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

fenderman said:
lol, why do you think its compromised. Looks like a server failure as explained by bp2008 earlier.
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Server failure for umpteen hours?!?! Some of us aren’t computer geeks & rely on BI for their security system. And we pay enough money for support every year! So not having a backup system in place is worrysome!
 
f13dfx said:
Server failure for umpteen hours?!?! Some of us aren’t computer geeks & rely on BI for their security system. And we pay enough money for support every year! So not having a backup system in place is worrysome!
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Yes it happens. Jumping to conclusions with zero factual basis makes no sense.
You pay nothing for support. If you think 30 bux a year for updates is a lot you have not seen what others charge. Yes he should have had a better system in place that would allow the pc work for a few weeks in the event of a failure. Personally none of my systems are affected. You should have an alarm system. If this worries you that much I suggest you look into alternatives to BI - there are SOOO many. Why not put your money where you mouth is? There is a also a TON of free open source VMS available. You pay nothing and there is no license to worry about. Try them. Lots of threads on various options.
 
fenderman said:
Yes it happens. Jumping to conclusions with zero factual basis makes no sense.
You pay nothing for support. If you think 30 bux a year for updates is a lot you have not seen what others charge. Yes he should have had a better system in place that would allow the pc work for a few weeks in the event of a failure. Personally none of my systems are affected. You should have an alarm system. If this worries you that much I suggest you look into alternatives to BI - there are SOOO many. Why not put your money where you mouth is? There is a also a TON of free open source VMS available. You pay nothing and there is no license to worry about. Try them. Lots of threads on various options.
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These other “no license” software is what’s keeping my family’s surveillance system afloat right now!
 
Mine also did this at exactly 6am this morning on live view and recordings. The 'About' tab showed my expiration date as the last time it expired. I looked in my email for the last key code and it fixed it.

The message on the screen about evaluation was an inconvenience, sure. But it did not render Blue iris unusable or anything. Even if the overlay remained. I've been using BI since 2019 and this is the first real issue I've had with this very low cost software. Not too bad.
 
This is my first issue as well, for the complexity of the software, ease of use, update intervals and polishedness of the software.. the extended license ot whatever is actually a bargain after fumbling around with free stuff or chinese nvr mystery blob software.
 
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Does anyone know how I can reinsert the license key? What do I click to insert the key again? The current registration key is the same one I've always had but it's still showing the evaluation version watermark.
 
So I got a reply from the software company. And this is what I was told.
" Each license or maintenance key includes 1 year of updates. You have installed a version that's "too new" for your current maintenance. Unfortunately at this time due to a server failure, we don't ourselves have access to any older versions, but perhaps you have saved an older installer that you may use if you don't choose to renew maintenance."

Out of frustration, I just paid the 36 bucks since a week of typing the license key numerous times per day was too annoying. After all, it is a great product. I did not save all the installation files so I was kind of beat anyway. I don't understand how I can have 2 new of a product. If my subscription was expired, how did I get it?
 
You can download the latest version of BI all day long and use it in eval mode... no key required.

If you bought version ABC.8.9 on Jan 1, 2022 and by Dec 31, 2022 they release 15 new versions with the latest being version BCD.3.7. Your key will allow you to 'unlock' those 15 versions... even if it is two years later. This is dependent on you having any/all of the specific 15 installers that were released between 1/1/22 and 12/31/22. Trying to use your circa 2022 key (that was not renewed) on a software version released in 2023 will not work.

IPCT has quite the collection of the BI versions released over time:

Blue Iris Updates (64 bit) - Updates

ipcamtalk.com ipcamtalk.com

edit: if you can correlate your original purchase date with the archive of releases in the IPCT archives, you should be able to use your original key to re-install the older version.
 
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FlipNJ said:
So I got a reply from the software company. And this is what I was told.
" Each license or maintenance key includes 1 year of updates. You have installed a version that's "too new" for your current maintenance.

If my subscription was expired, how did I get it?
Click to expand...


We see this all the time here. Someone is moving to a different computer and they download the latest BI from the website for the new computer, but they are on an older version on the original computer and haven't paid the renewals, so bam they get the eval copy.

@SpacemanSpiff is correct - you simply go to the latest update prior to when your purchase expired, you are good to go. As he linked, fortunately IPCT keeps every update download.


FlipNJ said:
So I got a reply from the software company. And this is what I was told.

" Unfortunately at this time due to a server failure, we don't ourselves have access to any older versions."
Click to expand...


This is what I kinda worried about - did the server failure mean the Ken lost his working copy of the most recent version of BI and he will have to recreate everything added going back to when he was able to restore the server?

I am not sure how the software works or any software development in general - can he take the most recent version that he issued and "get into it" to manipulate it and make changes, or did he have a different version that he makes changes to and then pushes a button to create the version that goes out for sale/updating?

We haven't seen a new update since this happened and I hope it is simply because he is busy trying to get everything else going and figure out the solution so this doesn't happen again, but part of me is concerned that he now has to work from a year old copy of BI to update?
 
He won’t have done his development on the public facing web server, that just wouldn’t make any sense so I’d personally assume that his source code and version control is safe.

I think he’s probably fending off all the support tickets related to systems going into eval mode, wonder how many new and support licenses have been sold in the last year or so?
 
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