Unable to Authorize Licenses with "Authorization Failed" Error in the Browser

Problem

In the Manage License window of a JetBrains IDE, attempts to activate a license through a license server (Standalone License Vault or IDE Services License Vault) fail with an "Authorization Failed" error shown in the browser.

Cause

This issue is typically caused by network restrictions or misconfiguration that interfere with authentication traffic between the IDE, the browser, and the license server. This can include DNS rewriting, proxy settings, blocked traffic, or other network security policies.

Resolution

Follow these steps to narrow down the cause:

1. Verify that you are signing in with the correct account for your license server.
2. Check whether the problem affects only one machine or multiple users in your organization.
3. Clear browser cache and cookies related to the services used during sign-in, including:
   • https://account.jetbrains.com/
   • https://console.jetbrains.cloud/
   • your license server domain
   • related authentication domains used by your environment
4. Ask your license server administrators to review your login attempts in the Denials report and share the results if needed.
   • Denials Report in Standalone License Vault
   • Denials Report in IDE Services Cloud
   • Denials Report in IDE Services On-Premises
5. Confirm with your administrators that your account is included in the correct access group:
   • For Standalone License Vault, verify that the account is part of the "IDE Authorized" group.
   • For IDE Services, verify that the user is included in the groups allowed to access the service.
   • IDE Services Cloud
     • Access Management
   • IDE Services On-Premises
     • Authorization and Authentication
     • User Management
6. Test the authorization flow from a clean network environment without restrictive proxy, DNS filtering, or other network policies to see whether the issue disappears.

If the issue persists, please file a Support Request in Zendesk and include:

• whether the problem affects one user or multiple users
• which licensing product and deployment type used
• the result of the Denials report check
• whether the issue reproduces on another machine or network