Blue Iris suddenly says it's in evaluation mode, and I have no more days left.

J Sigmo

J Sigmo

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Feb 5, 2018
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OK. I'm probably to blame for this, but:

I have been running BI4 for a few years. It's worked fine, so even though I paid the extra to extend my "maintenance" or whatever it's called, so I could upgrade to 5, I haven't gotten around to doing it. Summer is the busy season where I work, and with 80 hours a week of work, I haven't felt like messing with a system that works fine.

That is until a day or two ago. BI suddenly stopped responding on my phone or other devices, so I finally went up to its dedicated Win10 PC, and found that it must have done an update and restart. Fine. So I tried to fire up BI, and it gives me the form where I'm supposed to purchase it or click "demo" again to continue my evaluation. But it also says I have only 0 days left to evaluate it.

So, did I mess up by waiting so long to do the update to version 5? Am I screwed?

I don't even really mind paying again for it because it's such a great deal. But I really shouldn't have to, should I?

What's the best, easiest way to get things running again. I'm cameraless. :)
 
Many threads on this - the program always was designed to provide updates for a year after purchase unless you renewed but up until a recent version, it was not enforced. You can simply roll back to an older version prior to your expiration date, or pay to get current.

You may also have some issue with going from BI4 to BI5, especially if your system did it under an auto update...

Accidentally upgraded to a version that is now evaluation?

Apparently I upgraded to version I have to pay for. All my camera screens now show Blue Iris Evaluation Version. Is there any way to go back without paying for an upgrade? I'm sure I probably accidentally clicked the wrong choice when I upgraded, but it should have been clear that this was going...
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J Sigmo said:
OK. I'm probably to blame for this, but:

I have been running BI4 for a few years. It's worked fine, so even though I paid the extra to extend my "maintenance" or whatever it's called, so I could upgrade to 5, I haven't gotten around to doing it. Summer is the busy season where I work, and with 80 hours a week of work, I haven't felt like messing with a system that works fine.

That is until a day or two ago. BI suddenly stopped responding on my phone or other devices, so I finally went up to its dedicated Win10 PC, and found that it must have done an update and restart. Fine. So I tried to fire up BI, and it gives me the form where I'm supposed to purchase it or click "demo" again to continue my evaluation. But it also says I have only 0 days left to evaluate it.

So, did I mess up by waiting so long to do the update to version 5? Am I screwed?

I don't even really mind paying again for it because it's such a great deal. But I really shouldn't have to, should I?

What's the best, easiest way to get things running again. I'm cameraless. :)
Click to expand...
When you purchased the extended maintenance you got 1 year of updates. At version 5.2.6.5 the developer started enforcing an old rule Bi4 rule that required extended maintenance for minor updates. There is a bug (i think its resolved if you are already running a recent update) that allows you to update even if your maintenance is expired but puts you in eval mode. This likely happened to you when you installed BI 5. You should be able to revert back to 5.2.6.5 and it will revert back to the licensed version.
 
Well, I'm worse off than that. I have never installed 5. I'm still (or was still) running 4.

I've just not had the time and inclination to do the upgrade to 5, especially after reading all of the thread about doing the upgrade. It looked like I would have to do a lot of messing about to get things running again after the update, and I didn't want to set aside the time to do it.

So although I purchased the extended "maintenance" or whatever it was called, I never did the update to 5.
 
J Sigmo said:
Well, I'm worse off than that. I have never installed 5. I'm still (or was still) running 4.

I've just not had the time and inclination to do the upgrade to 5, especially after reading all of the thread about doing the upgrade. It looked like I would have to do a lot of messing about to get things running again after the update, and I didn't want to set aside the time to do it.

So although I purchased the extended "maintenance" or whatever it was called, I never did the update to 5.
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Then it should not have stopped working - the license for both 4-5 are lifetime. I would email support.
 
fenderman said:
did you try using your original key?
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Nope. I will give that a try. But it's pretty odd that after all of this time, it suddenly did this. Again, I'll blame MS's update for changing something that BI uses to determine if the program was licensed. I hope it doesn't do a full re-install and wipe out all of my camera setups and other settings.
 
J Sigmo said:
Nope. I will give that a try. But it's pretty odd that after all of this time, it suddenly did this. Again, I'll blame MS's update for changing something that BI uses to determine if the program was licensed. I hope it doesn't do a full re-install and wipe out all of my camera setups and other settings.
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it wont reinstall by simply entering the key.
 
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Hmmm... just looked and my version of 4 expired 2.5 years ago. ; )

No same eval effect though.

Don't feel bad. I did the same thing. Bought 5 long ago and still haven't set up it or a new server that I got to put it on yet.
 
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OK. Entering my old key seems to make it run, and it claims that I again, have full, unlimited use of the program.

Now, I probably need to buy the upgrade somehow again and get my butt in gear and actually install it this time! :)

Thanks, everyone.
 
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J Sigmo said:
OK. Entering my old key seems to make it run, and it claims that I again, have full, unlimited use of the program.

Now, I probably need to buy the upgrade somehow again and get my butt in gear and actually install it this time! :)

Thanks, everyone.
Click to expand...
If you never entered the upgrade key, then it should give you a year from the date you enter it so you may not need to buy it again.
 
I wonder where I'd find an upgrade key. I have the key for the original purchase stashed in a text file, and I have a PDF receipt for buying the extended support and maintenance. But that was over a year ago! There's no key anywhere on that receipt that I can see. It's a PDF that they emailed me after I purchased it.

But as I said, I'd be willing to just buy it again. This program is well worth the price.
 
J Sigmo said:
I wonder where I'd find an upgrade key. I have the key for the original purchase stashed in a text file, and I have a PDF receipt for buying the extended support and maintenance. But that was over a year ago! There's no key anywhere on that receipt that I can see. It's a PDF that they emailed me after I purchased it.

But as I said, I'd be willing to just buy it again. This program is well worth the price.
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Its been a while since I ran all the upgrades on my system so I dont quite remember. I think its emailed to you as well as displayed at the time of purchase. When does it say your extended support expires in the about tab? Is it last years date or this year? I dont even remember if BI4 lists the expiration date.
 
And it shows "Version 5 eligible" in green letters. So maybe I'm still good to go to do an upgrade (if I dare). :)
 
So, if I click on "upgrade/renew", will I then have my work cut out for me for a few days? Or will it just install over my existing installation automatically these days? When I was following the thread about upgrading, it looked like it might take a bit of work to be sure you didn't screw up and lose all of your settings and camera profiles, etc.
 
I was worried about upgrading just like you. So I waited for things to calm down. And then I got busy doing something else and just never had the time since I thought it would take hours.

Well when I finally did the upgrade, by following the instructions on the upgrade thread here, it only took a few minutes. It was no big deal.

But realize that I never deleted the old version either. Saw no reason to do that.
 
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