The cloud connection: license, sync, backups, updates

TechieCRM Desktop talks to the TechieCRM cloud (techiecrm.com) for licensing, data sync, backups, app updates and messaging. The desktop only ever holds its license key — provider secrets stay in the cloud.

In this chapter - Trial, activation, check-in - Signing in with your TechieCRM account - The Cloud Connection dialog - The Database report (local vs cloud vs the source database) - Sync (offline-first) - Backups - Updates - Which modules your plan includes

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Trial, activation, check-in

First launch starts a 7-day trial for this computer. The easiest way to connect a purchased plan is Sign in with your TechieCRM account… (below); Enter a license key… remains as the manual path. Two kinds of key exist and both begin TCRM-; the activation dialog tells them apart by their shape, not their prefix:

• Cloud keys (TCRM-… / TCRM-TRIAL-…, one continuous code) activate through the cloud and need an internet connection to activate.
• Offline (signed) keys (TCRM-XXXXX-XXXXX-….XXXXX-XXXXX-… — two halves joined by a .) are verified on your computer and do not need an internet connection to activate. See "Offline licenses" below.

If a signed key is mistyped or pasted incompletely, the dialog says so explicitly ("did not verify" / "length is wrong") rather than reporting a generic cloud error — check the key for typos.

The desktop checks in every 15 minutes in the background (license status, available update, what your plan includes, unread notifications). Offline, a cloud key or trial runs on the last check-in for a few days; an offline key runs for as long as its cached entitlement lasts (below).

Offline licenses

An offline key holds its own signed statement of what it grants (tier, expiry — or perpetual for a Full desktop license — and update entitlement), so the computer can prove the license is genuine with no server at all.

• Activating without internet. Paste the key and click Activate. If the license server cannot be reached, activation completes from the key's signature and the dialog says "License activated offline… It will register with the server automatically the next time it is online." The computer is fully licensed from that moment. If the server can be reached but refuses the key (unknown key, or the license is already on its maximum number of computers), activation fails and is never completed offline — a refusal is an answer, not an outage.
• Registering later. The next time the computer is online, its background check-in registers it with the license server. Should the server refuse it then (for example the license has since reached its device limit), this computer goes read-only and the reason is shown; free a device on techiecrm.com or contact support, then activate again.
• How long it works offline. As long as the license's cached entitlement lasts — a Full perpetual key never runs out. Trial, Alpha and Beta keys are also bound by the check-in window the license server sets at activation (currently 7 days, plus 3 days' grace): stay offline past that and the session becomes read-only until the next successful check-in renews it. The window length is a server setting, never something the desktop decides for itself.
• Your computer's clock. The license remembers the latest time it has seen (from the server when online, from your clock otherwise). Setting the clock back does not extend a license; if the desktop notices the clock is behind that mark it logs CLOCK ROLLBACK DETECTED. A clock that was accidentally set far ahead recovers automatically at the next successful check-in.
• One hardware change is tolerated. Replacing a disk or network adapter does not invalidate the cached license (3-of-4 fingerprint tolerance). A second unrelated change does — re-activate with your key (a plain-text copy is kept beside the license file as license_key.txt).
• If the license file is damaged or edited, the desktop treats the computer as unlicensed (read-only) rather than guessing; the startup log says why. Activate again with your key.

No active license? Your data stays yours. TechieCRM never blocks you from opening the app or reading your records — with no active license (trial over, never purchased, or lapsed) the session simply becomes read-only: a notice explains it, you can open and read every record, but creating, updating and deleting are disabled until a license is activated. Cloud features (sync, texts, backups to the cloud) also pause. Activating at any time — including mid-session — restores full function immediately. The same rule applies on the web portal.

License Validation, revocation and device release

What the background check actually is. The 15-minute check-in is License Validation. It is not an expiry check — your license carries its own expiry date, and the desktop knows it without asking anyone. License Validation asks one question: has this license, or this computer's place on it, been revoked? If the server cannot be reached, the desktop consults a signed revocation list instead (below). If neither says revoked, the license keeps working until its own expiry date, however long you stay offline. (This supersedes the "check-in window plus 3 days' grace" wording under Offline licenses above, which described the earlier behaviour: an offline computer is no longer locked for missing a check-in.)

The signed revocation list. An application update or security patch can carry a list of revoked licenses; installing the update applies whatever list it carries, and the next successful validation brings a newer one. (Updates published so far carry no list — the list is issued by the license server, which does not publish one yet; until it does, revocation comes from License Validation and from the list already stored on the computer.) The list is signed with the same key as the licenses themselves, and the desktop refuses any list it cannot verify — an unverifiable list is simply ignored, never treated as "revoke everything". You are never shown the list; it only affects a computer that is no longer entitled to run the software.

What a revocation does. A revoked computer becomes read-only immediately, and stays revoked after a restart or offline. The notice names the user whose license was revoked. Two kinds:

• The whole license revoked (by TechieCRM — for example a chargeback): read-only, nothing else happens to your data.
• This computer removed from the license by the license owner (a user was un-assigned on client.techiecrm.com): read-only, and — only if the owner asked for it — a device release:

1. every change made on this computer is uploaded to the cloud;
2. the upload is verified — the desktop independently checks that every record it holds was received;
3. only then the local database connected to that license is removed from this computer;
4. you are told: the license connected to \<user> has been revoked from this device, and \<user>'s data has been removed.

The license owner's own data is never removed. A device release applies only to a user the owner gave access to and later removed. The desktop establishes who holds the license on this computer from evidence it can verify itself (the owner's identity signed into the license key, or a signed revocation entry naming the owner and the removed user, checked against who is signed in here) — never from a server flag alone — and if it cannot positively tell, it leaves the data alone. (Transferring a license to someone else is a separate process, not part of this.)

If the upload does not complete and verify, nothing is removed — the desktop says so and tries again the next time it connects. A computer that also holds a different license with its own database (for example your personal one) keeps that database untouched: only the database explicitly bound to the revoked license is ever removed, and if no such binding is recorded, nothing is.

Which database is "bound" to a license. The binding is recorded when the license and the database are first put together, from one of exactly three places: the first-run setup wizard, on the Your local database page; activating a license key at any later time (so a computer licensed on day two — long after the one-time wizard has been and gone — gets a binding as well, which is what makes a device release possible on it at all); and the license server itself, which names the workspace database on every successful check-in. Nothing else creates one — in particular, "the database that happens to be open" never does. If the license is already bound to a different database, both the setup wizard and a later activation keep the existing binding rather than moving it; only the license server can point a license at a different database. A database already bound to another license on the same computer is never bound to a second one. Settings ▸ General ▸ License Information… shows the binding currently recorded on this computer.

A computer that was licensed before this version has no binding recorded (nothing was creating one at the time). Its data is simply never removed — the release refuses and says so. Re-activating the same key from Enter a license key… records the binding.

Seats. Removing a user from a multi-user license does not free their seat straight away. The seat is pending release until every one of that user's computers has come online, been revoked and confirmed back. Settings ▸ General ▸ License Information… shows the seat count, who holds which seat, and each registered device's status.

Signing in with your TechieCRM account

Tools ▸ Cloud ▸ Cloud Connection ▸ Sign in with your TechieCRM account… — enter the email and password you created on techiecrm.com. TechieCRM fetches the license(s) on your account, shows each one with its plan and company name, and Activate on this computer connects this machine — no key to copy. Notes: - Your password is never stored on this computer; only the fetched license key is kept. - A license shown as "in use on another computer" is already activated elsewhere — release it there first (or contact support to transfer it). - After several failed sign-ins (five within fifteen minutes) the account locks until support reviews it — the lock raises a support ticket automatically. Repeated failures from one network address are also blocked. - Signing in also fills in your portal email for notifications.

The Cloud Connection dialog

Tools ▸ Cloud ▸ Cloud Connection (or Tools ▸ Cloud ▸ Sync Now): license and status, cloud subscription, features (Text, desktop email accounts, web email identity, cloud sync, cloud backup, notifications, modules not in your plan), sync state and last result, the local mirror's record counts, last check-in, server. Buttons: Check in now, Sync now, Initial full sync…, Backups…, Database report…, Sign in with your TechieCRM account…, Enter a license key…, your portal sign-in email (used for notifications), and Keep this computer in sync with the cloud. Links open the portal pages for downloads, SMS number, email identity, email templates, conversations.

The Database report

Cloud Connection ▸ Database report… answers "what is my data, where is it, and why do the numbers differ from my source CRM?" — everything counted live when you open it (nothing is estimated; a section that cannot be computed says why instead of showing numbers):

• Your database — this computer vs the cloud. Each kind of record (clients, notes, meetings, …) with the record count and size on this computer next to the count and size in your cloud database — the same figures TechieCRM uses for storage billing. When this computer and the cloud match, the two TOTAL columns agree.
• What syncs. How many kinds of records sync, whether sync is on, the time everything up to which is already on the cloud, and exactly how many records are waiting to upload on the next sync (or "Nothing is waiting to upload").
• Data health — TechieCRM vs your source database. A read-only, live comparison against the source-CRM database this computer is connected to: rows in the source database, actual records (with its duplicate copies collapsed), and in TechieCRM, each with a plain-language explanation. The key story: the source CRM stores separate copies of the same record — a meeting (it calls them appointments) is filed once for every person linked to it (four attendees = stored four times), and a saved email is filed once for every Address Book entry it was saved to (and again per user who saved it) — so its raw row count is inflated. TechieCRM stores each meeting and each unique email once, with the full list of people and places it connects to. An email only counts as a duplicate when its entire content matches — subject, date and time, sender, recipients, body and attachments — and every collapsed copy keeps a reference back to its original source record, so the de-duplication is fully reversible. A smaller database in TechieCRM does not mean missing data: every meeting, email, note and contact is still there, stored once. Nothing in the source database is ever modified by this report. If the source CRM is still in use, remaining differences simply reflect records added or removed there since your last import.

Sync

When your license is linked to a cloud subscription (a tenant database), the desktop keeps a local mirror (MongoDB on this computer) in sync with your cloud database: pull, then push, every check-in. Conflicts resolve last-write-wins; deletes carry over. Inbound texts/emails reach the desktop this way. Until the subscription is active, the dialog says "not granted" and nothing is sent.

How "last write" is decided, and what the two timestamps on a record mean. Every synced record shows a Modified time — the clock of whichever device made the edit — and carries a second, invisible stamp the cloud writes when the change reaches it. The cloud's stamp is what orders the sync: it decides which records a device still needs, and when two devices change the same record the change that reached the cloud last is kept. The device clock never decides that, so a computer or phone whose clock is wrong can neither lose its own changes nor win every conflict. This applies to every kind of record, invoices, bills and payments included: when the same one is edited on two devices before they sync, the later arrival replaces the earlier and nothing flags that a value was overwritten. If you rely on a figure that was edited from two places, check it after the sync.

Private notes and sync. A note you mark Private in the web portal is yours: colleagues do not see it in a list, in a count, on a client's Interactions panel or on its own page. Only you, and your workspace administrator (who can read it but never change it), can open it.

What that means for your other devices, as things stand today: - On the web — you see your own private notes, everywhere you would see an ordinary one. - On your phone — once you have signed in to the app with your TechieCRM email and password, your own private notes sync down to it, and the Private mark comes with them, so you can turn it off from the phone. Private notes belonging to anyone else are never sent to your phone. A phone that has not signed in receives none at all. - On the desktop — private notes are not synced to the desktop app yet. This is deliberate and temporary: a desktop installation can be shared between several logins, and the desktop app cannot yet hide one person's private notes from another, so they are held back rather than shown to the wrong person. When the desktop can filter them, they will sync there too. Nothing is lost in the meantime — the note is safe in the cloud and on the web.

When the cloud asks for a full refresh

If a computer has been switched off, or off the internet, for a long time, the cloud may decide it can no longer safely bring that computer up to date one change at a time, and asks it to download a complete fresh copy instead. The desktop does this on its own — you do not have to do anything, and nothing is lost. The next sync simply takes longer than usual: minutes rather than seconds, depending on how much data your company has.

Why it happens: when a record is deleted, the cloud remembers the deletion for a while so every device gets the news, and then it stops remembering. A computer that was away for longer than that would never hear about the deletion, would still be holding the record, and would send it back — and the record would come back to life for everybody. Rather than let that happen, the cloud refuses the short-cut and asks for the full copy.

What you will see. Open Settings ▸ Database and look at Cloud (sync.techiecrm.com) ▸ Last sync. After a forced refresh it includes the cloud's own explanation, for example "This device has been offline too long to catch up safely…". Sync then carries on normally on the next check-in.

Not built yet: the explanation is not currently shown as an on-screen banner while the refresh is running, so a long full download still looks like an ordinary slow sync. Only the Settings ▸ Database line reports it afterwards.

If it keeps happening. A full refresh should happen once and then settle. If Last sync keeps reporting "Cloud sync is stopped…", the desktop has deliberately stopped trying rather than ask the same refused question over and over — that is a fault on the cloud side, and it needs support. The desktop will keep checking once per check-in in case the cloud recovers; it will not repair itself by being restarted.

Backups

Backups…: Back up now writes a snapshot of the local mirror to ~/.techiecrm/backups/ (the last ten are kept) and uploads it to the cloud when your subscription allows (cloud backups are kept 90 days). A weekly snapshot runs automatically. Restore selected… re-imports a local snapshot (records replace those with the same id — confirmed first).

Updates

Check-in tells the desktop when a newer version exists: security / mandatory updates must be installed to continue (Download → Quit); bug-fix updates are recommended; feature updates are offered once. Downloads come from the portal's Download page.

Cloud (Aug 2026): while a platform's installer is still waiting on its code-signing certificate, the Download page says so — testing is wrapping up and the certificate for that platform hasn't landed yet, both at once. Until it does, the operating system or antivirus may warn that the installer is from an unidentified/unrecognized publisher; installing is safe but at your discretion until the certificate is added, at which point the warning disappears on its own and every registered individual and company gets an email.

Which plans include the desktop app

The Entrepreneur plan covers the web portal and the mobile apps — it does not include the installed Windows or macOS application. The Download link stays exactly where it is on every plan: click it and, if your plan doesn't include the desktop app, the page says so and names the upgrade (Team or higher) instead of the link quietly disappearing. A workspace administrator can make that change under Plan & Billing, and the download works from that moment. Anyone who is not signed in — a visitor evaluating TechieCRM — can still download and try the desktop app.

What your plan includes

Modules not in your plan are dimmed on the icon bar with a tooltip. Trials include Clients, Contacts, Notes, Interactions, Calendar, To-Do, Email, Messages and Personal; subscriptions unlock the rest. Text messaging is an add-on; email from your own account is always available.

The initial full sync (new companies)

The first time a company connects its local database to the cloud, use Initial full sync… (TechieCRM also offers it automatically right after you activate a license when the cloud tenant is still empty). A progress window opens and stays on top of the work — you can move it aside or press "Hide (keep syncing)" and carry on using TechieCRM while it runs.

The window shows, live: - an overall bar — records synced so far, the percentage done and the percentage remaining; - every part (Clients, Notes, Documents, Meetings, Sales, Service cases, …) with its own record count and percentage, marked Waiting, 🔄 Syncing… or ✅ Synced; - a status line naming what is being synced right now, and a final summary (records added/updated).

Stop sync halts cleanly after the current batch; nothing is lost — running the sync again picks up exactly where it stopped. Re-running a completed initial sync is also safe: records that are already in the cloud simply become updates, never duplicates.

The release programme

While TechieCRM is in its Alpha and Beta programmes the Cloud Connection window shows a line naming the current phase, whether it is free, and when the next phase begins — for example "TechieCRM is in its Alpha programme — free for invited and approved clients until 31 August 2026. Next: Beta from 1 September 2026."

Alpha and Beta members get the complete feature set, including cloud sync; the phase on your licence records which programme you joined under, not a smaller product. The 7-day account-setup trial is unchanged and runs alongside the programme.

The dates come from TechieCRM's servers, so they are always current — if the cloud cannot be reached the line is simply hidden rather than showing something out of date.

Beta builds also expire — 7 days from when they were BUILT

This is a separate rule from the release programme above, and separate from your licence. A Beta build of TechieCRM stops running 7 days after that build was created — not 7 days after you downloaded or installed it. Every copy of the same Beta build stops at the same moment, whether it has ever been online or not.

What this means in practice: - If you keep using the same Beta installer for more than a week without checking for an update, it will eventually refuse to open, with a message telling you it has expired and offering a Download the current build button. - Installing a newer Beta (or the general release, once one exists) resets the clock — the new build gets its own fresh 7 days from when it was built. - This has nothing to do with whether your licence is valid. A fully licensed, fully paid install still stops on schedule if the Beta build itself has expired — that is by design, so nobody is ever testing a build that is more than a week stale. - If no newer Beta has been published yet, the download page gives you the current released version instead, so you are never stuck with no working copy of TechieCRM. - A Beta also checks for a newer build each time it starts and lets you know if one is available, so you can usually update before hitting the 7-day limit at all.

This check runs entirely on your computer's clock and does not need the cloud to be reachable — it is one of the few things in TechieCRM that is enforced even fully offline.