im on mac os and using this app called pencil+ along with an addon for blender so i can get nice outlines on 3D models. The app costs more than a years wage in my country so i cant afford it. The trial has all the features unlocked and lasts 14 days but even if i delete all files it installs it somehow still knows my trial is over.
Im assuming its phoning home and reporting my mac uuid or something to let it know my trial is over. Formatting the mac lets me restart the trial but i cant format my macbook every 14 days. Anyone know a good way i can reset the trial? It has an offline activation mode if you have a license key so maybe i can prevent it from going online and have it think im still in trial mode?
Any help is deeply appreciated
Maybe make timemachine backup before install, install only your app, try if timemachine restore can reset trial. Or compare filesystem before app install with after, see below.
Very technical way: try find every file
open/create during install or run. Linux has strace, macos has dtrace/execsnoop but depend on macos version difficult to setup. Then dump trace for all file operation (open/write/rename/…), find filepath from trace, try delete file that outside of directory you already try to delete. Prepare you might brick mac or not allowed because of tight security.If not show any other file maybe also syscall trace useful if kernel give “uuid” to program. Also maybe macos has better way to debug app, like gdb maybe, and try to find all call to open , then intercept and log filepath like that.
Or install fresh system, take apfs snapshot (apparently possible using tmutil, or just make timemachine backup but iirc those not backup all file of system so might miss some), install only your app, take apfs snapshot, mount both snapshot and compare to find all change/new file. Maybe
rsync -avin newsnap oldsnapfor metadata compare orrsync -avicn newsnap oldsnapfor content checksum compare (if actually change content without metadata somehow) or snapshot or backup diff using other program, i think timemachine could show backup diff somehow.Edit: also wireshark for intercept and inspect network traffic.
Just a quick idea that will likely not work these days anymore, did you try change your systems time to an earlier date? Used to work with really old software but maybe worth a try.
not familiar with that program, but maybe something like https://ss64.com/mac/opensnoop.html , can tell you what it’s looking for, (IE it most likely installs some kind of watermark somewhere inobvious on your computer. If not though, I’d do some simple google searching for pencil+ crack.
Tried opensnoop and tried searching for a crack with no luck :/
Yes, this scenario indeed sounds like piracy, and you are a thief (or planning to become one). Don’t go down this path ! You’ll end up stealing money from old ladies, robbing a bank or whatsoever; it will damage your karma and you will end up in jail.
Do you know where you are posting right now?
