After imatch upgrade, can't connect to database from imatch anywhere

[nbagno]

Here I am again. After upgrading imatch 2021 I broke Imatch anywhere again, even though this time I remembered to upgrade imatch anywhere at the same time. I'm getting a message that the drive that has my images is offline. The images are stored on a Synology NAS that was working just before I upgraded. I can access these same network files via windows explorer on the same computer that imatch and imatch anywhere is installed on.

After reading some help files, I put my user name and address in the config/advanced service account and put my user name and password. It's the right user account to access that NAS drive, but now I get an user name / password error when I try to start imatch anywhere. And, if I delete the name and password, it still gives me a login error.

[Mario]

IMatch Anywhere by default uses the local system account, which is designed to run services but has no access to resources (aka files) on other computers. 

When you change the user under which the IMatch Anywhere service runs you have to make sure that the user account has the log on as a service and Act as part of the operating system  privileges. Else IMWS cannot start correctly, because it is a service.

For details, see the IMatch Anywhere help topic: Accessing Files or Databases on Different Computers.

Ask your IT people to setup a dedicated user account to access the files on your NAS.
If you are a home user, follow these steps to assign the two privileges to the dedicated user account you use for IMWS. I don't recommend to run a service under your personal user account for security reasons. Create a new user only for this purpose.

• Logon to the computer with administrative privileges.
• Open the 'Administrative Tools' and open the 'Local Security Policy'
• Expand 'Local Policy' and click on 'User Rights Assignment'
• In the right pane, right-click 'Log on as a service' and select properties.
• Click on the 'Add User or Group...' button to add the new user.
• In the 'Select Users or Groups' dialogue, find the user you wish to enter and click 'OK'
• Click 'OK' in the 'Log on as a service Properties' to save changes.

[nbagno]

Getting back to this issue today, and now I am getting a no licenses available error so the service won't start. If I use the activation manager, it tells me that a Cal license has already been installed, but the error on the startup panel still reads that there are no licenses available. 

[Mario]

Please send me or attach the IMatch Anywhere Logfile. See the IMatch Anywhere help for details.
You'll find the log file in the TEMP folder on your computer.

Did you make any changes to your PC, e.g. swapping the motherboard or other vital parts, maybe?
If the IMA license manager does not accept the installed CAL, something must have been changed that breaks the link between the installed CAL and the computer.

This error is as mysterious as IMatch Anywhere suddenly losing access the files on your NAS.

If IMWS ran under LocalSystem user account (as it is by default), it could have never accessed files on your NAS.
If you changed the configuration to another user with access to the NAS at some point in time, how can this configuration be lost or IMA being reset back to the default user account set during the first installation? IMA never changes the user under which the service runs, except when there is no user (first install).

I have no idea, because something similar was never reported. Very strange.

The IMatch Anywhere log file will tell me more.
Also send me your email and license key to my email address support email address so I can check the licensing server for more information. Please include the info copied into the Windows clipboard when you click on the "Copy service info into clipboard" button in the IMatch Anywhere Controller application.

For a quick test or remedy, you can shut-down IMatch Anywhere (stop the service) and then delete the *.ptcal file "C:\ProgramData\photools.com\IMatchAnywhere\IMWS\cals" folder on the machine running IMWS.

Then start the IMatch Anywhere WebServices controller and authenticate again. This will validate your license and download a new CAL license file to your computer.

[nbagno]

Hi Mario,

Okay, I fixed the license problem by deleting the cal file. I did update the bios, so that was the reason. Thanks. Now, I'm back to the original issue.

As I mentioned in my first post, I had this all up and running for months, and I decided to update imatch, but I did update both Imatch and anywhere simultaneously. 

My original issue was that I was getting a notice that my images were offline, which I attempted to fix. You thought it was an authentication error, so I went into configure/advanced options and put my username and password in the "service user account" field. Because I did that, I got an error popup that said the service failed to start. Please try later. This error only happened after I put my username and password in those fields. Now, if I remove my username and password, the error remains. I can't get past that to even see why my images are offline.

[Mario]

The user name and password you input there are the credentials under which IMWS runs.
If your user account does not have the correct privileges (see my initial answer), Windows will refuse to IMWS.
IMatch by default runs under the "LocalSystem" account which can run service like IMWS, but cannot access files or folders on other computers (like your NAS box).

Open the database with IMatch to check if there is another problem.
Maybe the folders are off-line also in IMatch?

Maybe your NAS box decided to change the drive id (which sometimes happens with older SAMBA versions run on NAS boxes which run Linux). In that case, the files will also show as off-line in IMatch, and we know that this is not an IMatch Anywhere problem at all.

[nbagno]

I went into windows services for ImatchWebServices, and selected properties/login. It was set to "this account" with a user and password set. I never was in there before so I assume it got the user and password from when I went into imatchanywhere and set the user and password under configure? And, when I tried to clear it out in imatchanywhere/configure it never deleted it in the windows services/properties/login. Anyway, access is back except for one offline drive on the NAS. I'll work on that later.

Cheers