TeamViewer thinks I’m using the software commercially!

[Bankfodder]

Unlike many others here, I can't blame them for dealing with their own software the way they want to. However, I think that the incredibly poor customer service is shocking – especially for a German company which I would have thought would have had a little more empathy and also pride in how they treat people

I'm sure that it is useless trying to reregister or reinstall or use different email addresses. I think that the unique identity number is tied into the machine number of your computer and you would have to find a way of changing or disguising the machine number and then reregistering under an unknown email address – and that might do it.

Alternatively of course, get a new computer.

It would simply be nice if TeamViewer would communicate with people. I don't think that is too unreasonable.

[Bankfodder]

---

@ot4ku wrote:

You should look into sueing TeamViewer. They promise free for non-comercial use as part of their business model. If they're going to offer a free version to individual users it's extremely unethical of them to suddenly tell you that you falsely that you're a commercial user and must pay for a commercial license to continue using their product. I'm not a commerical user. It's false advertising, bait and switch, whatever you want to call it. 

---

Sorry, but I think that this is an absurd suggestion.

There is no basis for suing here. I don't see that this company has made any binding promises to anyone which would then put them under obligation to anyone.

Good manners is a completely different matter though. Some communication with customers and updates as to what is happening would be very helpful and would be normal customer service for most companies

[Closed account]

Agreed Bankfodder.

[Jbib]

Hi Bankfodder

Unpleasant business decision for money, this problem will never be fixed !
[comment removed per Community Guidelines - #9 - Sales/solicitation policy]
Jbib

[joggs]

The support team should be back at work as germany totally **bleep** and are out of this world cup in soccer...

[matrixebiz]

Hello, my computer says I have a 5 minute test of the software but it drops my connection after 30 seconds not 5 minutes. How do i fix this? Thanks

[foufouner]

Bonjour
J'utilise teamVievwer pour prendre le contrôle de mon ordinateur personnel car je suis hospitalisé.J'ai toujours utilisé TeamViewer à des fin personnel et non commercial cependant depuis hier j'ai ce message !!


pourquoi ?

[foufouner]

---

@Jbib wrote:

La direction de TeamViewer à décidé de se débarrasser des utilisateurs à titre privé et personnel qui utilisent leur produit à titre gratuit.
Tu peux leur demander de te rétablir comme utilisateur personnel mais ça mettra un certain temps ... il paraitrait au moins 2 mois, et s'ils veulent bien ?

Jbib

---

Pas cool ca !!

Cependant pour les alternative sous mac j'ai pas trouvé !

[clanmcwood]

Same with me the companmy is trying to scam people int buying their massivly over pricers product for those that would like to use their apparently FREE personal use licience its a joke 

if this was availible for like $10 a month i would buy it dfor personal use with less features 

I have applied for a so called personal licience wit tthier form but i have heard nothing and doubt I will as it is just am excuse to try and get people to pay the full corporate licince 

Will never recommend TV again to anyone as i am disusted with how the copmpany is acting

[clanmcwood]

[comment removed per Community Guidelines - #6 - Just the facts, please]

[lookslikelemona]

I have this problem.

I really like Teamviewer and have been using it to support my daughter and parents as well as maintaining a couple of computers around my house - very useful as I broke my leg recently!

I have previously reccomended TV to my employers. I shan't be doing that again.

It appears to me that TV have been making a vast number of wrong calls in automatically and incorrectly detecting 'commercial' use on non-commercial accounts. So with that it mind I can no longer suggest that this is a reliable solution in a commercial context. This problem has affected me and my family but it would be worse if something similar affected a business.

Just in case it helps, as I have seen little in this thread about what may trigger this issue, in my case this is what occurred immediately before the ban hammer came down:

I used a hotspot on my mobile phone to connect through my usual Surface to my home media server. I forgot to close the hotspot on my phone and simply shut up the Surface.

When I returned home a couple of hours later I noticed that my hotspot was still active, my Surface was still connected to it and TV was still open. I closed it all down and switched to my laptop to connect again to the media server in my property.

I got the notice that commercial use was detected.

Since then, despite being promised 5 minutes of connection time, I get about 1 minute before it closes and then I'm unable to connect for 10-15 minutes. This makes all but tiny tasks impossible and I have been unable to assist my daughter with her homework (she often needs help with Photoshop and Office).

My guess it was the length of the connection, left idle through my hotspot that was flagged.

I've submitted logs, twice. The form submission has been acknowledged on both occasions and I've twice explained the situation at length. I'm now waiting on whatever happens next - although I'm deeply concerned I'm falling into the black hole so many others have descibed. I'm not really seeing anyone say "hey, I filled in the appeal form and everything got fixed".

As things stand, I've got to consider alternatives. There's pain in switching and I really don't want to. But as the window for a possible and uncertain resolution to this issue is so incredibly long I may well have to eat it up and somehow have my relatives install a different solution (I certainly couldn't do it for them inside the 60 second window I'm allowed and that's probably intentional).

Should that happen, TV have lost a fan and a potential customer and turn them from an ambassador to a vocal critic.

[KunjanChauhan]

It is sad to say that after many years of happily using TeamViewer for personal use, for helping friends and family with occasional IT problems and for voluntary community work where every now and again we collaborate using TV, the software has now become unusable for me as well.

I struggle with repeated popups stating suspected commercial use and time limited connections that last less than the time to connect and handshake.  No they do not last 5 minutes!

[comment removed per Community Guidelines - #6 - Just the facts, please]

At this time, I too can no longer recommend "TV".

[AngeloGomes]

I never own a cent with teamviewer... I did use  it to access my computers. Now, their algorithms said I've cheated, as private use.

I would like to purchase the license, but the price is non sense.

Ok, no problem.

[comment removed per Community Guidelines - #9 - Sales/solicitation policy] 

Thank you guys.. you did a wonderful job.

[thduat]

Dear Support Teamviewer,

I use Teamview do support my friends

I have mistake setup Teamviewer version 11 Company on my laptop Win 8. And now this version has expired.

Please guide me change to version personal. I want use version Free.

[bazbsg]

I've now been waiting for one month and two days. I haven't heard anything from my request and my Teamviewer is still useless as it is.

[Thomy22]

same Problem here

[BDP]

Buenos dias

Seguramente hay algún post relacionado con lo que voy a  poner pero no sé ingles y me resulta muy complicado hacerme con toda la información que hay en community.

El problema es que en su día descargué la licencia gratuita para uso no comercial, valorando que se podía por los requisitos.

Desde hace algunos día me salta una ventana diciendo que han detectado que utilizo el programa para temas comerciales (que no es cierto) y que debo adquirir una licencia.

El programa lo utilizo exclusivamente para conectarme al ordenador del trabajo desde casa  (trabajar con documentos, consultar correo electrónico...) o cuando estoy fuera (un viaje de trabajo) pero no saco ningún beneficio económico por ello.

Espero poder resolver este tema o en su caso, la duda, por si interpreté mal las caracterisiticas.

Gracias

[BIOSYS]

Me pasa exactamente lo mismo con la aplicacion de windows. Me dice que hay uso comercial y me interrumpe todas las conexiones. Sin embrago con la aplicacion de Android no tengo ese problema.

Soy tambien un usuario particular, no obtengo benecicio economico y solo lo uso para conectarme al PC de Casa o al Portatil y a mi telefono movil y tablet para mis cosas personales.

[Nawak86]

hello

i'm french and i have the same problem, i use teamviewer for my personnal use and help my friends or family can you help me support ?

Ty

[23Brian]

Hi. Ever since about 1 month ago, I've had this problem with the license: whenever I try to connect with a computer (which is the only one I've ever used for remote control) a message appears telling me that I must buy a commercial license to continue using remote control, even though I only use it on two different computers at home for non-commercial purpose. Is there any way I can fix this?

I already tried unistalling and reinstalling TeamWiever on both computers and updating it to the latest version, but it didn't work.

Thanks in advance.

[atkachuk95a]

[comment removed per Community Guidelines - #6 - Just the facts, please]

[tapok]

Houston! We have problems!!! I am not a company and I use your product solely for personal purposes (NOT COMMERCIAL) Why do they force me to pay (((? 

[Vladimir_Orlov]

Exxx:(((

[sergio-live]

ho lo stesso problema

[GgBridge]

Hello,
I do not use Teamviewer for commercial purposes but only to troubleshoot my friends or family members.
I am stuck after a few seconds.
Could you restore my connection, please?
Cordially thank you.
[ID removed by moderator]

[lookslikelemona]

Update:

I received an email last night telling me that TeamViewer believe me!

(literally, thats what they said!)

So I'm back to a working personal use license again.

Bit of a blip.

[davidpitt03]

I'm still waiting for my reply but even when/if I do get it, it will be too little too late.

Couldn't be without remote access so I have moved over [edited by Moderator]

. Would've happily paid TeamViewer money but they don't seem to want it. Maybe they've got enough, which would be a strange buisness model!

Teamviewer have lost out, i won't be using or recomending them again.

[KunjanChauhan]

This is good news. Looks like they are reviewing usage manually.

[webseodev]

Hello everyone!
I am grateful for the long time of cooperation! I was approached by a free license. It's time to part. I'll buy a similar product for six years at the price of one year of TV. Best wishes and rest in peace.

[Bogmore]

There is obviously a problem with the detection system, can you fix it or disable it for now?
I have a home network and use teamviewer to connect to a Laptop to control things like iTunes and some other things. I once connected via my android phone so I could buy a UK lottery ticket from Spain.

Over a week ago I had the "detected business use" popup, and by the way the "5 minutes" you say you can use is actually 1 minute,  I have contacted supoort via the form and now when I look at the form it says "Be aware that due to a large number of requests from our private users, answering your request may take up to 30 days. Please bear with us."

If a large number of people are having this problem doesn't it suggest that your detection system is returning far too many false positives?  I use 13.1.3629 and have done a full reinstall removing the settings.

Please fix this soon.

[Fathi]

Hello

i have been useing teamviewer for many years Privat, and since last week i get msg that i use it for business but iam not i only use it for privat(my home pc, my laptop, my wifes laptop, my brothers pc and fathers pc)!!!!! and now iam limited 1 min connectionand 10min coldown..help me pls

[owenegan]

---

@lookslikelemona wrote:

Update:

I received an email last night telling me that TeamViewer believe me!

(literally, thats what they said!)

So I'm back to a working personal use license again.

Bit of a blip.

---

How long did it take between your contacting them and their reply?

I saw a reference earlier in this thread about "up to 30 days" to resolve these issues.  It really feels like Teamviewer is more or less arbitrarily cutting off many of their long-time free users. 

The way they are doing this, with no warning, might be giving some insight into Teamviewer's business strategy as well as their business ethics, if that's not an oxymoron.  At least when **Third Party Product** did this a few years ago they had the balls to simply announce they were shutting down their free option. Maybe that's where we're headed here, but judging by the activity in this thread, the way they're doing it seems likely to be generating significant ill will toward the company.  That can't be good.

Of course, it could be a glitch in their commercial-use-detection algorithm, but I wouldn't bet on it...

---

---

Owen.

[Fathi]

no one?

[Wkahil]

why do I get a message saying that I'm using the application for commercial uses while I don't?!

[jslay]

This is getting very annoying! I assume they are just trying to pester to get a license purchase.

[hafeesh]

I also have the same problem 

[Webkikr]

I'm suddenly getting this error as well.

I tried to connect to my son's computer to fix a driver issue and it terminated the connection after 30 seconds stating I was using the free version inside of a professional network.

This is ridiculous. 

[liounite]

Hello, I use teamviewer for many years, to help my family or some of my friends. For several months I have the message that tells me that I use teamviewer professionally, but it is not the case. I use it from my office to connect to my pc at home. Since 2 weeks I can only connect 30 seconds and after I have a message that tells me that the session will cut because the time maximum is exceeded.Evemment it asks me to move to the pro version ... I have always praised this program with my companies some of which have adopted but I begin to ask me the question of returning to **Third Party Product** because the policy of forced buying is starting to become very disturbing at teamviewer.

[bazbsg]

After waiting 33 days and then writing them an email to ask when this would be fixed, they replied to me that they had restored my personal use status. I checked it out and it's working again. One comment in the email might shed some light on this.

"Commercial use is every usage in a business environment. This means, if you use it at work or support customers and colleagues, it will be commercial usage. Therefore you are not allowed to use the free version of TeamViewer in any office environments. As soon as one of the PCs participating in a session is connected to a commercial network (office/school/etc.) it is considered commercial use"

I don't think that applies to me but I'm not 100% sure. I'm not sure how they detect if a PC is in an office or a school. Does it mean it one of the PCs is on a domain instead of a workgroup? That wouldn't necessarily mean commercial use. What if I am using it at work to check my personal email at home??? but if that's how they have redefined the word commercial then it's something to be aware of and careful about.

I notice that they censored one of my posts. So that means they are reading this forum. Would be nice if they also answered.

[Marius2011]

Hy,

I am having the same problem. I use TeamViewer for managing my pc located in my other house, but now I can only connect to it for 1-2 minutes. Is there a way to use it like before, with no time limit?

Thank you.

[Vladimir_Orlov]

Hello!

For many years I have been using TM, I like everything very much, but the second time the protection against commercial use works, I could open the application and explain the problem before, now I need to write here. Dear technical support, please see my account and check it, I do not use your software for commercial purposes. I do not get money for using your software, so I do not make money using your software, can you somehow reset these counters? For example, my phone is suspected of commercial use, I can provide all the logs and photos of the technology I use. I have a lot of computers at home, in a country house, a garage, there are video surveillance systems, mikrotik routers, cisco access points that are used for personal purposes. I hope you will help me, have a good day.

[DjBepy]

Since today, I have the same problem. If I start the connection, I get the message "You use it for commercial" and after 1-2 Minutes, the connection will be break and blocked for 10 Minutes :-(

Why? I use TV private for checking my mails or help my wife with outlook or start my son a game. I would also pay for private using, but not so much as commercial using.

[rickyelqasem]

I filled out the appeal form 9 days ago and yet one of my machines still complains about commercial use. I don't want to because I like using TV but at some point, I'm going to have to consider an alternative. 

[MichaelDAustin]

This morning, for the first time in the many years I've used TeamViewer for personal use while also recommending it for commercial use. I encountered the same problem. TeamViewer incorrectly and unreliably disconnected my remote session, claiming the software seemed to be in commercial use. That is incorrect. TeamViewer also incorrectly believes that my antivirus software is out of date. I've used TeamViewer for years and need a reliable personal connection method between my smartphone, desktop and laptop. I will now shop for a different software as TeamViewer just became unreliable.

[Eipok]

Hello,

Same thing here... Using it for just family and friends no matter the computer, I have been marked as Commercial Usage which make that the connections only last 5 minutes...

I have just texted to the following link to turn my account clean again: https://www.teamviewer.com/en/support/personal-use-verification/?_ga=2.12725431.1271782355.152993032...

Hope I get answered soon...

Regards

Guille

[MichaelDAustin]

TeamViewer quotes a 30-day response time in their personal license inquiry website window, to turn around their reply to requests to again grant personal licenses. I didn't hold my breath ;-)

I'm a former professional LAN architect and administratror. These days for personal use I have a desktop, a laptop and smartphone. Today, in around an hour's time I've accomplished these things:

1.) I looked at software reviews on the web, and especially in iTunes and on PC magazine's website, for remote desktop connection software which works easily with both iOS and PCs, and,

2.) Chrome Remote Desktop is both free and easy to use. It accepted a multi-digit PIN which RoboForm tells me has 132-bit security. I've already tested Chrome Remote Desktop successfully between my iPhone 7 running iOS 11.x and my PC desktop. In one sense it actually worked more easily and smoothly than TeamViewer's somewhat fiddly command interface:  pinch, swipe and touch controls worked easily and intuitively.

I'm now done with TeamViewer. I very much appreciated using it for around 15 years for personal use, and enjoyed that their company used to be smart about how they made their money from large-scale commercial use. But they have clearly changed. Just like Secunia eventually failed to have a working personal patch software.

Now, onward, upward, and happily :-)

[Swearingin]

I just got this. I'm using it on my home computers, only within my home, I own no "commercial" business, I'm a student. Now all of a sudden, after years of using it, teamviewer says i'm commercial and won't let me use it. I guess it's time to switch back to **Third Party Product**. Whoever you have snooping and determining something going on is commerical is off their rocker. But fine.

[hendybear]

Same here, apparently I am suddenly on a ""buisness network"" when sat at home trying to help my elderly father!

[BGhandi]

Same problem, I was on a guest network at the hospital were I was visittting, is this so wide spread that everyone is included?

Hopefully not to long before this will be cleared. Though no helping others untill this is cleared. 5 min, is actually somewhere areound 30 sec til 60 sec.