Personal and Corporate account interaction

sswksph
sswksph Posts: 1
in General questions

I have used a personal Teamviewer account for years, and I know have a corporate account at my job.

I have the corporate account logged into on my work laptop, and my personal account at my desktop.

I receive a pop-up msg now that "corporate use" has been detected, whenever I log in from my desktop to my work laptop.

What is the recommended way to accomplish this? I do not want to use the corporate account on my personal desktop, but I would really like to be able to remote in to my work laptop reliably.

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Answers

  • mbaria
    mbaria Posts: 3

    I think I have a similar issue.  I use my corporate account on my work computers and my personal account on my home computers.  Occasionally, I need to connect to work from home but cannot - my home workstation's TeamViewer throws a message about not having a valid corporate license.  From what I can tell, this ONLY happens if I SIGN-OUT of my work computer. 

    Plan A - If I just LOCK the work computer with TeamViewer logged-in and running, I can connect with my personal account from my home computer (my personal account is WhiteListed on my work computer). 

    Plan B - If I forget to LOCK and accidentally SIGN-OUT, I use TeamViewer on my work cell (Android), login to the mobile app with my corporate account, and then connect to my work computer, login to the workstation and get TeamViewer running under my corpoprate account.  Then disconnect the mobile session and use my personal account on my home computer.  I really don't like having to do this but I haven't found any other fix.

    Plan C - **DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK** ... The first time this happened I was using TeamViewer 11.  I tried using my corporate account on my home workstation and while this allowed me to access my work computers,  it immediately caused problems with my accounts/workstations licenses.  I don't recall specifics but subsequently, TeamViewer no longer worked on one of my accounts/workstations and constantly gave a licensing error.  I had to have TeamViewer support resolve this and was told NOT to do that anymore as mixed-use like this was NOT supported.  The support person went as far as to recommend I consider bringing home one of my corporate devices dedicated for corporate TeamViewer to allow me to remotely connect to work.  When v12 was released, I was trying to decide whether to upgrade as this issue was almost a show-stopper for me.  I talked to a sales rep and was told that my scenario should have worked, but I haven't wanted to risk trying again.

    If you or anyone has a better solution, please share ... the cell phone workaround (Plan B) works ok, particularly since I have to have my cell phone nearby anyway so I can access my authenticator app (two-factor authentication), but the extra step of logging in via mobile just doesn't seem necessary.

  • Scotty
    Scotty Posts: 493 Staff member 🤠

    Hi sswksph,

    Thanks for posting,

    I am sorry, but the free version of TeamViewer cannot be used on a device that is used for commercial purposes. Connecting to your work laptop is acommercial purpose. So you can use your corporate account to connect reliably to your work computer (As this is commercial use and must be licenced), But this will still stop you from using the free version on your home laptop at some point.

    So although I understand that some of your usage is commercial and some is personal, The only way for us to create a system that splits commercial and personal use on one device would be to monitor the content of your connections which we will not do as it is a violation of privacy.

    I am sorry, and I know that is a hassle, but if we made it based on accounts, people who were cheating the system would just switch to a new free account when they expired.

    I am sorry I could not offer a solution for this, but this is the limitation of the free version.

    -Scotty

    Senior Moderator
    Did my reply answer your question? Why not accept it as a solution to help others?
  • IzzySM
    IzzySM Posts: 0

    Hello!

    I've used TeamViewer for non-commercial use for a lot of years, since it all started and I've enjoyed it since!

    However, I recently started working for a company who uses TeamViewer for commercial use and that's where the problems have started.

    I uninstalled my current TeamViewer install and installed it again and choose "Both" for what my use is, Commerical and non-commerical.I've got a private TeamViewer account which I'm using for controlling my other computers at home and helping family members and I also got a commercial user from my company which I'm using to log in to help customers of that company. This all worked for a week until now when I'm currently getting this message when I'm trying to remotely connected to my computer at home from a Samsung Galaxy S8+: "Blocked because commerical use suspected", and the currently inlogged user on that home computer is my private user.

    I kind of understand the message, if I would be logged in with my commerical license, but I'm only using that license a few days a week at most, and I'm logging out from my personal/private account when I'm using my commerical account to help customers, otherwise I'm always logged in with my private/personal TeamViewer account.

    Is it not possible to use it in this intended way, I can't really understand the option to choose "both" when installating TeamViewer if so. Or do I have to do something to get it working the way I've described?

    Best Regards

  • kynexx
    kynexx Posts: 1

    Hello,

    I have a Laptop that I use for business and private purposes. For business purposes I have a company-provided business-licensed TV account. For private use I have a private, free account.

    When I want to use the private account to access private devices, I receive the error message, that the free trial expired and I have to license the account.

    I am neither willing nor allowed to access private devices with the company-provided, licensed account.

    How can I use both accounts on the same device? Do I have to create a new user profile in the operating system?

     

  • Fightzgamer
    Fightzgamer Posts: 2
    edited April 30

    Hello,

    I have a free account but i also have a work account. For some reason when i log out of my mork account and back in to my free account Teamviewer says it's in trial version.

    Is there some way for it to go back to free version? and why is this happening?

    Best Regards

    Kenneth

  • smirnovovich
    smirnovovich Posts: 1

    Why can't you use some kind of connection between the two like for example laspass does...

    Just create a corporate account with license and then link the personal account. Explained here:

    https://enterprise.lastpass.com/nl/getting-started/link-personal-account/

  • luconsta
    luconsta Posts: 1

    Hello,

    I have a mixed environment on my PC:

    Commercial Version 9 - because of my company

    Whatever last version when helping my friends.

    Unfortunately TeamViewer disconnect me when using the personal environment because "I have to buy a licence". How can I use the same PC for this two environments?

    Kind regards,

    Lucian

  • AlanW1
    AlanW1 Posts: 157 [Former Staff]

    Hi, luconsta

    Thank you for posting in our community.

    Unfortunately you cannot use one device for a mixed environment.

    Commercial use is defined on a device basis because we can only track the usage based on devices. Otherwise it will be meaningless for us as TeamViewer account on the device can be easily switched from one to one. 

    Once a device is classified as commercial use, free version will be no longer available on it.

    Thanks for your understanding.

     

  • YW
    YW Posts: 2

    Hello,

    I'd like to ask a follow-up question.

    Say I have computer A, B, C1, C2.
    A is a commercial computer with teamviewer license.
    B, C1, and C2 are non-commercial computers at home without license and installed with "personal usage".
    Only B's teamviewer is logged in with a teamviewer account.

    In this situation, can I:
    (1) use B to control A, C1, and C2?
    (2) use C1 or C2 to control B? (This was the scenario asked in the original post and the answer was no in March 2018 but I'm not sure whether it's fixed by the production management team.)

    Explanation: B is my main personal computer, C1 is my phone, C2 could be a personal computer from any of my friend.

    Thank you,
    YW

  • Scotty
    Scotty Posts: 493 Staff member 🤠

    Hi YW

    Thanks for posting.

    A is commercial. So you cannot use the free version to connect to it at all from any of the other 3.

    You cannot cross free use and commercial use. And as A is a commercial device, you cannot connect to it from the free version, you must utilise the license.

    The only thing to remember is that if you are connecting to a commercial device, you need to be using a license and a device cannot be used for both commercial and free purposes

    -Scotty

    Senior Moderator
    Did my reply answer your question? Why not accept it as a solution to help others?
  • future_evolium
    future_evolium Posts: 3

    I wonder how a device can't be used for both accounts private and commercial as soon as at installing there is the existance of selection both? What that "both"  propose is?

  • Scotty
    Scotty Posts: 493 Staff member 🤠

    The "Both" button is there to remove any "Grey" zones.

    The free version does not cover any amount of Commercial use. So the "Both" button indicates you are using it commercially. This will start the Commercial trial the same as the "Commercial" button.

    This way if people are going to be using it both commercially and personally, it is clear that this is not covered by the free version.

    The free version of TeamViewer cannot be used on a device that is used for commercial purposes. So although I understand that some of your usage is commercial and some is personal, the only way for us to create a system that splits commercial and personal use on one device would be to monitor the content of your connections which we will not (and can not) do as the connections are end-to-end encrypted.

     It would also not make sense for us to only track the usage by accounts as they can be easily deleted or replaced, also the software can be used without an account.

    -Scotty

    Senior Moderator
    Did my reply answer your question? Why not accept it as a solution to help others?
  • future_evolium
    future_evolium Posts: 3

    I didn't know anything about limitation (gray buttons) in the case of free version, but if you say that this is the big difference and you can't find a solution to be solved between two type of using commercial and non-commercial I give you a hint. Deliver two software one free and another one commercial, they should be totally different but it will be clear which software is used and for what propose. You should see that this mix between commercial and non-commercial really created a problem in thousands of users using teamviewer. At this moment I'm locked with free account.

  • StephenMetcalfe
    StephenMetcalfe Posts: 1

    I have to agree with above comments. I have an old private account, and my work account (licensed) - with different email adrreses, obviously. Using the licensed account has made it impossible to use my private account.  I connect to literally one device at home with this one, and you can understand why I wouldn't want this device on our company list.

    I see the comments about letting the developers know. Surely you can see the use case here, especially when a company uses shared connection lists.

  • JiHoonPark87
    JiHoonPark87 Posts: 1
    edited May 2023

    evaluation version expired Title message is NOT changed after purchasing license ....

    ( registered license my company PC )

    so I can not conntect my company PC in my HOME ...

     

  • PDSTORY
    PDSTORY Posts: 4


    I have 7 PCs.

    PC1(Office Laptop / for Work)
    PC2(Home1 Desktop / for Home Entainment and Homework)
    PC3(Home1 Desktop / for Home Entainment)
    PC4(Home1 Desktop / for Home Entainment)
    PC5(Home1 Desktop / for Home Entainment)
    PC6(Home1 Desktop / for Home Entainment)
    PC7(Home2 Desktop / for Home Entainment and Homework)

    I have bought and activated Remote Access Licenses to PC1,PC2,PC7 for work and Homework.

    All Works or Homeworks are done from PC2/PC7 to PC1, or vice versa.

    All Home Entainments are done from PC2/PC7 to PC3/PC4/PC5/PC6, or vice versa.

    Recently, everytime I connect from PC2/PC7(Remote Access License) to PC3~PC6(Free License), teamviewer shows message "you or your partner commercial use suspected"

    Was it a License Violation for mixed purpose like this methods?

    Should I have bought additional Remote Access Licenses on remainder PC3,PC4,PC5,PC6 for the purpose of personal use?

     

  • Yuri_T
    Yuri_T Posts: 2,249 [Former Staff]

    Hi @PDSTORY,

    Thank you for your post.

    The free version of TeamViewer cannot be used on a device that is used for commercial purposes. So although I understand that some of your usage is commercial and some is personal, the only way for us to create a system that splits commercial and personal use on one device would be to monitor the content of your connections which we will not do as it is a violation of privacy.   The free version can only be used in private environments. Unfortunately because of the business use on your device, it is classified as a commercial environment and it will be unable to use the free version.

     Hope this information will be helpful.

    Best regards,

    Yuri

    Former Japanese Community Moderator
  • PDSTORY
    PDSTORY Posts: 4

    As recent Teamviewer community POLL

    Are you sometimes working from home?

    Yes - I am working full time from home Votes: 169

    Yes - round about 50/50 Votes: 145

    Working from home

    https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/Special-discussions/Working-from-home/td-p/50587

     

     

    Is it possible for us to split Commercial Use and Personal Use on HOMEWORK environment?

    I think devices with simultaneous commercial and personal use must have Remote Access Licenses applied, and there should be no limit to devices with Remote Access Licenses communicating with free licensed devices for personal use.

     

    Current team viewer licensing policies have problems with working at home.

     

  • Brausmith
    Brausmith Posts: 1

    I too am now stuck in this private vs commercial situation. What a terrible design decision.

    The sad part about it is that TeamViewer is trying so hard to determine if a connection is commercial, that in doing so they **bleep** over some of their more loyal commercial customers who would also like to occasionally use it privately.

    Here's my use case. I frequently travel, and at times my wife at home has PC issues. While I am sitting in my hotel room I need to be able to provide some private remote tech support.

    What a mess.

  • ChrisDC
    ChrisDC Posts: 1

    Agreed, this is a problem. I sometimes need to connect to the office, using our commerical license. I would log into the commercial licensed account, and log out when done. I'd like to use my personal account to control other PCs in the household. I obviously can't do that or run the risk of my personal machine being flagged. A machine that would never be connected FROM a commercial device, although that would not flag anything. You guys need to solve this.

  • aaronthynne
    aaronthynne Posts: 3

    Hi,

    I use Teamviewer for both work and personal. I have two accounts, my corporate licensed account and my free personal account for home.

    How do I get the two to co-exist happily without triggering the dreaded "commercial use" lockdown.

    I'm not sure adding my Grandmas PC to my corporate account is the right thing to do, but then I can't help her from my work PC when she phones to say her knitting website isn't working. (once I log out of my licenced version, my free account locks up because it's fair that I do use my PC it for commercial use - detection is working correct)

    How do I get both address books and accounts to be active at the same time?  Or as a better question, how have you been able to solve this issue?

  • aaronthynne
    aaronthynne Posts: 3

    Hi, Thanks for this. I suspected as much.  Yes, your assumption of both accounts on the same device is correct.

    As a follow up clarification then:  If I work to migrate all my families PC's to my commercial license (and stop using/close my free account), how can I keep these away from my team members?  They don't need to see my Grandma's PC in their list of shared devices.

    Am I correct in assuming that if I add them into "My computers" (no cloud icon), that these will remain private to me only?  (and then I configure the remote agent security settings to suit - need to figure that bit out)

    As an aside, can I add a feature request to support dual accounts in a future version?  If I ever leave this company, unclipping my Grandmas PC from the old company is a pain :-)

  • JoshP
    JoshP Posts: 905 Senior Moderator ☑

    Hello @aaronthynne,

    You are correct in regards to groups with no cloud.

    As long as the devices are in a group you are not sharing to anyone else (as indicated by no cloud icon), only you can see the devices in this group.

    I will forward your feedback as a feature request as well; although I cannot say if or when such a feature could be added, we appreciate your feedback!

    Josh P.

    Senior Community Moderator

    ---

  • ns1234
    ns1234 Posts: 1

    Hello - I have learned I now have a similar issue. I have been using my free personal account without issues for years. My girlfriend then started working remotely for her employer and they set her up with a TeamViewer account using their commercial license. TeamViewer was already installed on my home PC for my free personal use, and so my girlfriend logged into her provided commercial account through the same TeamViewer installation on the home PC. We were not aware of these limitations, and now it appears I cannot use my free personal account as it now thinks this is an expired commercial license. From researching/troubleshooting, it looks like the only way to get around this would be to change my system MAC address, which indicates the device MAC address is likely used to associate specific devices/accounts to either a free or commercial license. Because my home PC MAC address has now been associated with a commercial account provided by my girlfirend's employer, my personal account is now also flagged as a commercial account. I would like to ask if TeamViewer support could assist with fixing this on my personal account, so that I can cleanly re-install the TeamViewer software and continue using my free personal account as I had for years. Then, now that we know of this compatiblitiy conflict, we will be sure to not use a commercial account on the home PC moving forward.

  • mbaria
    mbaria Posts: 3
    @ns1234 wrote:

    Hello - I have learned I now have a similar issue. I have been using my free personal account without issues for years. My girlfriend then started working remotely for her employer and they set her up with a TeamViewer account using their commercial license. TeamViewer was already installed on my home PC for my free personal use, and so my girlfriend logged into her provided commercial account through the same TeamViewer installation on the home PC. We were not aware of these limitations, and now it appears I cannot use my free personal account as it now thinks this is an expired commercial license. From researching/troubleshooting, it looks like the only way to get around this would be to change my system MAC address, which indicates the device MAC address is likely used to associate specific devices/accounts to either a free or commercial license. Because my home PC MAC address has now been associated with a commercial account provided by my girlfirend's employer, my personal account is now also flagged as a commercial account. I would like to ask if TeamViewer support could assist with fixing this on my personal account, so that I can cleanly re-install the TeamViewer software and continue using my free personal account as I had for years. Then, now that we know of this compatiblitiy conflict, we will be sure to not use a commercial account on the home PC moving forward.

    It sure sounds like the same issue.  I hadn't heard about the MAC address work-around but it doesn't sound like one I'd want to deal with, even if it worked.  

    BTW - This thread was from 2017 and there have been a few versions of TV since (now on v14) and I believe some licensing changes as well.  I hadn't heard if anything had changed regarding mixed-use but I've since been using a dedicated work computer to TV to work.  It's inconvenient but it's probably the better solution anyway (keeping work separate from personal is always a good idea).

    ... HOWEVER ...

    I think the TV version and type of license are a factor.  I hadn't tried this in a few years but our corporate license was moved to a subscritpion a few years ago which I believe ties our corporate license to the TV login, not the device/software ... which in theory, could make the license more portable.   As a test, I just tried logging-out of my corporate TV workstation and logging-in to TV using my free personal account and it worked fine.  I was then able to switch back to my corporate license without a problem.  I'm running TV13.2.26558.

     

     

     

  • Fuzzosaurus
    Fuzzosaurus Posts: 1

    I am having this same issue and as the teamviewer account admistator for my company. I am having a tough time deciding to keep our subscription running if they can not manage to handle such a simple and common situation. I was about to upgrade our account to a higher pricing teir but there are plenty of other remote connection software out there. Not to mention the fact that this situation has been happening for over 2 years and no attempt at a solution has been made. 

  • Erwin1234
    Erwin1234 Posts: 3

    This thread may be old but the license problems with mixed environments have only increased so it seems. I never had problems before but with the recent version of TV the commercial use detection got very picky. I have asked multiple times to unlock my free personal license that I use to connect to my home computer using my work laptop but it was never unlocked or it immediatly re-locked again. I even got multiple replies from TV support that it was an error my free license was blocked. But in the mean time nothing has changed.

    I dont want to use my commercial license on my home private computers and I cannot use my free license on my work laptop to connect to my private computers anymore like I did for years. So looking to migrate to another solution now.

     

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