BT/EE TV - Manage Device problem

[zisakjee]

I have a 'Manage Devices' problem. With EE/BT TV web player, when I try to watch on my desktop, I get a message telling me I have reached my device limit. I go to device management and I can see that my desktop has used up all 4 devices when I've logged in the previous 4 times. I now get the following message in the app: "

You've reached your device limit

You have reached the limit on the number of devices you have registered for playback. (WP928)

i.e. the app thinks my desktop is a new device every time I log in.

Is there a bug? As it stands I cannot watch anything that I am paying for as the web app has locked me out. Can anyone help?

Many thanks.

[damenzie]

Thanks for that. You've said it is based on system UUID and I definitely haven't changed that every day (obviously). If it happens again now, what can I do if this can't be reset again? 

[DarrenDev]

Is this just a single Windows PC? A real one, rather than a virtual machine?  On Saturday alone, I can see 5 different devices launching the player - and it's not just the UUID changing between them.

If these genuinely all came from a single machine then either something is very broken with it, or it's running some form of privacy software on it that is preventing the app from receiving a consistent reading.

I'm afraid there's nothing we can do here - if it happens again then the response would just be that we cannot support that PC.

[damenzie]

Nope, not using a virtual machine, single Windows PC. And yes, genuine, despite the unnecessary scepticism. 

If some of the tracking comes from the launch of the player from the browser I wonder if it comes from the built in shields in Brave browser. I'll see if the same behaviour happens now that I've turned those off.

[damenzie]

Nope, that didn't fix it - still creating a new device registration each time it opens. 😭

Two of these were about 3 minutes apart after the stream failed to start on the first one. Will try a different browser tomorrow but not sure that should be making a difference.

Probably worth adding that using this browser on this computer worked ok until I refreshed my Windows installation. Still only using standard Windows security without any additional security programs.

[DarrenDev]

Thanks @damenzie - "refreshed my Windows installation" is the key.  I've only just discovered that Microsoft recently updated Windows to remove the tool we use to get the system UUID!  This only affects new builds, as the tool isn't removed if users upgrade from an older version.

We're working on an urgent patch to the EE TV Player on Windows to handle this, however you can fix the issue for yourself by installing the component that Microsoft removed:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/windows-itpro-blog/how-to-install-wmic-feature-on-demand-on...

I've reset your devices again - if you install wmic and then launch EE TV Player, you should find that it'll consume the same device slot every time now.

[damenzie]

Nice one, that seems to have solved it - I've relaunched a bunch of times with only one registration!

Thanks for the help!

[DarrenDev]

Amazing. Thanks for your help with identifying this issue!