Upgrading v4 to v5

[Michale32086]

Is there a link that specifically addresses the cost of upgrading from v4 BI to v5??

[TimG]

Hi Michale32086,

There are a lot of posts on this matter. What do you need to know ?

Basically, if you bought BI4 just before BI5 came out, it would have been a free upgrade. If, more likely, you have had BI4 for some time, then it depends if you already have the extended support package, which would also make it free, but if you don't, then the cheapest way would be to pay for the extended support plan.

Costs for the extended support plan, according to the information actually within BI, are $34.95 for one year, or $29.95 for an annual subscription.

Compared to the full BI5 price of $69.95, this is a bargain.

Does that help ?

[Michale32086]

It does help absolutely..

Thank you much...

Not wanting you to think I was a TOTAL noob but I did search for 'Upgrade Blue Iris' but the phpBB system wouldn't let me search for such a common term as 'upgrade'...

Thanx again for the info...

[bpratt]

Just done the upgrade, exported the v5 data, then uninstalled v4.

Now when I go to import the new v5 backup, it comes up with

Error importing registry key: 5

this is on windows 10

Now I've got no cameras

[reddawg]

Just done the upgrade, exported the v5 data, then uninstalled v4. Now when I go to import the new v5 backup, it comes up with

Error importing registry key: 5

this is on windows 10

Now I've got no cameras

There is a bug in Blue Iris v4 uninstaller that deletes settings in v5, even if you tell it not to. This is why your cameras are missing in v5. The "Error importing registry key: 5" is a problem caused by a permission issue on the a1 key in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Perspective Software\Blue Iris".

You can try two things:

1) Delete the entire "Perspective Software" Registry key & Import settings

a) Boot into Safe Mode with Networking.
b) Using REGEDIT, delete the key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Perspective Software".
c) Launch Blue Iris 5 so it recreates its registry keys. It will revert to DEMO mode.
d) Import your v5 exported settings. They should be in C:\Program Files\Blue Iris 5 folder. If you manually exported, then look for the file "Blue Iris.reg". In addition, you may also find Backup.reg, Backup2.reg and Backup3.reg.

* If you are unable to delete the registry key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Perspective Software" see the following posts:
https://blueirissoftware.com/forum/view ... =497#p1431

2) Re-import settings in Safe mode

a) Boot into Safe Mode with Networking.
b) Launch Blue Iris, go into Settings ->About tab and import your v5 settings. Look for "Blue Iris.reg" in C:\Program Files\Blue Iris 5. In addition, you may also find Backup.reg, Backup2.reg and Backup3.reg.

This is from the README.txt file in C:\Program Files\Blue Iris 5 folder.

If you are upgrading from version 4, a file backup_upgrade_50.reg is created in the
Blue Iris folder. If your cameras and other settings are deleted when you uninstall
version 4, you may re-import these settings using the Import button on Settings.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you exclude "C:\Program Files\Blue Iris 5" folder from your Antivirus as well as you NEW, STORAGE and DB folders in C:\BlueIris. This is covered in the help manual (Blueiris.pdf). See examples:

C:\BlueIris\New
C:\BlueIris\Storage
C:\BlueIris\db
C:\BlueIris\Alerts

[bpratt]

thanks for that, all back to normal again.... fun part was putting windows 10 in to safe mode !

[reddawg]

thanks for that, all back to normal again.... fun part was putting windows 10 in to safe mode !

Glad to hear. I miss how simple safe mode was in Windows 7. UEFI and Windows 10 makes things more complicated. The easiest way to achieve safe mode in Windows 10 providing that your PC can boot is to launch MSCONFIG, click the boot tab and then select Safe Mode.

[terk]

I held off upgrading to v5 hoping they would address some of the known issues in the upgrade process but then realized the issues where on the v4 side and they weren't upgrading that anymore so they were not likely to ever fix the issue of v4 deleting all settings and registration even when you told it to leave them. I finally upgraded to v5 yesterday and did my export from within v5 before uninstalling v4 and had to re-register it after tracking down my original license key and had to import the backup I had just made as well. V4 had a bunch of old MP4 files in the storage directory which it had originally been set to export when moving to stored but I had turned that feature off long ago but it never cleaned them up, v4 seemed to recognize them as it's files so it never said I had over-allocated disk. After getting v5 running it was complaining my disk was 2 TB over-allocated so I had to manually delete all of those MP4 files. It all seems to be working great again now on 5.2.1.4 and my push notifications are working again which is nice.