Keep the Clean Tier working

When you finish, you understand the check-in PoppyDisk makes after you unlock, and you know that a network problem is never a rejected key.

The check-in

After an unlock, PoppyDisk asks Polar to confirm the License Key again every seven days. A confirmed key keeps the Clean Tier working with nothing to see. This is the only connection PoppyDisk makes on its own. See What PoppyDisk sends and stores.

When Polar cannot be reached

If the check-in cannot reach Polar, nothing is taken away. The Clean Tier keeps working for up to thirty days from the last successful check, and a quiet notice in the Scan result says so: PoppyDisk could not check your license recently. Cleanup keeps working for the number of days remaining. That period is the Grace Window.

An unreachable Polar is never treated as a rejection. Only a definitive answer from Polar can lock the Clean Tier. Restore your connection at some point in those thirty days and the check-in succeeds on its own.

Setting the PC's clock back does not shorten the window or lock the Clean Tier.

When the key is refused

If Polar answers that the key is revoked, expired, or unknown, the Clean Tier locks at once: Your License Key is no longer valid, so cleanup is locked. Scanning stays free. The refusal survives a restart. The notice offers Enter a different key, which opens the Unlock dialog. See Buy the Clean Tier and unlock PoppyDisk.

Everything in the Scan Tier keeps working, including collecting items in the Cleanup Basket.

Move to a new PC

One License Key covers three activations, one per PC that has unlocked with it.

Open the link in your purchase email to reach Polar's customer portal.
Remove the activation for the PC you no longer use.
On the new PC, unlock with the same key. It takes the activation you just removed.

If all three are in use and you cannot free one, see Fix License Key problems.

What is stored on this PC

The key and this PC's activation id are written to a small license.json file in PoppyDisk's own data folder. The key is stored readably because it is already your portal credential, not a secret PoppyDisk invented. Demo Mode writes nothing.