the same update policy. This aligns with expectations that customers who purchase from the Mac App Store should have full feature access and a clear upgrade path. A Mixing Light article titled "DaVinci Resolve Studio on the Mac App Store: What You Need to Know" (link) confirms this.

Issue Description:
After downloading and installing the software, I am repeatedly prompted to unlock features that I believed were included in my purchase, such as high-resolution and high frame rate timelines, advanced noise reduction, and AI tools. It appears there might be a sandboxing issue, a common challenge with App Store apps, which might be limiting functionality.

Previous Attempts to Resolve:
I have already tried the following steps to fix the issue:
- Verified and logged in with the correct Apple ID.
- Uninstalled and reinstalled DaVinci Resolve Studio.
- Searched for updates in the App Store but found no solution.

Seeking Community Guidance:
I was excited to use the full capabilities of the Studio version, but these unexpected roadblocks have left me feeling frustrated. If anyone in this community has faced similar challenges or has successfully navigated these issues, I would greatly appreciate your insights.

Do you have any suggestions on how to overcome the sandbox restrictions affecting updates or feature activations? Is there a way to refresh the App Store's recognition of my purchase to activate all included features fully? Any advice on how to resolve these issues so I can fully utilize the Studio version I paid for would be immensely helpful.

Thank you for any assistance you can provide!

[Shrinivas Ramani]

First a quick overview:

The Blackmagic Design sites for product and support have DaVinci Resolve (free) and DaVinci Resolve Studio (licensed) installers for Mac, Windows and Linux. These are separate (and free) downloads, but DaVinci Resolve Studio requires a license activation when run. Licensing options include a USB dongle, an activation key or a Blackmagic Cloud license rental. The forum FAQs offer a good starting summary.

In the Mac App Store, you have the free DaVinci Resolve, and the paid DaVinci Resolve Studio. The App Store purchase for DaVinci Resolve Studio is tied to your Apple ID and cannot be used to activate DaVinci Resolve Studio downloaded from www.blackmagicdesign.com. Similarly, hardware dongles, activation key purchases and Blackmagic Cloud rentals cannot be used to activate DaVinci Resolve Studio downloaded from the App Store.

From the iPad App Store, you can install DaVinci Resolve on a compatible iPad. The Studio features can be unlocked via an In App Purchase. Similar to the Mac App Store, the purchase is tied to your Apple ID and cannot be used to activate other Blackmagic Design apps.

The Studio and iPad feature comparison document is a good starting point for feature differences between each version.

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Back to your scenario.
DaVinci Resolve and DaVinci Resolve Studio are separate apps. If you are prompted to unlock features, check that you have the Studio version correctly installed. Export projects out of the free version and import them into the Studio version, and remove the free version.

DaVinci Resolve Studio from the App Store, like any other app in the App Store, is a sandboxed application. This can result in features like external scripting and third party integrations and hardware restrictions not being available on this version. These are indicated with the superscript and footnote (7) in the document above.

Following your advice, I have ensured that I uninstalled the free version of DaVinci Resolve and reinstalled the paid Studio version from the Apple App Store. Despite these steps, I continue to encounter prompts to purchase features that should already be included in the Studio version tied to my Apple ID. This is occurring even after ensuring that I am running the correct Studio version directly downloaded from the App Store, not from the Blackmagic Design website.

Given that the App Store version is sandboxed, I understand there might be some limitations regarding external scripting and third-party integrations. However, the issues I'm experiencing seem to relate more fundamentally to licensing and feature access within the app itself, which should not be affected by the sandboxing.

Could there be a specific step or setting within the App Store or my Apple ID that needs adjusting to properly recognize my purchase? Or perhaps there's a known issue with the App Store version that might be causing this?

I appreciate any further guidance you can provide, as I aim to fully utilize the Studio capabilities that motivated my purchase.

Can you post a screenshot of the full Edit page of your Resolve?

Does the splash screen that shows at startup while Resolve is loading say "Studio" on the left side beneath "DaVinci Resolve"?

Resolve-Splash.jpg (77.16 KiB) Viewed 284 times

Did you successfully enter your Studio license key?

By the way, keep that key in a safe place. If you lose it, you'll never be able to reinstall Studio from scratch again.

Following your advice, I have ensured that I uninstalled the free version of DaVinci Resolve and reinstalled the paid Studio version from the Apple App Store. Despite these steps, I continue to encounter prompts to purchase features that should already be included in the Studio version tied to my Apple ID. This is occurring even after ensuring that I am running the correct Studio version directly downloaded from the App Store, not from the Blackmagic Design website.

The App Store version of Resolve and Resolve Studio are individual .app files in your Applications folder.
The web site downloaded and manually installed versions of Resolve and Resolve Studio are contain within their own individually named folder in your Applications folder.

Make sure they are all uninstalled.
The App Store version by cmd-backspace or dragging and dropping them onto the litter box and authenticate.
The BMD versions by running the /DaVinci Resolve/Uninstall Resolve.app inside the Applications folder.

Then Open App Store and redownload your Resolve Studio version. It should be showing a download symbol and not a Purchase button.
Then launch it from the App Store Launch button.
Does it launch?
Does it still demands unlocking?
The project you are working on - have it been edited on another computer with a different versions of Resolve Studio?