"Welcome to SketchUp" window is blank; I would like to save my License

[Eldreich]

SketchUp Pro 2020
macOS Sonoma 14.5 (23F79)

TL;DR: The “Welcome to SketchUp” window is blank, and menu buttons are greyed out. However, I can open my old .SKPs and fully interact with them (orbit, group, paint, etc.). The reason I want to resolve this is because I want to detach the SketchUp license from my machine, and reattach it later.

Hello SketchUpers!

For a little background, I believe I originally started using (after SketchUp Make) SketchUp Pro with the 2017 version. From there, upgraded every year until 2020, with it being the last version I used/want. I don’t think I’ve run into this issue before through the version changes, even with this one. However, I haven’t used SketchUp in probably 3 years. My Mac also sat for probably 2 of those largely uninterrupted (mentioning that just in case it could have something to do with my current issue). I’ve started using the machine more over the last couple months since I still really like the ecosystem, and I would really love to be able to use SketchUp. However, due to a couple funny issues with my Mac, I’m probably going to run Recovery/Disk Repair, or wipe/reimage the whole thing since just about everything on it is stored in iCloud/Google Drive. However, I want to make sure that if I have to resort to a fresh start for the machine, I can still use my SketchUp Pro license. So if there’s a way for me to remove my license/product key (assuming I understand how SketchUp licenses work) from my machine, I would love to do that.

But that brings us to my issue. When I open the SketchUp application, it pops up the Welcome to SketchUp window in blank white, then switches to a slightly darker (or brighter maybe?) shade of white/grey half a second later. Basically acts like a webpage on a really slow connection, but never gets around to loading more site-info. I also cannot interact with any of the options in the dropdown from my toolbar/taskbar (SketchUp, File, Edit, View, Draw, etc.), they appear greyed-out.

I have attempted multiple restarts and deleting SketchUp’s WebCache folder (after which it promptly rebuilt itself when I opened the app again), neither has changed/fixed the issue.

Attached are some further pictures of the issue for clarity on what I’m seeing. If anyone has feedback for me, it would be greatly appreciated!!

P.S. I also took a screenshot of the little menu that pops up when I hit the profile button in the top right, but I left it out for the sake of avoiding name-doxxing myself lmao. Though it’s not a huge deal, if it’s needed I can send it as well.

[Eldreich]

Also, I apologize if this has been covered in another thread…I did some digging around for about half an hour and couldn’t find a fix, though I might have just not been looking in the right places.

[ateliernab]

pretty sure @colin can confirm, but I think the welcome screen (white in your case) is a webpage and su2020 falls in the “no longer supported version of chromium”

can you simply close the white window ? on a mac it should just give you back access to what’s behind (the actual sketchup window)

[Eldreich]

Thank you for your response!!

Yep! I can close the window, which un-greys all the tools allowing me to use them, as well as all the dropdown options form the taskbar. However, clicking “Manage My License” just brings up that blank Welcome to SketchUp screen. I also could try signing out, but now I’m a bit worried that if I sign out, I won’t be able to sign back in, assuming the blank screen issue is due to lack of continued support, of which I seem to be a couple years behind on. lol

The fact that the 3DWarehouse also gives me a blank window should have also indicated to me that it’s just lack of support, I noticed that was mentioned somewhere else in showing what versions are currently supported.

When I click SketchUp > Check for Update, it brings up a little window saying that there’s an update available. Do you think I would be able to update SketchUp while retaining the license, or would the update just be to one of the subscription-only versions?

[colin]

The update check is seeing that there is 2024.0.2 available. It will work if you’re using a subscription, but won’t work with a 2020 Classic license.

The sign in or sign out in the Help menu does work, even if the manage license screen is blank. If you somehow managed to remove the Classic license, you might have trouble adding it back in again.

[Eldreich]

Awe, man…that’s disappointing, but thank you for letting me know. I’ll see how I can either work around the app in its current state, or look at the subscription plans available…

Thanks again.