Grace Period & Past-Due State

What "Past Due" Means

When a recurring charge fails (expired card, insufficient funds, a bank block), Paddle flags your subscription as Past Due. At that moment:

• Your license keeps working immediately after the failure.
• A red banner appears at the top of your account dashboard with a "Review billing" action.
• Paddle automatically retries the charge three times over the following week.

The Grace Window

You have a 7-day grace period from the first failed payment. We email you at day 0, day 3 and day 7. During the grace period:

• All desktop features continue to work normally.
• Your license keeps working offline for up to the usual 7-day offline period that applies to every subscription.
• You can update your payment method at any time from the dashboard — once it succeeds, the subscription flips back to active and the retry cycle stops.

When the Grace Period Ends

If the payment has not been recovered by the end of the grace period:

1. Your access ends. The license stops being usable, and the desktop app drops into read-only mode on its next license check — you can still open CueSync, browse your shows, and audit your rig, but new cues cannot fire to protocols. If a show is running at that moment, the change is held back until the show ends, but only for a limited time.
2. Your dashboard banner tells you your license is paused until the payment goes through.

If the payment is still unrecovered at day 14, your license key itself is deactivated. We email you to confirm, with a direct payment-update link. Paying the outstanding amount restores it, at any point.

Recovering From Past-Due

From your dashboard:

1. Click Update Payment Method on the Subscription card (or Manage Billing under Billing).
2. Enter new card details (or a PayPal / other Paddle-supported method).
3. Paddle charges the outstanding invoice immediately. Your subscription flips back to active within seconds, access returns, and a license key deactivated at day 14 is restored.

If the recovery charge also fails, try another payment method or contact support.

Confirming Your Identity

Opening Manage Billing or Update Payment Method asks you to confirm your password again, as cancelling, resuming or changing plans does (see Confirming Your Identity). If you are asked to turn on two-factor authentication first, that article explains why.

Still Stuck?

Contact support if:

• You've updated the card but the subscription stays Past Due for more than 30 minutes.
• You received the deactivation email, the Mac has been online for a while, and CueSync still isn't read-only (the change applies the next time it checks in, and is held back while a show is running).
• Your card is being declined but your bank says no block is in place.