Walking Forum
Main Boards => Gear => Topic started by: April on 12:58:14, 11/10/18
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Today I've had a problem with opening the Lake District map on viewranger saved on my tablet. It is asking me for the license key! The map is already downloaded, I am offline. I can't do anything until I get home. I have no map to look at. This is slightly worrying. If I was out on a fell and this happened you would have no map unless you took a paper one or another device. Has anyone else had this happen?
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That sounds like the actual VR software has decided that it is not activated on that device ( Clearly you know that it is)
Is it possible that you have left you VR account open on another ( or more than one other) device and have breached the number of devices in use at any one time? I agree with you that the worry is that a glitch has occurred which could be extremely dangerous in the wrong time/place scenario.
VR themselves are usually available so hopefully you'll be able to let us know the cause. The effect is not a good an advert for them.
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Hi jimbob
The software was working, I just couldn't open the map. We don't have the map on more than 4 devices.
Viewranger was asking me to go online to access the license key for the map (Lake District) before it would open the map. Or I could have supplied the license key offline, not sure if this is the same as the serial number?
Once I got home and had access to the internet with my tablet, it got the license key from my account automatically and I can now access the map again and also offline as normal.
Perhaps people should take the license key/serial number with them in case this happens on their device if they don't take a paper map (or another device) as backup?
I normally have the tablet as backup and prefer to use a paper map for nav but this is still slightly concerning, I wonder why it happened?
Edited to add
I've just been looking at our Viewranger account on the pc and it seems the license key wasn't for the map it was for Viewranger to work on my device. It is still worrying, I've used Viewranger on that tablet for a while, why would it ask me for the license key now? :-\
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It would be worthwhile contacting VR.
I have found their customer service to be excellent. They may explain it easily or find you have discovered a glitch.
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Even without the licence key though you should have access to the OSM maps. Having said that whenever I'm out walking I have a GPS and VR on a phone so am covered if one fails, on a LDW I even have a spare phone with VR also so 3 devices O0
Will be interesting to hear what the VR team say.
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Even without the licence key though you should have access to the OSM maps.
But in April's situation only if they were downloaded to the actual device?????
I thought you could download to any device but then they have to be re-downloaded (possibly synchronised?)
to the actual device you are using for off line use.
I use my pc for planning then ensure the maps required are downloaded to my smartphone and my dedicated gps smartphone. I use a memory card in each phone also. As time goes on I need to do this less and less because the OS tiles once saved rarely need to be resaved.
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The map was already downloaded to my tablet, I've been using it for ages. I haven't had time to ask VR yet why I would need to input the device license key. I'll see if I have time later.
The long and short of it was: I could open Viewranger but it wouldn't allow me to open the Lake District map without being online to access the device license key automatically or I could input the license key offline. The only trouble is I didn't know it!
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I am using ViewRanger at the moment dumping over 400 routes into it.
I have noticed that in the My Account section there is a button marked "manage devices". If you click on that it will list your active devices. Next to each device there is a button to generate a licence key for that device. Don't know if this helps as the only tablet I have that uses ViewRanger is an I-pad Air and ViewRanger is horrid on it. I use the OS app on my phone with ViewRanger as my alternative.
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By what i can remember when using a Microsoft Windows programme, if the user has purchased the software, they are allowed to download it only a small number of times, using the unique provided licence key.
Its quite possibly you have exceeded your download limit, if this is the case, then contact Viewranger to purchase a new licence code.
All this may be totally unnecessary, and there may be another reason for the tablet error, but every software provider for a Microsoft driven product, will only allow their product to be downloaded a certain number of times.
If the owner could download the software as many times as they wanted, on as many PCs as they chose, then the provider who make no money.
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While interesting that really has nothing to do with VR ;)
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April - a long shot maybe but is it possible that you pressed another button opening the premium maps (subscription) option by accident? That asks for an activation key.
I've just been updating my maps on my "gps phone" and noticed a new little map icon on the screen. Tapping that brings up a premium maps option and pressing again brings up a request for activation code.
Other than that, another thumbs up for contacting VR's helpdesk. They're really helpful and respond really quickly.
Hope you get sorted .... wouldn't fancy wrestling with a paper map this weekend :D
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By what i can remember when using a Microsoft Windows programme, if the user has purchased the software, they are allowed to download it only a small number of times, using the unique provided licence key.
Its quite possibly you have exceeded your download limit, if this is the case, then contact Viewranger to purchase a new licence code.
All this may be totally unnecessary, and there may be another reason for the tablet error, but every software provider for a Microsoft driven product, will only allow their product to be downloaded a certain number of times.
If the owner could download the software as many times as they wanted, on as many PCs as they chose, then the provider who make no money.
I take it you did not read April's original posting then. She had bought, downloaded and used the map on the device previously. Nowt to do with windows licences at all. Just so as you know for the future Viewranger is FREE software. They make their income by selling downloadable map tiles which once purchased and downloaded can be used ad infinitum as can the FREE maps that they also provide. So she was certainly NOT trying to avoid paying the provider
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No software is free, i should know, because ive written individual programmes for barcode scanners.
Software for whatever application takes considerable time and effort to develop and get right for its intended use.
When the user downloads the Viewranger software, they are given permission to use that application for a set number of times, that's what licence keys are designed for.
If anyone here is under the apprehension that the Viewranger software is free, then they know little or nothing about software development.
I designed my own and in conjunction with my partner, wrote and designed individual software applications, for different bar code scanners.
No software is free, the user somewhere down the line has to pay to use it, when their licence key has expired.
How on earth does the likes of Microsost and Apple make billions in revenue from their software, if they designed the software and allowed everyone to use it for nothing, they would be soon out of business.
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No software is free, the user somewhere down the line has to pay to use it, when their licence key has expired.
How on earth does the likes of Microsost and Apple make billions in revenue from their software, if they designed the software and allowed everyone to use it for nothing, they would be soon out of business.
So how much is your web browser costing you? Or your email?
Of course it is not free but that does not mean that you are paying for it. There are other commercial models. If you are not paying for an app, you are not a customer - you are a commodity. Thus the software is free to you because data about you are what they are selling. The more users they have, the more they make.
The ViewRanger app will use this plus of course if you want to use its products you will need to buy credits to buy maps and routes and they make money. Also, by making it free, people like me will store our routes in it, others will buy these routes. If it cost me money, I wouldn’t use it and they would have nothing to sell.
Licence keys have precious little to do with it.
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Some software is completely free like Ubuntu Linux or Firefox web browser. You even get the source code. I don't know about April's problem though, sorry.
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No software is free, the user somewhere down the line has to pay to use it, when their licence key has expired.
Please stick to topics you know about, it would make a nice change. VR software is FREE. It doesn't come with a licence key. It works with FREE mapping. It is limited to a certain number of devices, but it's still FREE and you can't pay for access to it on other devices. You pay for the mapping, but that's because they have to pay for it from OS. No doubt if you do part of that payment goes to help fund VR ... but that's a completely different issue.
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Well Dyffryn if you stuck to the user spec for the software you wrote the same way you research and respond to topics on this forum I take it that your software proved to be be unsuitable.
If I am wrong then it proves you can stick to topic, so why not try it for us as well.
The three replies above this show why you are just wrong about free to the user software.
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If anyone here is under the apprehension that the Viewranger software is free, then they know little or nothing about software development.
;D
The Viewranger app is free to use, it is the OS maps you pay for
I would have a look at the Viewranger website first before you post anything else or you will come across as being a bit daft ;)
http://www.viewranger.com/en-gb/get-the-app
No software is free, the user somewhere down the line has to pay to use it, when their licence key has expired.
My license key has not expired and I am now using the app and map on the tablet again. Strange that I didn't have to pay anything. The maps are already paid for DA.
Thanks for everyone else's help, I still haven't had time to ask VR what might have happened. My original post was misleading because I thought I just couldn't open the Lake District map. The map had been already open from the last time I used VR. It was the device I had to verify for some reason with my license key for it. I will message Viewranger either at lunchtime or tonight to see what the problems might have been.
@ ninthace - I can only seem to access the manage devices thing on my pc and not on my tablet, even if it is online.
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April,
Have you tried going to the web browser on your tablet and logging into the ViewRanger website http://my.viewranger.com/index/ and managing your account from there rather than using the ViewRanger App directly?
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Have you tried going to the web browser on your tablet and logging into the ViewRanger website http://my.viewranger.com/index/ and managing your account from there rather than using the ViewRanger App directly?
No I hadn't tried this :) Yes this would be the same as on doing it my pc but if I was out somewhere with no internet signal I still wouldn't be able to get the license key for my tablet.
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No I hadn't tried this :) Yes this would be the same as on doing it my pc but if I was out somewhere with no internet signal I still wouldn't be able to get the license key for my tablet.
Do it while you have a signal, copy and paste it into your note pad? Assuming it actually generates a number rather than just activating the map.
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Do it while you have a signal, copy and paste it into your note pad? Assuming it actually generates a number rather than just activating the map.
Good idea ninthace, thanks O0 When you click on Get License Key in Your account it brings up 22 rows of numbers. I hope if I ever have to input the license key it isn't all of it and each row is one license key!
I tried to munch the screen on my tablet but I kept switching it off ;D I haven't got the hang of doing that yet. I've saved it all in a draft email so I can get the license key even if I'm offline. I am going to ask Viewranger now what went wrong.
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I got a very swift response from Viewranger Support, here is the reply
"No sign of a new device ID being allocated, which suggests the app's settings were not lost.
So I'd check for any disk/space cleaning apps, if you have one remove it or tell it to leave the ViewRanger folder alone.
Or if it occurs again, try closing; using the Settings app, Apps, ViewRanger, Force stop (or the phone's taks manager to close the app); restart; see if it still needs a key"
I'm not sure if my tablet has any disk cleaning apps, I will have a look. I think they are suggesting it was glitch on my tablet rather than a Viewranger problem :-\
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There is something adrift in ViewRanger’s device management. While it is limited to 4 devices it seems determined to have 4. Thus while I have only ever had one Samsung phone and one I-pad it claims I have 2 of each with different device IDs. It could be a consequence of reinstalling the software at some point but I tried managing the devices on the site and I still seem to have 4. Might have another go although tbh, it’s working, why fix it?
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Hmmm ... I have three devices using VR and 3 listed by VR :-\
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Hmmm ... I have three devices using VR and 3 listed by VR :-\
I got mine down to 2 active now, will see if it stays like that, in which case it was a finger fumble. As I said it, could be if you reinstall the software it sees on old device as a new device. I now seem to have 5 deactivated devices - 3 Samsungs, 2 I-pads and a Nokia phone. There appears to be no way of losing them - the Nokia goes back to the day Pontius was having flying lessons.