Blue Iris 4 to 5 Migration Guide

hotbrass

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I am considering purchasing BI 5. I have paid for BI 4 and it works great. Can I keep running BI 4 running, and purchase BI 5 and run it on a separate computer?
 

gwminor48

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Yes, absolutely. I love BI4, it was always very reliable for me. I upgraded to BI5 although I was very happy with BI4 and had no particular reason to upgrade but BI5 has been good too. I don't believe you would be able to use an upgrade to BI5 to put on a different pc while leaving BI4 on the other one but buying BI new would be no problem. I could be wrong, we'll see what others say.
 
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hotbrass

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Yes, absolutely. I love BI4, it was always very reliable for me. I upgraded to BI5 although I was very happy with BI4 and had no particular reason to upgrade but BI5 has been good too. I don't believe you would be able to use an upgrade to BI5 to put on a different pc while leaving BI4 on the other one but buying BI new would be no problem. I could be wrong, we'll see what others say.
Not upgrading. Buying a whole new license with BI5.
 

wayner

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Is it worth upgrading to V5? I tried upgrading and I don't see much difference.

I am a bit disappointed that the software didn't switch to more of a Windows Standard UI. Is there a good reason why BI deviates a lot from the Windows standard, even for little stuff like the icons in the top right corner of the window for minimize, window and close?
 

fenderman

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Is it worth upgrading to V5? I tried upgrading and I don't see much difference.

I am a bit disappointed that the software didn't switch to more of a Windows Standard UI. Is there a good reason why BI deviates a lot from the Windows standard, even for little stuff like the icons in the top right corner of the window for minimize, window and close?
There are may added features and functions most listed in the help file "whats new" and "update notes" sections. If that is not worth 30 bux to you, I dont know what is.
Why are you disappointed with the UI after purchase, its was available for you to see and test before hand. If the icons bothers your OCD try emailing support and see if he can accommodate your disability, otherwise, there are 50 other vms options to choose from. The developer is one guy and does things his way or the highway.
 

gtj

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Apologies if this has already been answered but I couldn't find any definituve info.

I'm running BI 4.0 for years and now that version 5.0 seems to have matured, I'm thinking to migrate to it.

Should I buy a new lisence or should I just install 5.0 and apply the key of my existing one?

Many thanks and kind regatds
 

mikeynags

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I believe the old key won’t work with V5. I went ahead and purchased separately. Also, my support had expired so I wasn’t eligible for an upgrade.


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gtj

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I believe the old key won’t work with V5. I went ahead and purchased separately. Also, my support had expired so I wasn’t eligible for an upgrade.


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Thank you so much for the response.
My support has expired too so I guess I'll have to buy a new lisence.
 

mikeynags

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It’s definitely worth the price you are paying. I actually built a new machine for it so the V4 machine is now a backup machine and V5 runs on the new pc.


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eggzlot

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sorry in advance - did not read all 19 pages. I did try and search - found others with similar issues but responses were a bit too technical for me.
Started to finally migrate BI 4 to BI 5. Got past the Visual Studio issue and installed those files. now AVG is telling me BI 5 has malware. Ken from BI says its clean and I should contact AVG which I plan to do. Ken told me to check the digital certificates, again I am not super techy, so I read online how to view it, but I do not know what I am checking.

With AVG I can over ride their recommendation and still install the software, but again that gives me great concern.

in 2020 - shouldn't it be easier to install paid software vs having to go to multiple sites to get multiple .exe files and backdoor security programs? I've waited about 6 months to upgrade, figured all the kinks would be ironed out by now?
 

ljw2k

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Just installed BI V5 coming from 4 and all went smooth no problems whatsoever and loving the Weather widget from Mike, well done and worth every penny.
 

1.21 jiggawatts!

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"Step 6) Uninstall Blue Iris 4

After Blue Iris 5 is running correctly, you can uninstall Blue Iris 4 just like you would uninstall any other program. When it asks if you want to delete registry entries and activation, click no. Your registry entries will probably be lost anyway. That is why we made a backup. If Blue Iris 5 has suddenly lost activation, restore your backup."



i followed the instructions exactly. everything was fine in blue iris 5 until i followed this step. after removing version 4, i lost all my settings in version 5 and i lost a few months worth of footage in my "stored" folder, the only thing that wasn't deleted was the protected footage and footage that was about a day old.

i was able to restore the settings in version 5 with the exported backup file.
 

looney2ns

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"Step 6) Uninstall Blue Iris 4

After Blue Iris 5 is running correctly, you can uninstall Blue Iris 4 just like you would uninstall any other program. When it asks if you want to delete registry entries and activation, click no. Your registry entries will probably be lost anyway. That is why we made a backup. If Blue Iris 5 has suddenly lost activation, restore your backup."



i followed the instructions exactly. everything was fine in blue iris 5 until i followed this step. after removing version 4, i lost all my settings in version 5 and i lost a few months worth of footage in my "stored" folder, the only thing that wasn't deleted was the protected footage and footage that was about a day old.

i was able to restore the settings in version 5 with the exported backup file.
Shut down BI, Delete the Database folder, then restart BI. DB will rebuild and your "lost" clips should be back.
 

OICU2

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Hi all, I finally got around to trying the upgrade to 5. Everything went ok except it says I am not licensed now, I tried importing the backup and it still says no license. Where do I go from here?

Edit: Nevermind on the license, I re-entered my previous license and it is now licensed.

How about the web gui? That seems to not be working, do I need to restore something for that ?
 
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fenderman

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Hi all, I finally got around to trying the upgrade to 5. Everything went ok except it says I am not licensed now, I tried importing the backup and it still says no license. Where do I go from here?

Edit: Nevermind on the license, I re-entered my previous license and it is now licensed.

How about the web gui? That seems to not be working, do I need to restore something for that ?
See instructions in the first post. It should be fixed with the new installer, but there are instructions on how to fix it.
 

OICU2

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Got it, had to change the path. The installer did not do it.
 

Rockford622

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Just updated my BI from 4 to 5 and here are a few of my observations:

Followed the instructions on the first page exactly.

1) Exported everything (general settings and each camera).
2) BI5 install went fine. Did this and rebooted.
3) Uninstalled BI4. Specifically said NO to uninstalling registry stuff.
4) Opened up console on BI5. For some reason, it needed the original key. Found this and pasted it in. Needs the original key, not an upgrade/maintenance key.
5) BI5 was now in default settings mode. Strange since I said NO to deleting registry stuff. Imported my general settings export .reg file and everything came back to life. Cameras were now all there.
6) Had to remap location of \www\ directory since my general settings export .reg file was from v4. Did this and the now the webserver worked, no problem.

Just an FYI, this may be mentioned in this thread somewhere, but it is worth stating again. If you run BI as a service and you have BI move your files to a NAS, then you might have modified the Blue Iris Service to logon as a user other than the "local system" user. You will need to add those credentials again for the BI5 version of then Blue Iris Service since it is new. Otherwise, you will probably wonder why your local drive is filling up with clips and not being moved to your NAS.

BI5 seems to be easier on the CPU so far, which is a plus!
 

bohemian

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Took the plunge (again) and this time things went very smoothly. Only real issues were re-adding my support key and changing the service creds (again) so that BI ran as a named user. Other than that, a much better experience this time round.

But I won't be an early adopter for BI6, that's for sure!
 

JayS_IPCams

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Just updated my BI from 4 to 5 and here are a few of my observations:

Followed the instructions on the first page exactly.

1) Exported everything (general settings and each camera).
2) BI5 install went fine. Did this and rebooted.
3) Uninstalled BI4. Specifically said NO to uninstalling registry stuff.
4) Opened up console on BI5. For some reason, it needed the original key. Found this and pasted it in. Needs the original key, not an upgrade/maintenance key.
5) BI5 was now in default settings mode. Strange since I said NO to deleting registry stuff. Imported my general settings export .reg file and everything came back to life. Cameras were now all there.
6) Had to remap location of \www\ directory since my general settings export .reg file was from v4. Did this and the now the webserver worked, no problem.
Strange that the installer hasn't fixed these issues yet :(

Is it worth the upgrade?
 
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