Docs › Licences and billing
A key is bound to the site it was activated on. Moving it is one click on the old site and one on the new — but the order matters, because deactivating is what frees the seat. Do it the other way round and the seat stays claimed by a site that no longer exists.
In one lineDeactivate on the old site first, then activate on the new one. Never delete the old site while it still holds the key.
Deactivate first. Always first.
When you deactivate, the plugin releases the seat with the store before it forgets the licence locally. That order is deliberate: if it cleared its own record first and the release then failed, the seat would stay claimed forever with nothing left on the site able to release it.
So the safe sequence is:
- On the old site, open Affiliate Pro → Activation and press Deactivate.
- Read the confirmation. Which message you get tells you whether the seat actually came free — see below.
- On the new site, install the plugin and paste the same key into the Activation tab.
- Press Activate. The key binds to the new site and everything unlocks.
The two confirmations mean different things
Deactivation returns one of two messages, and they are not interchangeable:
| Message | What actually happened |
|---|---|
| Licence removed and the seat released. You can now activate this key on a different site. | A store key. The seat was released automatically. You can activate elsewhere immediately. |
| Key removed from this installation. It stays bound to this site on amawp.com and can be entered here again any time. | A legacy AAP2- key. It was removed locally but remains bound to this site on amawp.com. It has not been freed for another site. |
Legacy keys do not self-release. The automatic seat release applies to store-issued keys. If you hold an older AAP2-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXXXXX key and need it moved to a different domain, deactivating is not enough on its own — contact support and ask for the binding to be moved.
If the old site is already gone
This is the one genuinely awkward case. If the site was deleted, wiped or handed to someone else while it still held the key, nothing remains that can press Deactivate. The store still believes the seat is in use, and activation on the new site fails with This key is already in use on another website, or is not valid. One key works on ONE live site only. Support can clear it, but it is a message and a wait — where deactivating first would have been one click.
Add “deactivate the licence” to your own site-migration checklist, next to backing up the database. It is the step people remember only once it is too late.
Moving the site, not the licence
Some changes are not a move at all and need nothing from you:
| What you are doing | Deactivate first? |
|---|---|
| Updating or reinstalling the plugin on the same site | No. The key stays bound across updates and reinstalls. |
| Changing hosts, same domain | No, provided the domain does not change. |
| Changing the domain name | Yes. The binding is to the site, so a new domain is a new site. |
| Moving staging to live | Yes, if both would be running the key at once. |
| Retiring a site | Yes — before you delete anything. |
Staging and live at the same time
One key covers one live site, so a staging copy and the live site cannot both hold it. In practice this is rarely a problem: everything a staging site normally needs — shortcodes, product boxes, existing content, your saved settings — keeps working without a key at all. Only the AI, Analytics and Growth Tools need an active licence, and those are not usually what you are testing on staging.
If you genuinely need both unlocked at once, that is a plan with more seats rather than a second activation. The Activation tab shows how many seats your key covers; what each plan includes is here.
Common questions
Does deactivating delete my content or settings?
No. It removes the licence record only. Your settings, credentials, partner tag, analytics history and every published article are untouched, and the shortcodes keep rendering.
How many times can I move a key?
There is no move counter. Deactivate, activate, as often as you need — the constraint is only that it is live on one site at a time.
I deactivated but the new site still says the key is in use.
Check which confirmation you got. If it said the key stays bound to this site, that is a legacy key and the seat was not released — contact support. If it said the seat was released, press Verify on the new site and try once more.
Can I move a Pro key to an Ultra site?
No. A key is bound to its product as well as its site, so a Pro key never unlocks Ultra. Activation covers how that check works.