Today I worked with the help agent by phone to resolve my issue. She needed to determine that I had really purchased the 2020, 2021, and 2022 versions of the product, using the order numbers from my receipts. She needed to use my original 16 digit activation code for each of these three years to determine how many times each code had been used.
She determined that my 2020 activation code could be used one more time and that the 2021 and 2022 codes had been previously used 3 times each.
I successfully re-activated my 2020 version using my original code. She emailed me a bonus one time activation code for 2021 and 2022 on the grounds that my previously activated version had lost its activation because my router's MAC address had changed (due to cloning) which changed the IP address of my modem and made it appear that I had a different computer.
Our telephone call lasted an obscene amount of time but we were both patient with each other. Were it not for the fact that I have been using TurboTax for 20 years, and I hope to do so for another 20 years to come, I would otherwise feel guilty for her having spent so much time.
The bottom line is that once your product is activated, it can lose its activation due to some change in the hardware or firmware (motherboard, network card, router, modem, etc.)
Having a paper copy of your old tax return has limited value as a backup because many of the worksheets are not printed out. Only being able to revisit the digital version (not PDF version) lets you see the whole picture behind your old tax declaration.
