[German]The Teamviewer may be used free of charge in a private environment. Apparently, however, there are always false alarms claiming commercial use and the software is then blocked, although users are running Teamviewer for private purposes.
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The Teamviewer software can be used both commercially and privately. While commercial use requires a license, private use of this remote maintenance software is free of charge. So far so good.
Teamviewer falsely reports commercial use
German blog reader Christoph W. contacted me the days and told me about a problem he couldn't solve.
I have had a big problem with the Teamviewer for about 2 weeks …
Recently I have been accused via POP-UP window of using Teamviewer commercially and then I am immediately kicked out of the connection.
Curious is, that I only support my two parents (both almost 80 years old) via Teamviewer and that for quite a long time – so far there has never been such a problem.
I already contacted them via form and with the feedback (directly from the Teamviewer, see screenshot)…
Unfortunately no feedback or resetting of my two IDs (PC and Laptop) comes from them. They all have the latest version installed – I suspect some "trigger" in the software that triggers it.
Christoph pointed out that many other people also feel the same way. If you you searche for the keywords: 'Teamviewer reports commercial use', you get some hits.
The manufacturer states the following
On the website of Teamviewer there is an article It appears TeamViewer is being used in a commercial environment, where the manufacturer deals with the topic. There it says:
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TeamViewer is offered free of charge to everybody for personal, non-commercial use – and most of our users play by the rules by purchasing a license if they intend to use TeamViewer for commercial purposes.
However, we have taken measures to ensure that, without an appropriate license, our software is not used for commercial, and thus illegal activities.
TeamViewer includes various anonymous detection methods to check if the software is being used in commercial environments. If you regularly use TeamViewer in such environments, you will see the warning that you probably saw before you came to this page.
The company then gives concrete case studies of what it considers commercial or private.
Examples of commercial use:
- Helping or supporting customers or colleagues at work
- Assisting businesses or organizations, even on a voluntary basis
- Connecting to your company PC or server from your home office
Examples of personal use:
- Helping or supporting friends and relatives
- Connecting to your personal computer at home
Please see our Knowledge Base for an explanation of how we define personal use.
However, I'm wondering how TeamViewer wants to know if I'm accessing friends' or family's systems or the private computer? The company admits that in some cases TeamViewer may incorrectly detect commercial use and restrict connectivity even though the user has not violated the license terms. Then the form commercial use should be used and the constellation of the TeamViewer use including the TeamViewer ID should be communicated.
Former Teamviewer-Developers has created AndyDesk, which may be used free for private purposes. What's your experience with Teamviewer and private use?
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I had my license removed when I was remoting from work to my home server which was running Server 2016 at the time. TV support said that I could run Windows home server and remote into that but they were unaware that it had been depreciated for Server 2016 and basically told me that they couldn't help. I ended up resorting to running a Windows 10 VM and rdp'ing back into my server from that, heavy-handed but did the job, and ironically enough they didn't pick up that is was a virtual machine.
I would have bought a personal license for TV however, it is stupidly expensive for what it is.
I am retired in IT and now I am a sort of free helpdesk for older people who cannot pay for commercial help.
Because I cannot going out anymore I use the Teamviewer to help around 25 people from behind my desk at home.
Almost every 6 month I get that stupid message that they think I am a commercial user and every time a send them a message that I am not.
Why is there not a good administration for this at the Teamviewer office.
Err, that is essentially commercial use – as the article says, even if its volunteer / unpaid.
TV Personal is really only for yourself, family, and MAYBE some friends.
What part of "free helpdesk" didn't you understand? How is that commercial? Choad!
It's still HELPDESK as the name implies.. Paid or unpaid.
I had the same experience, remoting into home PCs from home and helping my elderly mother when she has issues. I believe the problem began when I left a TV window open because I forgot to close it. Filled out the form and was denied for personal use, even after explaining how I use TV.
Then I inadvertently discovered that there is a remote desktop plugin for Google Chrome users and tried using that. It works better than even TV did and I have now uninstalled TV from ALL computers on which it previously was being used and am using the RD plugin for chrome!
Use AnyDesk instead of TeamScrewer the liar company that falsely accuses people of stealing free to use for personal use software.
For several years, I used TV for personal needs helping my loved ones scattered around the world, altogether 6 computers, 2 PCs, and 4 MACs. At some point, incomprehensible to me, the TV decided that I was using the program for commercial needs and began to refuse communication sessions one by one. My first desire was to buy a TV license, but the price was unreasonable, crazy high. The long story short, I tried about 5-6 remote desktops and settled on the commercial version of Jump Desktop wich for $9.99 runs on an unlimited number of computers, has a minimal number of options for configuration and after standard (default) installation provides fast and stable communication.
I have been using TM to help my elderly mother with various issues on her computer and it worked okay for some short time. But, as soon as I logged in to the Verizon chat to help my mom with her phone issues I got a message from TM that I am using it for the commercial purposes. I think they just want to force everybody to buy their license no matter what, even if you don't use TM commercially.
I had a similar issue, but instead of instantly kicking me out it said my time would be limited to I believe 30 minutes. I contacted TeamViewer using the online form, and a day or so later it got resolved.
Every year they start to block me. Even my usage has not been changed. I only connect to my own computers that is logged in with my teamviewer account. I don't even use it that much, and most of the time it's on my internal network.
it happens to me when using my 3 home PCs.
How come nobody has noticed "AndyDesk" at the end? Should be AnyDesk