Your Screen Stopped Taking New Content: Player Licence Problems

A screen goes in, works perfectly for three or four weeks, and then stops. No error, no black screen, only last month’s layout looping while everything published since is ignored. On an Android or LG webOS screen that pattern has one likely cause, the commercial player licence.

Two different things get called a licence

A display slot is what you buy from us, consumed the moment you connect a screen at Add a display. One screen needs one slot, and we check accounts against what has been paid for. Slots are covered in Display Licences and Authorisation.

A player licence is the commercial licence carried by the player software itself on Android and LG webOS. It belongs to the player rather than your easyCMS plan and re-verifies over the internet every 30 days. Windows players carry none and are never affected.

A free slot tells you nothing about the player licence, and the reverse is equally true. They fail separately.

Why it surfaces a month after installation

When the 30-day check cannot complete, the player keeps running on what it has already downloaded. It does not go dark, and you should not count on a warning appearing on the panel. It carries on checking in, so the screen still looks healthy on the Displays page with a recent last accessed time. What it quietly stops doing is accepting anything new.

That delay is the whole problem: the cause is normally a firewall rule written on installation day, a month before the symptom appears.

The commonest cause is the network

Watch out Nearly every failed check we see is a screen that cannot reach the licensing host, because the firewall was told to allow the CMS and nothing else. The licence check is a separate call to a different host. An allow-list built only around app.myeasycms.com blocks it while check-ins and downloads carry on. That is why the screen looks fine.

Give your IT team Network Requirements and Firewall Rules, the checklist there covers licensing and is written to be forwarded as it stands. Ask us for the exact hostname to allow, it depends on your players. A drifted device clock will fail the check too, so let the device set its date, time and timezone automatically.

Where the licence code comes from

The licence code for an Android or LG webOS player is sent to you in your purchase confirmation email at the time of purchase. That is the whole answer, keep that email.

Applying it happens in an administrator area that does not appear on your login, so there is no licence field for you to hunt for. Send us the display name, the platform and the code from that email through the support request form and we will apply it. If you cannot find the email, say so and we will re-send it.

Confirming it before you call us

Open the player’s own status window and read the Licensed line. It shows true (FULL), true (trial) or false. A player reporting false, or the word Unlicensed, has failed its check and that is your answer. Reading the Player Status Window has the key press or remote button for each platform. On Android, the three-dot Menu on the Action bar also offers Check Licence, which re-runs the check on the spot once the network has been opened up.

If the screen is still checking in you can read the same thing from your desk. 1. Open Displays and choose Request Screenshot from the row menu. 2. Tick Screenshot in the Columns dropdown. 3. Click the thumbnail, then the i icon in its top right corner. 4. Scroll to Player Status. A screen that has stopped checking in cannot answer.

Retiring a screen for good

Deauthorise the display when a screen comes down permanently. That frees the display slot immediately, keeps the name, schedule and history, and can be undone.

The player licence is a separate matter and easyCMS manages it centrally, so neither deauthorising nor deleting the display hands it back. Tell us the screen is retired and we will release its licence entry.

Do not delete the display to free the licence. Deleting is irreversible, it destroys the screen’s history and statistics, and releases nothing.

Moving to replacement hardware

Deauthorise the old display. The slot is free straight away.
Install the replacement and connect it at Add a display, from the same internet connection as the screen.
Ask us to release the old device’s licence entry.
Leave the old record deauthorised. It holds no slot and is your way back if the replacement gives trouble.

Deauthorise first and you never need a spare slot.

A screen that is only switched off

A display powered down for a refurbishment or a quiet season needs nothing doing. Leave it authorised, leave its licence alone, and it picks up where it left off. Releasing a licence is for hardware never coming back.