Blue Iris forgot its key and hung while trying to do latest update

[erkme73]

I'm wondering if anyone else saw this happen with the most recent update (4.7.6.2 x64)...

I tried to log into the server using UI3, the app, and default.htm, and all timed out. When I logged into the server with TeamViewer, I found this screen:



After finding my key, I entered it, and BI opened fully. At that point, I was prompted about a new update - which I accepted. This time, it updated completely, and re-opened.

However, after I closed the console on the server, I was prompted "Are you sure you really want to exit BI"... and that is a message you only see if you are NOT running BI as a service. Since I never run it any other way, I went to the settings page and re-ticked "Run as Service".

I have no idea what happened on this latest update (or maybe it was a Windows 10 update that borked it), but I've never seen BI "forget" that it was licensed, or have it revert to executable (vs. service).

I've already sent an email to Ken, as I would think he'd like to know this is happening. Especially when the net effect is a non-working BI installation that requires the user to locate and re-enter the key - something many people would not be able to do quickly or remotely.

 

[looney2ns]

Windows 10's lastest spring update has indeed caused BI to lose it's key.
It happened to me and others, in my case it borked all sorts of things. Messed up BI tools, Dahua sunrise/sunset was deleted as a service, settings changed in BI, cameras I had deleted from BI a week prior cam back with no signal, and one rouge "newCam" was added. The last one I've had occur a few times.

 

[erkme73]

Gotta love M$. Never had these issues with Win7.

 

[awsum140]

My WinDooohs 7/64 hung with the update today. Had to shut down BITools, restart manually then apply the update manually. Something is funky with the latest update, 4.7.6.2

 

[bp2008]

I installed 4.7.6.2 on two systems so far, both Win10 and both went without issue. Neither of them has this new spring update though, that I am aware of.

 

[Frankenscript]

I pause MS updates on my system, using the feature that lets you turn them off for up to I think 35 days. Then I let it take the update while I babysit, and check functionality after. So far it has worked, but I think the next time I update it will get the big spring update so I'm worried.

As to BI updates, I use the "ain't broke, don't fix" philosophy. I never take an update until it has been out enough to have sufficient others vet it. I do the same thing for my media server (Emby). Works for me.

 

[looney2ns]

I'm "this close" to disabling the Win 10 update service. Bastards.

 

[Tinman]

I had no issues with 4.7.6.2 x 64 installing as well, but I am still running 1709 W10 build. I am definitely not going to do the spring update yet. I have heard it also screws up Quickbooks on some online features. BTW in case you want to control what updates you want, this method has worked great for me :

blue iris suddenly a memory hog and at 100% cpu usage

This is helpful as well:

How to block the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, version 1803, from installing

 

[Terk]

Not sure why some people's BI looses the registration key and others don't, My BI server updated to 1803 fine with no more impact to BI than missing recordings for the ~40 minutes the reboot part of the update took. BI was up-to-date at the time, that was about a month ago and BI has updated a few times since then.

 

[erkme73]

This is from Ken:

There were some recent Windows updates which changed the OS enough to trick Blue Iris into thinking it was a NEW OS, and this may cause a deactivation.

The behavior that's new at startup after an update is the extraction of an included "UI3.ZIP" file. Maybe depending on the system, OS, drive, this takes longer than it should. The client is waiting only 30 seconds I believe for the service to respond before it says there's a problem starting the service. The client then disables the service to hopefully give you an opportunity to startup at all.​

Sound like a valid reason to me. Hopefully a one-off event.

As for disabling updates in Win10, good luck with that. I know there are detailed steps that can be taken to try and turn off the update services, but I've tried nearly all of them, and over time, the updates resume. That, of course, doesn't address the actual NEED to remain current with security patches given all the ransomware things as of late.

 

[bp2008]

Yeah it would actually be nice to just prevent a BI machine from accessing the internet and make it only accessible by VPN. Then no windows updates and for the most part no vulnerabilities to worry about.