Start the One-Time 30-Day Max Preview in QC Live Forum

Eligible QC Live Forum installations can activate a one-time 30-Day Max Preview. The preview is deliberate: installing QCLF, opening Administrator pages, refreshing entitlement, or running Scheduled Tasks does not start the 30-day period.

The preview begins only after an administrator with QCLF license-management permission explicitly selects Start 30-Day Max Preview and the entitlement service confirms the start.

Before You Start

  • Confirm the Entitlement Revalidation task is structurally healthy. QCLF refuses to start the preview when that required task is missing, duplicated, unpublished, disabled, or scheduled too slowly.
  • Check the current Base tier first. If Max entitlement is already active, or the domain is covered by All Access, QCLF does not consume the one-time preview.
  • Do not start the preview until you are ready to use the 30 consecutive days. A preview marked used or expired cannot be restarted for the product/domain.

Start the Preview

  1. Open Components > QC Live Forum.
  2. Use the entitlement reminder/action that offers Start 30-Day Max Preview.
  3. Review the confirmation that the period begins immediately and runs for 30 consecutive days.
  4. Confirm the action.
  5. Open Status and verify the Effective tier is Max and the Preview end date is shown.

What QCLF Checks

Before consuming the preview, QCLF refreshes the underlying Authorized-Domain entitlement. If the resolved Base tier is already Max or the entitlement source is All Access, QCLF reports that Max is already available and leaves the preview untouched.

If the preview is eligible, QCLF then performs a dedicated preview request. That response is authoritative; QCLF does not immediately overwrite a just-confirmed preview with a normal entitlement retry.

When the Preview Ends

An active preview temporarily makes the Effective tier Max. It does not erase the underlying Base tier. When the preview reaches its fixed end, QCLF falls back to a still-current paid Base tier such as Pro; otherwise Basic remains available.

A temporary validation outage cannot extend the preview beyond its known end time. Any grace is bounded by the normal entitlement grace window and the preview expiration itself.

Preview Safety Rules

  • Only an administrator authorized for Manage License can start the preview.
  • The preview does not start automatically from installation, page views, entitlement refreshes, or hourly task runs.
  • Max/All Access entitlement does not consume an unused preview.
  • Preview history is preserved independently from Legacy License Key cleanup.

Community Discussion

Want to compare forum workflows, share practical QCLF tips, or discuss how other Joomla site owners use this feature? Visit the QC Live Forum Community. For private support, bug reports, account-specific entitlement problems, or feature requests, use the QuantaCade support system.