If you’ve bought a pdfToolbox Cartridge recently, you may have noticed something missing: no serial key, no activation screen, nothing to install on the pdfToolbox machine itself. Your Wallet ID does all the work, drawing on the Cartridge from wherever pdfToolbox happens to be running.

That’s a genuinely useful shift for anyone running pdfToolbox inside Enfocus Switch. A Wallet isn’t tied to one machine, so you can move it between production servers, disaster recovery boxes, or a laptop for testing without touching a licence file. The trade off is that pdfToolbox now needs a live conversation with callas’ licence server on every job. If that conversation can’t happen, the job fails, and the error it throws you rarely points at the real cause.

What Changed, in Plain Terms

Under the old model, pdfToolbox was serialised once and ran offline from then on. Under the Wallet and Cartridge model, licensing lives on callas’ servers and gets checked in real time. Enfocus Switch passes two things to the pdfToolbox CLI on every job: the address of the licence server, and your Wallet ID as an --lsmessage parameter. Get both fields right in the app’s Properties panel and Switch handles the rest automatically.

It’s a similar pattern to how Enfocus itself licenses apps through the App Store, so if you’re already comfortable with that model, this will feel familiar. The bit that catches people out isn’t the software configuration. It’s the network underneath it.

Before You Start

You’ll need the following in place before configuring anything in Switch:

No installation, activation, or serial key is needed on pdfToolbox itself. The Wallet ID draws on the Cartridge from anywhere.

Setting Up the Switch App

  1. Open the callas pdfToolbox app’s Properties panel (Actions, Compare, or Profiles).
  2. Set License Server to Yes.
  3. In License Server addresses, enter: licenseserver.callassoftware.com
  4. In the CLI parameter field, enter your Wallet ID, for example: --lsmessage=00000000-1111-2222-3333-444444444444
  5. Save the flow. Switch now passes both values to pdfToolbox CLI on every job.

Checking Cartridge Status

You can view the Cartridges and sessions attached to a Wallet at any time at licenseserver.callassoftware.com, then entering the Wallet ID when prompted.

Where Installs Actually Go Wrong

pdfToolbox needs outbound access on TCP port 1400 to three IP addresses, plus optional HTTPS access on port 443 for the monitoring page. Port 1400 is the one that matters: it’s how every job checks the licence, and if anything sits between your Switch server and callas’ licence server on that port, jobs will fail intermittently or outright.

This is worth asking your IT team about directly, not assuming. A firewall rule that blocks the port is the obvious failure mode, but the less obvious one is SSL inspection or TLS re-signing on port 1400. Plenty of managed networks apply that kind of inspection by default across all outbound traffic, and it will break the licensing handshake even though the port itself is technically open. If you’ve recently had a network security review, or your Switch server sits on a tighter segment than it used to, that’s worth checking before you assume the Wallet itself is faulty.

Firewall and Proxy Notes

Port 1400 (TCP) is mandatory, used to check the licence. Port 443 (HTTPS) is optional, for the monitoring page only. Any firewall, proxy, or security software on port 1400 must pass the connection through untouched. On a managed network, confirm with IT that nothing intercepts port 1400 outbound to the three addresses above.

Testing the Connection From the Command Line

If you want to rule networking out entirely, you can test the CLI licensing handshake directly, bypassing Switch altogether. This isolates whether an issue is network related or app related, and saves a lot of back and forth with support if you do need to raise a ticket.

1. Check the Licensing Port (1400) Is Reachable

Mac (Terminal):

nc -zv 18.185.168.191 1400
nc -zv 18.196.197.252 1400
nc -zv 3.72.138.9 1400

Windows (PowerShell):

Test-NetConnection -ComputerName 18.185.168.191 -Port 1400
Test-NetConnection 18.196.197.252 -Port 1400
Test-NetConnection 3.72.138.9 -Port 1400

Look for “succeeded” (Mac) or TcpTestSucceeded : True (Windows). Timeouts or refusals mean that address is blocked on the network.

2. Confirm the Wallet Is Valid

Same command, both platforms:

curl -v https://licenseserver.callassoftware.com/status.json -H "X-Wallet-ID: 00000000-1111-2222-3333-444444444444"

HTTP 200 with a JSON block listing cartridges and sessions confirms the Wallet works.

3. Test the CLI Licensing Handshake Directly, Bypassing Switch

Mac:

/Applications/callas\ pdfToolbox\ Server\ 17/cli/pdfToolbox --licenseserver=licenseserver.callassoftware.com --lsmessage=00000000-1111-2222-3333-444444444444 "<profile>" "<test.pdf>" -o=/tmp/test_out.pdf

Windows:

"C:\Program Files\callas pdfToolbox Server\cli\pdfToolbox.exe" --licenseserver=licenseserver.callassoftware.com --lsmessage=00000000-1111-2222-3333-444444444444 "<profile>" "<test.pdf>" -o="C:\temp\test_out.pdf"

A completed output file confirms licensing works at the CLI level. Any remaining issue sits inside Switch’s own configuration, not the network or the Wallet.

Two Errors Worth Knowing Before You See Them

“No License server found” almost always means port 1400 is blocked somewhere between your server and callas. It is very rarely a Wallet problem.

“Not serialized (no valid serialization found or keycode expired)” means the licence server address and Wallet ID aren’t reaching pdfToolbox at all, usually because one of the two fields in the Properties panel is missing, mistyped, or Switch hasn’t been restarted since the flow was saved.

Why This Is Worth Getting Right Now

SaaS licensing is where prepress software is heading generally, not just at callas. If your business runs pdfToolbox inside Switch, it’s worth having someone confirm the network path is genuinely open on port 1400, with no inspection sitting on it, rather than finding out the hard way during a live job on a deadline.

If you’d like a hand checking your Switch and pdfToolbox configuration, or want the network requirements confirmed with your IT provider before you switch a production flow over, get in touch.