TeamViewer thinks I’m using the software commercially!

[mssalem77]

The same exact thing has happened to me!

[randypetersen]

Trying to help my Grandmother make a card on her computer. So painful to try and help her over the phone. Teamviewer helped out so much being able to see her screen and help her. So much that I got it installed on my friends and aunt/uncles computers. 12 computers in total. 

Now I can connect to my Grandmothers machine for like 5 seconds before I get booted off for 20minutes, and I am not exaggerating, it's not 30seconds, it's 5 seconds. 

Now, I know I could go to a different free service, but I'd prefer to just keep using teamviewer since it's all installed and ready to go. I am not opposed to paying some money to be able to use the service to connect to my friends and family. However, I can't afford $50/mo to help them out once every few days... Do they have a plan that's $20/year that is for non-commercial usage? Maybe not so many features? 

Any advice? 

[ilikethat44]

I am wondering how many people over the last couple of month expirienced the disconnects and the claim you are using the program comercially. Lets give credit to the company that they created a good product and ther commitment for none comercial fee usage. Thats said there is 2 reasons so many people complain, either your programmers **bleep** and cant detect comercial usage reliable or your marketing department decided it is worth **bleep**ing of the free usesers if you can convert 10% of them to paying customers. Neither is an acceptable practice. As they will ignore or brush people off who complain the best way is to force the issue. If you feel that you are wrongly prohibited from using the non comercial version, reply to this treat and if we have enough intrest we can look for a law firm who likes to take on class action cases. The profit they made from converting those free users will be gone faster then they think. 

[Grilledcheese92]

Yeah, Im leaving. I cant stand this. I use teamviewer to shut off my pc's and do updates on them. Im not going to pay for this. The way im using teamviewer, IS NOT COMMERCIAL. SEE YA! 

[Zat4]

Have also used for years.  Have submitted forms & logs to 'certify' non compercial use a couple times.  I use it solely to access a couple of PC's that push CWOP (Citizen Weather Observer Program - operative word "Civilian") weather data to the web from our residence and a cottage a couple states away.  Oh and to support my wife and her home computer.  Was fine a week ago, but now get connections shut down after a minute.  If I wasn't sketchy last week (and twice TeamViewer verified personal user), why am I starting this morning?  Love the product, but enough is soon to be enough...

[Steve-in-FL]

I am as frustrated as anyone with the situation, but I have had success in filling in and submitting the forms noted on page one of this subject. If you have not tried the form, I suggest you do so. I have 13 IDs that I use - some are local on my home LAN and some are in friends' homes, reached via the Internet. I submitted a form for each ID and 12 of the 13 are working correctly. The 13th has been an on and off issue. See my post, below (search for FORM WORKED!), for more details and EDITs as the situation changes.

To those looking for an alternative product, I have no specific recommendations, but I did a comparison and found most of the competitors are lacking in features that TeamViewer Free has (contact list, notification of logon, for examples). For that reason, I will not change unless TeamViewer becomes completely unusable for me.

Good luck!

[mikee]

It happened again. I have a computer that switched to insider builds (on its own and then said trial has expired) When I did a full settings uninsall and reinsall everything was normal. But today once again it is on Insider and trial has expired even though it says free in the interface. What is going on and how to stop it?

[Closed account]

Hello. I only use TeamViewer for personal use. It is now telling my that it has detected business use, and that I need a commercial license. How can I fix this?

[Rykros]

Same here. How can we fix it?

[phoenixop]

Just this morning, I am receiving the following in a dialog box.

Connection blocked after timeout

Your license limits the maximum session duration to a partner, immediate reconnects are blocked. Please try later or upgrade your license.

Connections to this partner will be blocked until (time shows here)

What is going on. I have a free license and have been helping my girlfriend with her computer and phone. Have not had this problem until this morning.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike

[peacefulcheast]

I have used TeamViewer to access my phone from my school which is at a remote location for personal use, and it has worked just fine up till this point. Yesterday it began thinking I was using TeamViewer in a commercial enviroment, and now times me out after 5 minutes, and makes me wait 10 minutes before re-establishing the connection. I hope this can be fixed.

[lagolad]

I am having this same problem as of this morning. I'm using TV from work but TO my home, with only a few computers listed on my account. Please fix this. I stopped using TV a while ago when the site was breached and only started using it again recently. Would hate to have to find another solution.

[Sharv]

If Teamviewer is detecting your use as commercial, and you're actually only using it for personal reasons, you need to fill out their form here: https://www.teamviewer.com/en/support/commercial-use-suspected/

Then hope they get back to you in a reasonable time and believe you.

[lagolad]

Yeah, I've done so, but this is stupid. I'm looking for a replacement.

[Sharv]

Agreed, and same.

[edawen]

I wonder if I tripped a security mechanism or something because I think I fell asleep waiting for it to something. In anycase It's not like I do much with TV, mostly It's to maintain mom's PC. She has problems getting the telephone on and off of loudspeaker so the computer can be a bit of a challenge for the luddite in her.

[removed per community guidelines - Sales/Solicitation policy]

Thanks.

[Valorian]

I only ever use teamveiwer for my own personal use. and this website just keeps redirecting me in circles not letting me send a ticket and just taking me here. so im making this post in hopes of getting my account unflagged, because its extemely annoying 

[genekornegay]

I'm a free user for 3-4 years.  Recentlly, I started getting the 'suspected commercial use' popup and after a sort use, the system timed me out and went into a 10-15 minite hold.

Have submitted request to unblock followed by a completed and signed 'Declaration of Private Use" on 9/10/19 to which there is no response.from Teamviewer or the Community.

My use is personal to remotely access my main desktop and occassionally to assist family members and a few friend.

What can I do as it seems I am being ignored and maybe this is Teamviewer's way of pushiing away 'free users'>

[Johnhoward28]

After years of using teamviewer to help my elderly parents with PC problems, I started using the QucikSupport app last week to help them with their Android smartphones.  Now my account is blocked for "Commercial Use" after a single use of the QuickSupport app. 

Just be warned, people.  You use the QuickSupport app, you lose your free license. 

[cevat]

The software said I'm using it in commercial.
Actually I using it for games, can anyone please help?

[peatey]

Everyone should file an FTC complaint here: https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/GettingStarted#crnt

TeamViewer is claiming to be offering a free personal license, but based on the volume of comments here, they are no longer actually doing so. They are not responding to requests to fix the problem, and just leaving everyone high or dry.

File a complaint with the FTC - I did, and will continue working to resolve this issue.

[steven_oharra]

Your form does NOT work. I have been trying to resolve this issue with Tech Support for MONTHs now (and yes, I filled out the form, emailed it, and got confirmation the account was reset  (BUT over a month after that email, the account continues to be frozen with the same commercial use suspected. Useless support. This product is CLEARLY not free.

I ONLY use it to access my home machines within my internal home network.

Never for business use and only for helping my daughter once every couple of months (or at least I used to until a few months ago. Countless emails to TeamView and calls were a wasted effort. Never have they replied except once several weeks ago saying the account was reset when in fact it still has not been done.

[peatey]

It's a joke. I love that it tells you 5 minutes and the connection is terminated in 30 seconds or less. I barely have time to connect before it kicks me out. I am literally just trying to install a competitor product so I can access my home computer away from home; I'll need to do it over about 20 sessions distributed every 15 minutes or whatever the lockout period is.

[Steve-in-FL]

I am trying to EDIT a prior post to keep the information up to date. The EDIT command no longer shows up. How can I EDIT this post?

Thank you.

[What_no_Sound]

Same problem.

Both side are using the latest version. 

Nothing Sloved!

[Locutus43410]

Okay, so I used the form to request a review of my account over a week ago, and have gotten *ZERO* replies.

Here's the situation:

I have an IBM x3550 m3 server at home, it has Dual Xeons, and approximately 10tb of attached storage. It runs Windows Server 2012 R2. (Apparently the fact that I prefer to run a SERVER OS on SERVER hardware is the issue, here? **bleep** nonsense is this?)

I use this machine as a media storage server, a PLEX server for the TVs in my house, and for myself and my partner when we're traveling, and as a Minecraft server for my friends and I to play on together.

NONE of this is for commercial/monetary use. NONE of it.

I need to log into the server to update PLEX and apply an update to the Minecraft server, but you guys keep kicking me off after 2 minutes, and won't allow me to reconnect for 11 (who picked that number?) minutes.

Can this *PLEASE* Be fixed?

[Johnhoward28]

It seems that a lot of people are reporting this issue in the last week. is there a problem with teamviewer that is causing this?

[Hevytrevy]

I guess I'll have to find a new remote program. I'm absolutely NOT using teamviewer for commercial use. I don't even have a job! **bleep** is going on?

[Falcor]

Got a similar situation myself. I got a home server for personal game hosting with friends and family. No income at all comes in from this server. Not even donations. Flagged awhile ago and have yet to get a response from the review request. Honestly the lack of contact and the instantenous punishment for using their product for personal use is driving me to use literally anything else. 

[knightryder]

I get a message that commercial use detected when I use it on my own personal computer, but not my wife's. It seems to think it is used in commercial environments. Wont let me use it more than 5 minutes, and wont let me reconnect until after a certain time has passed. How do I fix this? 

[knightryder]

Of course I find https://www.teamviewer.com/en/support/commercial-use-suspected/ after i submitted this. This should be more evident somewhere and not had to jump through so many hoops to get stuff settled. 

[jho2222]

For the past several months, I have been using teamviewer  without a problem to help my son and my grandchildre with school and family issues. A few days ago, I began getting messages that I will be blocked because of commercial use. Since I began using  Teamviewer nothing has changed in the nature of my use of teamveiwer. 3 days ago, I did a Teanviewer reset. Yet, the commenrcial use message  persists. I am retired and have no commercial interests. 

[CGoldstein]

I have the exact same issue. I tried contacting them, but they never got back to me.

[Chak]

Same boat here.  I do use my corporate PC to access my home PC.  For any work related items I use my work services like **Third Party Product** or **Third Party Product**.   I can see where they might be confused, but in this case it is totally legitimate personal use.

[Tinypocket]

Same here, happened just now

[jhayes_tucson]

I am a retired guy running a non-commercial license to use TeamViewer to run a remote telescope.  I was recently kicked off TeamViewer as a suspected commercial user so I appealed and was reinstated.  Now I have a month-long trip coming up and I'd like to leave my PC at home and run the telescope using an iPad Pro.  Will simply installing and running TV from my iPad kick loose another round of being kicked off of TV again?  The first time I was kicked off was for no good reason and now I'm skitish about doing anything that's going to restart another unnecessary hassle.  It seems that the trigger for suspending service is extraordinarily sensitive so I've mostly switched to using Chrome Remote Desktop most of the time but that might not work for the iPad.

Thanks for whatever guidance you can provide.

[drhouse]

Can I please have my account reset?  I have submitted the form.

[Johnhoward28]

It may take a few days.  I subbmitted the form three days ago and just got my free acount back today.  

[Johnhoward28]

I got classified as commercial because I used the Quick-Support Android app to help my dad get uber rides on his phone while traveling.  I submitted the for and after three days I got my free status back.

I think everyone must understand that TeamViewer is a for-profit company and we do not have a RIGHT to use their software for free for private use.  I am actually very impressed and grateful that they do offer it for free for personal use.  Very few other software companies that produce professional software do this.  I wish Adobe would stop charging private users, professional prices for their software like TeamViewer does.

I suggest that you submit the form and explain your case.  

[scvaldez]

I turned in a Declaration of Private use form today. How long does it take for it to be reviewed?

I use Teamviewer to monitor my son's laptop as he attends online public school. His ID was flagged for commercial use and we are trying to get it set back to a free account. 

[RunyuTang]

But I am not！

[Bschomaker]

So for some reason, my free account which I use MAYBE 5 times a year has been locked down because “your account Seems to be used in commercial environments”. I literally have my home computer, my laptop, my moms computer and my in-laws computers on them. How do I get my account corrected?

[RsRetro]

Today for the first time it happend to me when I was helping my wife. What is the name of the form we need to submit? Please share... 

Thanks in advance...

[Johnhoward28]

@RsRetro 

Here you go.

https://www.teamviewer.com/en/support/commercial-use-suspected/

[RsRetro]

Thansk @Johnhoward28 

For some reason the form is not responding when entring teamviewer ID. I am trying to type but it does not accpet any characters and continues to show the "______". Even if I blank out the field it does not work and keeps showing the message that "This is a reqauired field." which I understand. 

CORRECTION / UPDATE: Figured out that I have to give numeric TeamViewer ID of the remonte device I was helping with. I have submitted the request and hoping that it will be resolved in next three to four days... 

[ScratchMang]

Currently TeamViewer determines commercial vs Non-Commercial usage based solely upon the source and or destination IP Address. I suspect it's a simple check to see who the IP of the Source and Destination is assigned to and if it's not assigned to a residential service (Like Shaw, Telus, Verision or AT&T) it simply considers it as a commercial IP and shoots out the five minute warning or simply drops the connection.

And fair enough. However, Universities and other educational establishments fall afoul of this as they also seems ot be considered "Commercial" for whatever reason. Perhaps someone needs to look at and or update the Algorithm to take into consideration that Students attending a University (Living on Campus) are NOT commercial. 

[Steve-in-FL]

<<Currently TeamViewer determines commercial vs Non-Commercial usage based solely upon the source and or destination IP Address.>>

Well, their algorithm can't be that simple. I have 13 TeamViewer IDs and 12 of them are OK. One gets the commercial warning. They all use the same IP address outbound from my location (and they all go to private home on the other end). Why would only one of my IDs trigger their warning? In fact, it is one of 7 IDs that are used within my home that has a problem. There is no difference among the 7 at home.

[ScratchMang]

In my conversations with the "TeamViewer Sales" guys that's how they informed me it works. They split IP Blocks into two seperate categories, Home and Commercial, which IMHO is a pretty narrow view of things as Internet Cafe's, Libraries, Schools, Colleges and Universities, Hospitals even, all seems to fall under the umbrella of "Commercial".

And with over 37,000 Students at the University I work at, it seems a bit of a stretch to be asking them to fork over $500+/year to be able to use TeamViewer.

The real question here is how and why do they consider such institutions as "Commercial" and block TeamViever usage on campus?

And try as I might there's no real way to open a ticket, or speak with TeamViever 'proper' to address the issue either.

[Johnhoward28]

I think the issue here is that we are talking about a free service and expecting paid level support.  Customer support is extremely costly to maintain.  I am glad there is any kind of support and quite surprised that I was able to get my case handled in as short amount of time as it did (3 days).

Another issue is that, as advanced as we are, technology is not nearly as precise and standardized as it needs to be in order for industry-wide simplification to be a reality. I am sure that TV does not want to wrongly classify a personal user as commercial, but the system to determine the difference between them is just not standardized or simple enough for them to be able to 100% accurate all the time.  That is just a reality of a rapidly and ever-evolving techno communication system. Things are just changing too rapidly for any sort of industry-wide standard to get a foothold long enough.  And about the time things start to smooth out, a new technology arises to throw the whole industry in havoc again.  Just think of 5G for example. It is just the nature of the ravenous beast that is technology.  To survive, it must and needs to feed on constant innovation. It's all part of the waste and churn economy of technology.

I believe that TV cares about its free users.  But it also knows that TV is an extremely powerful tool that can be made to make good money and that some people are dishonestly claiming to be personal users but are actually making money with it.  So, they have to have a system in place to keep honest people honest.  Unfortunately, that means occasionally personally users might get caught in their net.  So, they have provided a form you can fill out to have your case looked at by a person to determine if you are legitimate personal users.  But that human person that is looking at your case manually does not work for free and needs to earn a paycheck.  So, the reality is that each time you file that form to have your account loked at, you are cost TV money for a service you are not paying a penny for. 

I am just grateful for the service at all, and also grateful they even have a human CS department that handles request from FREE users.  I own PAID software that does not even have that level of service. 

[ScratchMang]

@Johnhoward28 

No, not really expecting nay level of support per se. I'm looking for some way of addressing a glaring oversight on their end of things where they have only two types of users, "Home" and "Commercial" and from what I was told during my phone conversation with TV it's IP Based.

Although I totally understand their need to ensure that people who are using this softwar3e for commercial gain are in fact paying the licensing fee(s), and I fully support that. The medhodology they are currently using is, well somewhat difficult to comprehend. A simple IP Lookup using the ARIN Database will give you results in none to uncertain terms as to who actually owns a block of IP Addresses. check the "OrgName" and exempt those from the "Commercial" list of IP's they are blocking. 

As I have said, I totally agree with TV imposing the restrictions and doing what they can to get those who are using TV for Commercial Gain to pay the licensing fee(s). I don't however agree with their assumption that Universities and other Educational Establishments should be considered as "Commercial" when they are doing those IP Based checks....