I can't create a Unity license

Hello everyone, I am contacting you today because I have a problem with the creation of my Unity license. The problem is the following when I backup the license request and I put it in the requested place I am refused and I am told this: We encountered a problem with the upload
Error message: Non-whitespace before first tag. Line: 0 Column: 1 Char: 㼼

Please try and create a new License Request File from within the Unity editor and upload it again here. If the problem persists, please contact support.

I have tried again and again but without success. If anyone has a solution I would be happy to take it.

 

I'm having the same problem!

 

sign in on the unity hub and then click "activate new license" instead of "manual activation"

 

I also encountered this situation. I had to generate a license in an offline environment and activate it on another computer. What should I do?

 

Facing the same problem. The alf file I'm uploading looks fine to me. Tried various charsets, incl. UTF-8 without BOM, but without success.

 

I have the same problem and the same exact error message.

 

Same issue here, tried to run on command line for manual license file in my docker. It outputs a "-logfile" that cannot be opened. I tried to input licenses with multiple unity version into the webpage, the error persists. Even those exact alf files worked before! Not sure what's going on...

 

I've had the same problem, get the same error with .alf files generated in a with cli in docker like @ConfusedCactus and i've also had the issue with .alf file generated from the unity hub gui itself.

 

Error message: Non-whitespace before first tag. Line: 0 Column: 1 Char: 㼼

 

Okay, I think I found a solution, just name the file Unity_v2019.alf or Unity_v2020.alf, i.e. simply Unity_v(Add the year).alf the problem for me. Before I was naming it like Unity_v2020.1.6f.alf, maybe that's why it doesn't work? If that's still the case, perhaps change encoding in a text editor like sublime

 

Still doesn't work

 

figured out how to solve it hopefully, you have to encode it with UTF-16 LE with BOM

 

I had the same issue. For me UTF-16 LE or UTF-16 BE worked. Without BOM!
(weird though, file content states UTF-8 and it was working fine like a week ago, looks like Unity changed something on their backend)

 

UTF-16 BE without BOM worked for me too. Here is the command I used in mac:

Code (sh):

1. iconv -f UTF-8 -t utf-16BE Unity_v2020.1.12f1.alf > Unity_v2020.1.12f1.utf16be.alf

 

Is there a Windows solution for this?

 

Also experiencing this. On Windows - used notepad++ to convert file to several different text encodings with no luck - exact same error every time.

 

Thank you! This worked for me in Ubuntu

 

You can download iconv for windows

 

Same issue here, on windows with unity hub 2.4.2 and also with ubuntu with docker. iconv command above didn't worked.

 

Here is an online tool that might work for windows users:

https://onlineutf8tools.com/convert...rue&little-endian=false&bom=false&space=false

 

I have the same issue. Trying to activate a license for an automated docker build.
It was working fine few days ago.

I now tried various encodings using Visual Studio Code (hit F1 then search for "Change File Encoding").
Sadly, none worked. I tried UTF-8 with and without BOM as well as UTF-16 BE and LE.
Also I tried Firefox and Chrome.
No luck.

EDIT: I just opened a support ticket because this is likely a bug.

 

OMG Unity please fix this... goldbug's approach worked for me on Mac.

 

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling everything. I have tried converting the filename to include the Unity version. I have tried all of the solutions listed above, except downloading iconv because I don't know what I'm doing. I have done everything support has sent me via email. I want to keep my work attached to my current license, but I'm on a new Windows computer because my Mac that I used to use kept crashing. My brother is ready to give up on Unity because he's having the same problem. If anyone finds a Windows solution, please post!

 

VS code cannot save utf-16 BE or LE without BOM. It always adds the BOM at the beginning.

Try the online tool I linked too. It does have the option of utf-16 BE without BOM.

 

Did you try that online tool? it does have the option of saving utf-16 BE without BOM

 

Having the same issue, tried iconv, vscode and the online tool. Nothing worked.

 

I tried the link, but it saved as a txt file, not an alf. I am in way over my head here.

 

> I tried the link, but it saved as a txt file, not an alf. I am in way over my head here.

txt and alf is both plain text. You can rename the file to alf without worries.

 

It's still not working for me. Tried also the online tool as well as iconv. Also I tried it with and without the leading <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> of the XML content as the differing encoding might be a problem.
Still no luck. I guess I have to wait until Unity fixes this bug.

BTW: on Windows you can also install iconv, for example via scoop: scoop install iconv

 

I tried changing the .txt to .alf, but it still would not take it.

 

Oh my...
So I gave it another chance and goldbug is right: The manual activation expects the file as "UTF-16 Big-Endian without BOM".
-
I played with the format and it is clear that a 2-byte encoding is expected: the weird chinese character in the error message depends on the first two characters of my UTF-8 file. Thus, it depends on the first 2 bytes.

Knowing this, I tried the UTF-16 encoded files again.
After a closer look, I noticed that the weird chinese character of my UTF-16BE and UTF-16LE encoded files was the same.
And indeed: neither iconv nor the linked website to change encoding was giving me a proper "UTF-16BE without BOM" encoded file.
Maybe Windows or something was messing around here?

Anyway, I now took another approach:
- remove the <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> part of the XML content if it is still present in your file.
- Save the file as "UTF-16BE with BOM" using VS Code (or another editor)
- Then remove the first 2 bytes (the byte-order-mark) via a script

For example, in Powershell you could do:
```
$byteArray = [IO.File]::ReadAllBytes('Unity_v2020.utf16be.bom.alf')
$byteArrayNoBom = $byteArray[2..($byteArray.Length-1)]
[IO.File]::WriteAllBytes('Unity_v2020.utf16be.nobom.alf', $byteArrayNoBom)
```
This file was finally accepted for the manual activation.

Kudos to goldbug for the hint!
-
Still, I would say this is a bug on Unity's side.

 

Holy cow. This is helpful for some people. I have no idea what most of your post meant!

 

@Astabeth you might want to read up the basics of encoding and big-endian vs little-endian:

- encoding: https://kunststube.net/encoding/
also interesting might be base64 (just for better understanding): https://opentechtips.com/base64-encoding-explained-with-examples/

- endianness: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/big-endian-and-little-endian
https://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-big-and-little-endian-byte-order/

Good luck!

 

tank you very mucj

 

This is the easiest way to solve the issue:

1. Download Sublime Text https://www.sublimetext.com/3
2. Open your Unity alf file with that program
3. From File menu select 'Save With Encoding' -> 'UTF-16 BE'
   
4. Presto the file is now ready to be used

 

Work flawlessly, thanks.

 

When I click 'Save With Encoding' -> 'UTF-16 BE' nothing happens. It doesn't ask me where to save, or anything.

 

Okay, I see from the popup in the bottom bar that it is saving it when I select save with encoding. I tried both the UTF-16 BE and the UTF-16 BE with BOM, but neither worked.

 

I tried all the ways to save it. At either UTF-8 or UTF-8 with BOM, it generated a ulf file that I was able to use to activate my license on the new computer. Thank you so much - I was ready to leave Unity!

 

I can't download a request license file it always says "Unable to save license" can anybody help me

 

Having the same issue. None of the solutions here worked.
Unity, please, fix your stuff.