Deleting a checked out license

[LinkElmore]

I have a situation where I need to delete a license that has been checked out from a license server, without access to that server.

Our organization made a change in license server and ArcMap version.  Some users had a license checked out from the old server, now unavailable.  They are now pointing to the new license server and unable to get a new license checked out because of the existing license on their machine from the old server.  Normally, I would just check it back in to the old one, then point to the new server and get a new license. But the old server is no longer accessible.

A successful strategy has been to simply let the old license expire and then check out from the new server.  However, I need to be able to force this process early for some users who will be in the field and without access to the new server when their license expires.

Can I delete the checked out version of their license on their local machine?

Windows 7

ArcMap 10.3

FlexNet license server

C:\ProgramData\FLEXnet contains a ARCGIS_0038ce00_tsf.data file that I suspect, but have been unable to confirm, might be the correct file to delete.

Has anyone experienced this or a similar situation?

[DanPatterson_Retired]

I am not sure about deleting anything...I always try the old renaming trick when unsure about deletions (ie. try renaming a file's extension (*.old)​ or a folder's name ....you can always change it back...reboots may be necessary between steps)

[LinkElmore · Accepted solution]

I renamed the two _tsf files in the C:\ProgramData\FLEXnet directory (must turn on hidden folders to see)  to _old_tsf, which did the trick.  I was able to hit the new license server and check out a license, which created the new _tsf.data and _tsf.data_backup files in that same directory.  Thanks for that suggestion, Dan.

[RebeccaStrauch__GISP]

Link, you may already know this, but "force" checking them in this way will not put them back into your License Managers pool of available licenses.

Since you already changed servers, you may have already coordinated to make sure you have the correct number of licenses on the new server, if not, I may require a call to you customer services rep, since in this situation, it usually has to be fixed on their end to show back up in MyEsri.

If you moved from 9.x /10.0 to 10.2/10.3 license manager, the numbers might be correct already (since they made changes in the License Manager provision files between those versions)