Ahoy! There be news from the blog!
if you are seeing the pictures below on your FreePBX Dashboard:
Help for those searching for “Module Grace Period Started” email source
You may have recently received a message from your FreePBX or PBXact telephone system 
with the below quoted content. This could happen if your system is configured to send you important security notifications via email and unaffiliated third-party services (sometimes mistakenly called “mirrors”) are interfering with official updates, or blocking open source security fixes, tampering with module signatures, backdoor installing unlicensed commercial software, etc., potentially putting your business phone system at risk.
If you are unsure what to do, then please contact us well before the Grace Period Ends 
for further assistance and/or open a support ticket at help.sangoma.com if you recently purchased professional Sangoma update assistance services such as our LEAN upgrade product. 
From: [email protected]
Date: Tue, May 12, 2026 at 3:31 PM
Subject: Module Grace Period Started (some-host.example.com)
To: [email protected]Hi Admin,
Some installed modules have expired but are currently running within the grace period.
Affected Modules
Module Expired On Installed Version Licensed Version Grace Period Ends EndPoint Manager 01 Sep 2025 16.0.97 16.0.89 11 Jun 2026 Action Required
You must immediately renew your license(s) before the grace period ends to use the affected module interfaces and continue receiving security and other important updates.
Please refer to our wiki documentation for more information on renewing your module licenses:https://sangomakb.atlassian.net/wiki/x/XoGjAQ
If no action is taken, then the user interface for these modules will be automatically disabled after the grace period ends.
So, these USED to be 25 year long licenses… did you really pull a 3CX and change that on us? I guess I am confused and this does didn’t help that confusion any.n
@jlizzotte04 Licenses haven’t changed. You can still use any module that you are entitled to based on the maintenance expiration date.
If you’re getting this message it because there’s a version mismatch.
are you getting this message?
yes, some of our systems use the Clearly IP mirror.
So Mike are you guys literally stating that after the grace period you have code in place that will literally disable a module on someone’s premise PBX. What happens when you disable a module that gets into dependency hell and now for example you break their ability to place a simple call to say 911??? I think we all need a clear answer here on what happens when the grace period ends.
@tonyclewis We’re not disabling the module- full details are available on the blog post.
yes, you effectively are disabling them, by disabling the way we access and manage them.
“If no action is taken, then the user interface for these modules will be automatically disabled after the grace period ends.”
Please do not follow through with this.
My experience here is if you are using the standard Sangoma mirrors, once your license expires you will not receive any further version updates on a module but it won’t be shut off.
Somehow? the ClearlyIP mirrors allowed people to receive newer versions of commercial modules even after their update license expired.
The “walking the plank” reference implies software piracy which I doubt was the intention here. Some users got “free”/unauthorized updates by using the third-party mirror. Is that accurate?
Perhaps @mwhite @penguinpbx should have contacted ClearlyIP about this before bringing the hammer down on the users. Just my opinion…
Hi @billsimon as always, I appreciate your feedback.
Just to add a bit of context here, the licensing and entitlement checks around commercial modules have actually been part of FreePBX for a long time.
What’s changed is that we’re giving users better visibility around version mismatches they may not even realize exist, while also helping make sure systems stay aligned with supported module versions, upgrade entitlements, compatibility, and platform security.
This isn’t about shutting systems off… Users impacted by this change have had advanced notice along with clear instructions on how to resolve issues if needed.
That said, I welcome anyone with questions to reach out to me directly if they need assistance. Our support team is also well equipped to help answer questions on the topic. If users need help, Sangoma is here to assist.
I wouldnt really consider a month “advanced notice”. I would assume most of us here have more than 1 or 2 PBXs that this impacts, and we aren’t new, we understand its because you’re losing potential revenue. This reminds me of the tricks 3CX does and people leave them because of such. Just my 2 cents.
There were several links provided in the past couple of weeks in a related topic post – links back to previous forum posts from a decade ago that explain how the module renewal process works:
TL;DR If you were always using official Sangoma FreePBX mirrors with current commercial module support/upgrade renewal purchases, then nothing should’ve changed with your experience.
yes, i understand, this is the way to force people to use your mirrors, or to stop the module from working. again, not a good look.
Outside of internal development, Sangoma commercial software for FreePBX is always only originally available via the official Sangoma mirror servers. Any other distribution by third parties would need to be done in accordance with the terms of the EULA or some other similar contractual arrangement with Sangoma. If you believe that Sangoma commercial software is being offered to you in violation of these terms, then please reach out to the legal department via one of the mechanisms described at sangoma.com/legal.
The new restrictions being implemented on commercial modules with Forbidden License Errors are on the ability to visualize the state and make configuration changes within that specific module. The rest of the modules’ functionality remains unchanged, as discussed previously in this topic. Users who find themselves in this situation should immediately log in to their portal.sangoma.com accounts and verify the support/upgrade purchase status for the commercial modules in question. Once up-to-date with licensing/renewals and running on the official Sangoma mirrors, then these errors should disappear and functionality restrictions should be lifted automatically.
I’m confused, reading the blog post and this particular thread. Single company user here. Not a reseller with lots of customers. I’ve never purchased a commercial module, although I was considering just a one-time purchase of the System Admin module. To make it easier to configure things outside of just using the CLI.
According to what I’m reading, this isn’t necessarily a one-time 25 year purchase. I can understand that if I don’t participate in renewals then I miss out on maintenance and security updates. So I’m stuck at the version that I purchased. I get that. But if I don’t proceed with renewals, then this one-time 25 year purchase is effectively disabled from being managed through the dashboard UI?
While I won’t say this ranks up there with the VMware evolution I had to deal with, it certainly isn’t the best look if what I’m reading is indeed the situation.
No, you can keep managing that old version in the GUI for the duration of your 25 year license term (unless there were some other EULA violation e.g. you reverse engineered the module – but that is probably out-of-scope for this discussion.)
The Forbidden License Error appears when you are running a newer version than what you purchased support/upgrades for.
For example – this is the sad path:
- Alice buys license from Bob on January 1st, 2025 for module version 1
- Over the course of the year, Bob releases 9 more versions with security and feature updates
- Alice dutifully updates her module to Bob’s latest version 10 on December 31st, 2025
- Alice does not pay the renewal support/upgrade fee on January 1st, 2026
- Bob releases version 11 with a new critical security fix on January 2nd, 2026
- Alice is unable to upgrade to version 11 from Bob because she did not pay the annual fee
- Charlie appears and offers version 11 of Bob’s module to Alice out behind Wendy’s
- Alice installs version 11 of Bob’s module from Charlie without paying Bob!!
- Alice starts seeing Forbidden License Error messages
- After the grace period, Alice is no longer able to use the module web interface for version 11
