Troubleshooting steps for "Invalid Licence Key" message when opening Spindle Document Distribution Tools


  • Check the licence key is valid by comparing to Draycir licencing records - contact licences@draycir.com for further information
  • Test for connectivity to the Server
    • Check if Client admin has server name as hostname or IPv4 address
  • Check SDM Prerequisites: 
    • MS Windows Professional edition (inc. Enterprise, Ultimate editions of Windows Vista, 7, or 8.x) or Windows Server 2008 and later.
    • MS ,net framework v4, 
    • Visual C++ redistributables (if required, the SDM Installer will launch the installer for these)
    • Required Windows Features (accessed via Control Panel>Programs and Features>Turn Windows Features On and Off)
      The required Windows feature as shown in Windows 10 Professional (other Windows operating systems may differ in appearance/nomenclature)

  • Check permissions on C:\programdata - SDCServiceUser needs read/write access
  • Check Document Search application (this also uses SDCWebAPI)
  • SDCWebAPI needs https binding in IIS Manager. This can be checked in the IIS Manager Actions Pane as follows: 



If there is only http listed, add a new binding for https to the port 34257:






Testing connectivity to the server.

Information: 

Spindle Document Distribution gets its licence from the SDCwebAPI IIS site. If this is not configured correctly it may not work.

  • Check that https://<hostname>:34257/api/v1/licenses/SpindleDocumentManagement, It will prompt the login and get the expected result should look like these.
    • If you get 401.2 – Unauthorized.
      It may caused by the Windows authentication in IIS not being enabled. Please enable it.
      If Windows Authentication is not available, enable the feature via Programs & Features
    • If the web site does not respond, but the URL http://localhost:34256/api/v1/licenses/SpindleDocumentManagement works correctly, It suggests that the HTTPS protocol is not working.

    • Ensure that https port binding to SDCWebApi is correctly configured. The expect config should look like this.


      Normally, the process to setup https run by the SDM server installer with certificate helper tool. You can run it manually to reinstall https by following dos command.
      CertificateUtility.exe /reinstall
      On “C:\Program Files (x86)\Draycir\Spindle Document Management\Spindle Document Capture Server” folder

    • If you get the below error please give the user IIS_IUSRS access to the Draycir folder in program data: 




Related ProductSpindle Document Management
Ref NumberKBA-05-03-004
Document Date01/12/2017
Original AuthorVince Hodgson
Document Versionv1.0
Last updated 21/03/2018
Update Author Jas Kaur