DocumentationExperience Cloud KCS

AEM 6.5 LTS license prompt appears when starting Quickstart JAR locally

Last update: July 27, 2026

This article explains how to resolve the issue when a license prompt appears when starting the AEM 6.5 LTS Quickstart JAR locally due to a missing or unrecognized license file.

Description description

Environment

  • Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) 6.5 LTS (all platforms)

Symptoms

  • When starting the downloaded AEM 6.5 LTS Quickstart JAR file locally, a license prompt dialog appears.
  • AEM doesn’t proceed to start until a valid license is provided.

Cause

The AEM Quickstart JAR requires a valid license.properties file in the same directory to start. If the license file is missing or invalid, a license prompt will appear.

Resolution resolution

Follow the steps below to resolve the issue:

  1. Locate a valid license.properties file from a previously licensed AEM environment.
  2. Copy the license.properties file to the same directory as the downloaded AEM 6.5 LTS Quickstart JAR file.
  3. Start the AEM Quickstart JAR by running the JAR file as usual (For example: java -jar cq-quickstart-6.6.2.jar).
  4. Verify that the license prompt no longer appears and AEM starts successfully.
  5. If issues persist, check that the license.properties file is valid and not corrupted, and ensure there are no file permission issues preventing the JAR from reading the license file.
  6. If the problem continues, contact Adobe Support for further assistance.
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