You've logged in, you know your lab uses Noldus software, and yet your MyNoldus license and download page looks empty. It's a frustrating place to land, especially when you just want to get on with your research. The good news: there's almost always a simple reason for it, and a clear next step. This article walks you through the most common causes and how to fix them.
First, a quick mental model: license owner vs. invited user
Every Noldus license belongs to one MyNoldus account, the license owner or registered user. This is usually the person listed on the original quote and invoice. The license owner is the first account that automatically sees the license, the downloads, and the activation details in MyNoldus.
Everyone else in the lab who needs access, PhD students, research assistants, postdocs, collaborators, joins as an invited user or co-user. Invited users get their own MyNoldus account and can see the licenses and downloads as the owner gives them access to, but only after the owner sends them an invite.
So if you log in and the dashboard is empty, the first question to ask is: "Am I the license owner, or am I waiting on an invite?". In most cases, you're the second one.
Sharing access in MyNoldus is quick, but it does need an active step from the license owner. Here's the flow:
Check this video to see how easy it is:
A few things that catch people out:
- The invitation goes to the exact email address the owner typed. If you signed up with a different address (your personal Gmail instead of your university email, for example), the invite won't connect to your account.
- Invitation emails sometimes land in spam or in a quarantine filter, worth a quick check before assuming it never arrived.
- Accepting the invite is a one-click step, but it does need to happen. The license won't appear in your account until you click through.
You're signed in, your account works, and the dashboard is still blank. That usually points to one of these:
- You're a user who hasn't been invited to the license yet. The most common cause by far. Your account is fine, it just hasn't been linked to any license. Please ask the license owner to invite you. Sometimes the owner simply hasn't gotten around to adding you, or didn't realize they needed to.
- You were invited to a different email address. If your lab uses your `@university.edu` address on the license but you created your MyNoldus account with a personal email (or vice versa), the two won't match up. The invite is sitting at an address you're not signed in with.
- You didn't accept the invitation yet. Make sure you accept the invitation when you land on the MyNoldus home page. If the invitation expired, ask the license owner to resend it.
- You signed up with a brand-new account. Creating a MyNoldus account doesn't automatically connect you to any existing licenses, those connections only happen through invites or because you're the listed owner.
If you're unsure which of these applies, the fastest check is to ask whoever in your lab manages the Noldus software (often a PI, lab manager, or senior researcher) whether they've added you, and to which email address.
This is a really common situation, especially in academic labs where people come and go. A license might have been bought years ago by a PI who's since retired, moved institutions, or simply never logged in to MyNoldus. When that happens, no one in the current lab can see the license, and there's no one to send an invite.
Don't worry, this is fixable. The path forward depends on the situation:
- The original owner retired or left the institution. We can transfer the license to a current member of the lab. You'll just need to let us know who the new owner should be and, where possible, a confirmation from the original owner or the department.
- The owner changed email addresses. Their MyNoldus account can be updated to the new address, or the license can be moved to a different account. Either is straightforward.
- The owner never created a MyNoldus account. No problem, we can help them set one up, or transfer ownership to someone who's actively using the software.
- You're not sure who the owner is. If you can tell us the institution, the lab, and roughly when the license was purchased, we can usually trace it.
In all of these cases, the next step is the same: reach out to licensing@noldus.com and we'll sort it out from our side.