F-Secure says your subscription has ended and the app stops protecting you

Fix it now

The client has stopped being able to validate the subscription attached to this installation. That can mean the term ran out, but it can equally mean the key belongs to an account you are not signed into, that every device slot is taken, or that the machine cannot reach F-Secure to ask. The account decides, not the PC.

1. Read exactly what the app says. A subscription that has ended and a subscription code that is rejected are different problems with different answers.
2. Sign in to My F-Secure in a browser and check the subscription, its end date, and which devices are currently using it.
3. If this computer is not among them, free a slot by removing a device you no longer own, then add this one.
4. If the app is signed into a different account from the one holding the subscription, sign out and back in with the correct address.
5. If the term has ended, renew or enter a current subscription code in the app, then restart the machine so the state is re-read rather than served from cache.

F-Secure is widely supplied through internet providers, mobile operators and banks. If yours arrived that way, there may be nothing in your own account to renew, and the provider is the only party who can extend it.

If the app shows a future end date and updates cleanly, you are done. If it does not, the next section covers what the client is actually checking and why the answer arrives late.

Why it happens

The subscription is a record held by F-Secure: a product, an end date, and a number of devices it may cover. The installed client keeps a cached copy and revalidates it periodically, so what you see on screen is the result of the last successful check. That is why the message can appear days after the term ended, and why a machine that has been offline can show it while the subscription itself is perfectly current.

Device slots are the second thing worth understanding, because they cause the most confusion. A subscription covers a number of installations rather than a number of people, and a machine that was replaced or reinstalled can still be holding a slot. The device list in your account is the authoritative view; the app on any single machine cannot tell you whether the plan is full.

There is a distribution wrinkle here that catches people out. A subscription that arrived through a provider ends when the package changes, and there is nothing in your own F-Secure account to renew because the plan was never administered by you. It is also worth knowing that F-Secure’s business products moved to a separate brand some years ago, so an old bookmark can land you at the wrong portal entirely.

Neither of the two messages this article covers has a published definition on F-Secure’s own site, so read them for what the client is doing rather than for what the words imply. One says a check completed and returned no current entitlement. The other says a code was offered and refused outright, which is a different question: wrong product, wrong region, already redeemed, or mistyped.

Full reference

Which of the cases is yours

Ended and invalid are not the same message

It is worth being pedantic about this, because the two lead in opposite directions. An ended subscription is an entitlement that existed and has run out; the answer is a renewal or a new term on the same account. A rejected code is an entitlement that was never established here; the answer is to work out which product and region the code was issued for, and whether it has already been redeemed somewhere else. Renewing will not fix a rejected code, and retyping a code will not extend a finished term.

Neither string is defined on any F-Secure page that can be read as documentation, so treat descriptions of them elsewhere with care. What is checkable is the account: the end date, the device list, and which address the app is signed in with.

Moving the subscription to a different machine

1. Remove the old device from the device list in your account, which frees its slot.
2. Install on the new machine and sign in with the same account.
3. Let the client complete its first update before assuming it is working.
4. Re-check the device list and confirm the old entry has gone rather than being duplicated.

If you decide not to renew

Remove F-Secure through Settings, Apps, restart, then open Windows Security, go to Virus & threat protection and under Who’s protecting me? choose Manage providers. Microsoft documents Defender being re-enabled automatically once a non-Microsoft product is uninstalled or otherwise stops providing real-time protection, so in the normal case the Security providers page should already show Microsoft Defender Antivirus turned on. Confirm it rather than assuming it, and run a full scan afterwards.

The one arrangement to avoid is an unlicensed client left installed. It keeps the Windows registration while providing nothing, so Defender may stay down and you end up with neither product working.

Before you buy

• Count the devices you want covered, including phones and tablets, not just the PC in front of you.
• Check which brand and portal the product you are renewing actually belongs to, especially on an older installation.
• Confirm the region a code was issued for before buying it from anywhere other than F-Secure.
• If the subscription came through a provider, ask them what a direct subscription would duplicate before paying twice.

Every code this article covers

Confirm the fix worked

1. The app shows a subscription end date in the future rather than the ended message.
2. Your F-Secure account lists this computer against the current subscription.
3. The client completes an update without error after the subscription is applied.
4. The state survives a restart rather than reverting once the cached answer refreshes.
5. If you removed the product instead, Windows Security shows Microsoft Defender Antivirus turned on.

Questions people ask about this