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Thread: VCM Editor showing ?unlicensed vehicle?

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    Tuner in Training OverNightPartsFromJapan's Avatar
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    Thumbs down VCM Editor showing ?unlicensed vehicle?

    Hey guys, im hoping someone may be able to provide some insight for me. Ive submitted a ticket to support as well. I?m trying to tune my 2013 ford mustang 5.0, and when i try to flash a file ive already licensed, i get the message ?unlicensed vehicle?. When i try to flash my cars stock file i get the same message. I feel like ive tried everything under the sun to resolve this. I?m using an MPVI pro unit. I was using HP vcm beta 4.3.231 when it happened, i updated to 4.3.240 and got the same results. I uninstalled the program completely, rebooted the pc and installed the newest beta again with the same results. I then uninstalled the beta and installed the newest full version and got the same results. Ive tried deleting the license.dat file from the hp tuners setttings, ive tried resyncing the interface, and also made sure only one valid application key is listed, my application key matches my paperwork and also the one under my account on the HP website. Ive never purchased new credits aside from my kit so i dont believe i would have a new key anywhere, ive deleted and re-added the app key as well. Im kind of stuck at this point and not sure what to do? It will read the file currently on the car but will not flash anything at all. The car will crank and run on the current tune. Nothing weird has happened like an interruption in tuning or loss of voltage or anything. If anyone could point me in the right direction i would really appreciate it!

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    ive had this happen for multiple reasons. number 1: was the vehicle originally flashed with a different mpvi? the new mpvi2 does not honor your old licenses for mpvi1. number 2: did you do a ''copy all'' on a tune file and then flash the car? if so, make sure your vin still matches up and if not, that's your problem. its possible to license another file over your own file and if that happens, they make you license the new file as well to correct this. number 3: pull and Infolog with your mpvi connected and that should restore licenses that may have disappeared after an update. any more questions email me at [email protected]

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    Tuner in Training OverNightPartsFromJapan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cyle_greenhill View Post
    ive had this happen for multiple reasons. number 1: was the vehicle originally flashed with a different mpvi? the new mpvi2 does not honor your old licenses for mpvi1. number 2: did you do a ''copy all'' on a tune file and then flash the car? if so, make sure your vin still matches up and if not, that's your problem. its possible to license another file over your own file and if that happens, they make you license the new file as well to correct this. number 3: pull and Infolog with your mpvi connected and that should restore licenses that may have disappeared after an update. any more questions email me at [email protected]
    Man thank you for your detailed reply, i really appreciate the input! Im the only owner of the car so its only been flashed with my MPVI 1 pro unit. I think your Number 2 suggestion is pretty close to whats going on. I had my stock tune on the car (that i already licensed). A friend of mine created a tune for me based on a different strategy. When i went to flash his tune it asked me to license it (i figured it would so i did), it flashed on and i cranked the car. Now i?m unable to flash a revision of his tune, or my stock tune back on. Thats when im getting the error. I may be wrong but i think its happening because i havent read his file and licensed it to my vin maybe? I thought when i licensed it when i flashed it i was good to go lol. I think this is what you were talking about by licensing a file over your own right? Thanks again Sir!
    Last edited by OverNightPartsFromJapan; 02-06-2019 at 07:38 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by OverNightPartsFromJapan View Post
    Man thank you for your detailed reply, i really appreciate the input! Im the only owner of the car so its only been flashed with my MPVI 1 pro unit. I think your Number 2 suggestion is pretty close to whats going on. I had my stock tune on the car (that i already licensed). A friend of mine created a tune for me based on a different strategy. When i went to flash his tune it asked me to license it (i figured it would so i did), it flashed on and i cranked the car. Now i?m unable to flash a revision of his tune, or my stock tune back on. Thats when im getting the error. I may be wrong but i think its happening because i havent read his file and licensed it to my vin maybe? I thought when i licensed it when i flashed it i was good to go lol. I think this is what you were talking about by licensing a file over your own right? Thanks again Sir!
    Let me clear it up for you.

    You flashed your buddies file which licensed his OS + his VIN = You can tune his car, not yours at all.
    Now your car is using his OS (now your OS) + your VIN. You must license again = You can tune your car with the new OS.


    This reply quoted above is what you should have posted first and we could have saved you a lot of trouble....
    Last edited by blackbolt22; 02-07-2019 at 06:36 AM.

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    You changed the strategy when you licensed and then flashed your friends file, this means you now have a unlicensed VIN+strategy combo that you must license again. Strategy swaps take up 6 licenses,

    2 to license your stock file
    2 to license the strategy you are swapping too
    2 to license your new VIN/strategy combo

    so you have to read out the file from the car again(bc it's a new VIN/strat), license it, and now you can tune it going forward.

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    Tuner in Training OverNightPartsFromJapan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jn2 View Post
    You changed the strategy when you licensed and then flashed your friends file, this means you now have a unlicensed VIN+strategy combo that you must license again. Strategy swaps take up 6 licenses,

    2 to license your stock file
    2 to license the strategy you are swapping too
    2 to license your new VIN/strategy combo

    so you have to read out the file from the car again(bc it's a new VIN/strat), license it, and now you can tune it going forward.
    Man thank you both for clearing that up for me, i understand now. Would anyone happen to know if once i have his file fully licensed, and he does as well, how would he go about updating mine, or working on future adjustments for me? We live about 4 hours apart. Also, once i fully license his file, will i still be able to swap back to my stock file since its a different OS, but fully licensed? Not that id really want to, just curious.

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    Tuner in Training OverNightPartsFromJapan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by blackbolt22 View Post
    Let me clear it up for you.

    You flashed your buddies file which licensed his OS + his VIN = You can tune his car, not yours at all.
    Now your car is using his OS (now your OS) + your VIN. You must license again = You can tune your car with the new OS.


    This reply quoted above is what you should have posted first and we could have saved you a lot of trouble....
    I'm sorry for the confusion, thank you for chiming in to help!

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    I'm having the exact same issue, so am very interested in hearing your results/solution.

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    So if i read this correctly, if i get sent a tune from someone else, or download it from the repository i need a total of 6 licenses to actually load it on my car? That sounds a bit much!

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    Quote Originally Posted by DB83 View Post
    So if i read this correctly, if i get sent a tune from someone else, or download it from the repository i need a total of 6 licenses to actually load it on my car? That sounds a bit much!
    6 credits. Hence the reason why we don't recommend loading a buddies file or a file from the repository
    It doesn't have to be perfect, it just needs to be done in two weeks...

    A wise man once said "google it"

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    Tuner in Training OverNightPartsFromJapan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill@HPTuners View Post
    6 credits. Hence the reason why we don't recommend loading a buddies file or a file from the repository
    Right, and i surely understand that. In my case i actually needed this strategy swap, otherwise i would've copied the settings from his file to mine. Bill can you tell me if there is any official way for the both of us to use the same file, if licensed? This is a file he has created based on a great strategy, as he updates the tune file i was hoping he could push updates to me remotely. Since i guess we will now each have this strategy licensed for our individual vin, is there any way for him to open and save changes to the file and send to me? What is the easiest way for us to go about this? For future updates and revisions for the same tune we're both using. Is the copy method our only way? Thank you.

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    Since you have his file licensed now and if you already licensed your new file with his OS. I don't see why he couldn't just send you an update of his file and you flash it to your car... you could even write cal since you have the same OS lol. Someone correct me if I'm wrong please.

    All that said, copy paste or copy differences is super easy and would allow you to compare and spend more time seeing the changes he's making so you can learn too.

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    Senior Tuner CCS86's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill@HPTuners View Post
    6 credits. Hence the reason why we don't recommend loading a buddies file or a file from the repository

    Some strategies are a better fit than others, depending on your build. I really think you guys should invest in revising the licensing strategy.

    I think it's wrong to keep charging someone who wants to flash different tunes to the same car. You obviously need to take care of your interests for commercial use, but that will always involve multiple VINs. It's just stifling the tuning spirit by charging credits repeatedly on the same car. If you try a strategy and it's a total failure, or incompatible, you've burned credits for nothing. How is that justifiable?

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    Quote Originally Posted by CCS86 View Post
    Some strategies are a better fit than others, depending on your build. I really think you guys should invest in revising the licensing strategy.

    I think it's wrong to keep charging someone who wants to flash different tunes to the same car. You obviously need to take care of your interests for commercial use, but that will always involve multiple VINs. It's just stifling the tuning spirit by charging credits repeatedly on the same car. If you try a strategy and it's a total failure, or incompatible, you've burned credits for nothing. How is that justifiable?
    I love HP Tuners and am extremely grateful that they support my copperhead Mustang and really any future Mustang I might acquire All that said I agree with this post. There has to be a better way to swap strategies on the same car without buying so many licenses.

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    Quote Originally Posted by CCS86 View Post
    Some strategies are a better fit than others, depending on your build. I really think you guys should invest in revising the licensing strategy.

    I think it's wrong to keep charging someone who wants to flash different tunes to the same car. You obviously need to take care of your interests for commercial use, but that will always involve multiple VINs. It's just stifling the tuning spirit by charging credits repeatedly on the same car. If you try a strategy and it's a total failure, or incompatible, you've burned credits for nothing. How is that justifiable?
    On the other side of the coin we need to be extremely careful in how we handle licensing on fords as to not shoot ourself in the foot when it comes to licensing. MPVI2 owners already enjoy being able to do remote tuning for free(no credits necessary to modify & email files). Additionally Fords only really have two markers for securing licenses, the vin & the operating system, vs GM & dodge which have vins, operating systems & a serial number. If not implemented correctly non scrupulous type folk could take advantage of a generous system and reuse licenses.
    It doesn't have to be perfect, it just needs to be done in two weeks...

    A wise man once said "google it"

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    Senior Tuner CCS86's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill@HPTuners View Post
    On the other side of the coin we need to be extremely careful in how we handle licensing on fords as to not shoot ourself in the foot when it comes to licensing. MPVI2 owners already enjoy being able to do remote tuning for free(no credits necessary to modify & email files). Additionally Fords only really have two markers for securing licenses, the vin & the operating system, vs GM & dodge which have vins, operating systems & a serial number. If not implemented correctly non scrupulous type folk could take advantage of a generous system and reuse licenses.


    I understand that it is a balance. I would just like to think a solution exists where everyone avoids being taken advantage of.

    Why do MPVI2 users get to modify and save tunes without licensing the file, but MPVI1 users do not? Is that a permanent thing?

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    Senior Tuner CCS86's Avatar
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    I sent OverNightPartsFromJapan a tune. He licensed it and flashed it. Then he read it out and licensed that.

    But now when he tries to flash a new tune from me, he gets a "controller unlocker timed out" error.

    Any ideas?

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    Quote Originally Posted by CCS86 View Post
    I understand that it is a balance. I would just like to think a solution exists where everyone avoids being taken advantage of.

    Why do MPVI2 users get to modify and save tunes without licensing the file, but MPVI1 users do not? Is that a permanent thing?
    Because MPVI1 is no longer produced and the MPVI2 is, new features and its always an easier pill to swallow an upgrade that will save you $ over the long haul. Yes its permanent.
    It doesn't have to be perfect, it just needs to be done in two weeks...

    A wise man once said "google it"

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    Senior Tuner CCS86's Avatar
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    Bill any ideas on what's going on here:


    Quote Originally Posted by CCS86 View Post
    I sent OverNightPartsFromJapan a tune.

    He licensed it and flashed it.

    Then he read it out and licensed that.

    But now when he tries to flash a new tune from me, he gets a "controller unlocker timed out" error.

    Any ideas?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill@HPTuners View Post
    6 credits. Hence the reason why we don't recommend loading a buddies file or a file from the repository
    Kind of defeats the point of the repository, and in some respects, the affordability and flexibility of HPTuners. I'm sure its written in the small print somewhere, but honestly, had it been clearer to me in the beginning i wouldn't have gone the HPTuners route and would have just got a custom tune.
    I'm not saying give it away for free of course, but 6 credits is a bit much!
    Last edited by DB83; 02-09-2019 at 03:15 PM.