EFB device limit

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JOhnH

Touchdown! Greaser!
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My wife and I each have an Ipad and an Iphone. Foreflight has a device limit of two Ipads and one Iphone. This means that one of us doesn't get to have FF on our Iphone. This could potentially cause me to evaluate other EFBs. I'd prefer one on an I-Thing, but I could be persuaded to change platforms over time.

Do any other recommended EFBs have a more generous device limit? Preferably on IOS?
 
I believe that FlyQ is three devices also. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if you were to contact them and explain your situation, that they may increase it in your situation. In my experience with them so far, they have been quite helpful and accomodating with any issue or question that I have had. Perhaps it would be worth a call or email to them.
 
Kevin Eggert said:
I believe that FlyQ is three devices also. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if you were to contact them and explain your situation, that they may increase it in your situation. In my experience with them so far, they have been quite helpful and accomodating with any issue or question that I have had. Perhaps it would be worth a call or email to them.
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I did that before I posted here. I even offered to pay an additional fee. Their reply was basically "Sorry Charlie" our system won't permit it. But call our support line if we can be of any more help.

Perhaps if there was enough demand they might make the change. What would it cost them?
 
You know, the ForeFlight subscription "grants license to one individual to use ForeFlight on 2 iPads and 1 iPhone, or 1 iPad and 2 iPhones".

I am not going to tell you what you can and cannot do, but you may want to be careful about posting what you are doing in a public forum where people from, say, Foreflight might be looking...

- Martin
 
JOhnH said:
My wife and I each have an Ipad and an Iphone. Foreflight has a device limit of two Ipads and one Iphone. This means that one of us doesn't get to have FF on our Iphone. This could potentially cause me to evaluate other EFBs. I'd prefer one on an I-Thing, but I could be persuaded to change platforms over time.

Do any other recommended EFBs have a more generous device limit? Preferably on IOS?
Click to expand...

How many navigation maps do you really need to have running all at the same time in a little Bonanza? :confused:
 
Martin Pauly said:
You know, the ForeFlight subscription "grants license to one individual to use ForeFlight on 2 iPads and 1 iPhone, or 1 iPad and 2 iPhones".

I am not going to tell you what you can and cannot do, but you may want to be careful about posting what you are doing in a public forum where people from, say, Foreflight might be looking...

- Martin
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Good point, but too late. I already told FF what I am doing. I’m not trying to sneak anything.
 
GRG55 said:
How many navigation maps do you really need to have running all at the same time in a little Bonanza? :confused:
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It’s not a matter of having them all at the same time.
 
FltPlan Go and Droid EFB have no device limits. I have both installed on my two tablets and phone, for backup and for sharing with copilot/passengers. Both of these play well with non-Garmin cockpit avionics, e.g. NGT-9000.
 
JOhnH said:
My wife and I each have an Ipad and an Iphone. Foreflight has a device limit of two Ipads and one Iphone. This means that one of us doesn't get to have FF on our Iphone. This could potentially cause me to evaluate other EFBs. I'd prefer one on an I-Thing, but I could be persuaded to change platforms over time.

Do any other recommended EFBs have a more generous device limit? Preferably on IOS?
Click to expand...

lancie00 said:
Garmin Pilot is the same.
Click to expand...

I believe the GP is good for any three devices, any combo. So iOS or Android, phone or tablet.

There's also FltPlanGo, which is free, and owned by Garmin, so there is a little bit of integration there. I have it loaded as an emergency backup.
 
Ifly lets you have 4 devices for $99.
 
JOhnH said:
Good point, but too late. I already told FF what I am doing. I’m not trying to sneak anything.
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I was going to say "call Foreflight", but you already did. No relief huh?
 
We can grouse about the overall cost (I've got IFR, U.S. and Canada, so it isn't cheap,) or lack of features, but three devices for a single pilot seems fair. Let's not be like those who took advantage of LL Bean and Brooks Brothers' return policies when they used to be generous. I like having a backup iPad in the plane ready to go, I'd hate to lose that.
 
JOhnH said:
My wife and I each have an Ipad and an Iphone. Foreflight has a device limit of two Ipads and one Iphone. This means that one of us doesn't get to have FF on our Iphone. This could potentially cause me to evaluate other EFBs. I'd prefer one on an I-Thing, but I could be persuaded to change platforms over time.

Do any other recommended EFBs have a more generous device limit? Preferably on IOS?
Click to expand...
Do you fly two planes at once? If not, having FF on one iPad and two iPhones would make sense; the iPad is shared, the backup iPhone is carried by its owner.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Do you fly two planes at once? If not, having FF on one iPad and two iPhones would make sense; the iPad is shared, the backup iPhone is carried by its owner.
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First, @Cogito it's not the cost. I offered and would be willing to to pay an additional fee. AndI also have the US and Canada.

Second, @Kenny Phillips , No, I don't fly two airplanes at once. In fact, I don't fly at all. as I have been telling people on this site and others for a decade, I lost my medical 45 years ago. But my wife is IFR rated. She does all the flying and she keeps her mini-5 in a holder on the center arm of the yoke. I keep my Pro in my lap. I use it to look up all sorts of information during flight so she doesn't have to. I am also a second pair of eyes to look for traffic on ADSB-IN on my Ipad and to look for airspace restrictions. I look up frequencies, runway directions, and a lot of other things. As for the Iphones, we would both like to have FF on the ground for checking METARS and TAFs, planning various trip scenarios and looking up a lot of other information that is admittedly available elsewhere, but we like to use Foreflight. I don't think we have ever been on vacation when we didn't use one of our devices to find out where the nearest airport is and how far away other airports are.

The three device limit is not a deal breaker and it is not a heartbreaking hardship. But if we could use 4 devices, it would be more fun and more valuable to us. And like I said, I wouldn't minding paying more. But not 100% more for a 4th device.
 
GP is not only good for any 3 devices, but you can pretty easily pay more to add..
 
one aircraft between the two of you, or are you each flying different aircraft at the same time?

I'd look into one dedicated ipad that lives in the plane....
 
Brad W said:
one aircraft between the two of you, or are you each flying different aircraft at the same time?

I'd look into one dedicated ipad that lives in the plane....
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I'll wait till you catch up to my post #21 before I answer.
 
Probably not the answer you are looking for but you could do one of a few things to work around it..albeit limited:

1. Enable a hotspot on your phone when you land. Then both ipads can pull any data through ForeFlight or other apps. When you take off disable the hotspot.

2.) Get a portable hotspot that is shared on your plan. Then have your ipads jump to this until you take off...or you take it with you!

Although we can run GP on any 3 devices we always have one Android 8" and one iPad Mini in the plane. Neither are 3g/4g. But I also keep a hotspot in the hangar for security and remote heat. As soon as I drive up to the hangar both tablets hop on the hotspot for latest wx, etc. For longer trips we grab the hotspot and take it with. I have a 3rd copy of GP on my phone but its mainly backup to a backup. And remember, most hotspots are also powerbanks so if you are in needed you got that going for you too. And the hotspot will pickup 3g/4g up to certain altitudes so if you need some internet vs ADSB-IN wx you can pop down low and pull that data right into your tablets.
 
Sinistar said:
Probably not the answer you are looking for but you could do one of a few things to work around it..albeit limited:

1. Enable a hotspot on your phone when you land. Then both ipads can pull any data through ForeFlight or other apps. When you take off disable the hotspot.
Click to expand...

Was going to recommend this as well. If all you are doing is checking wx that’s a perfect application for a hotspot. Plus you have the larger screen to view forecasts and such.
 
woodchucker said:
Was going to recommend this as well. If all you are doing is checking wx that’s a perfect application for a hotspot. Plus you have the larger screen to view forecasts and such.
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I'm not sure exactly how or why that would help. I still can't use FF on all four devices. And even if it does work, it seems it would be just as easy to log out of one of the active devices and log on to FF on the fourth device. A bit of a pain, but not excruciating.
 
JOhnH said:
I'm not sure exactly how or why that would help.
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It doesn't. A hotspot is for internet access. The license is about the number of authorized devices on the ForeFlight account. One has nothing to do with the other.

- Martin
 
JOhnH said:
First, @Cogito it's not the cost. I offered and would be willing to to pay an additional fee. AndI also have the US and Canada.

Second, @Kenny Phillips , No, I don't fly two airplanes at once. In fact, I don't fly at all. as I have been telling people on this site and others for a decade, I lost my medical 45 years ago. But my wife is IFR rated. She does all the flying and she keeps her mini-5 in a holder on the center arm of the yoke. I keep my Pro in my lap. I use it to look up all sorts of information during flight so she doesn't have to. I am also a second pair of eyes to look for traffic on ADSB-IN on my Ipad and to look for airspace restrictions. I look up frequencies, runway directions, and a lot of other things. As for the Iphones, we would both like to have FF on the ground for checking METARS and TAFs, planning various trip scenarios and looking up a lot of other information that is admittedly available elsewhere, but we like to use Foreflight. I don't think we have ever been on vacation when we didn't use one of our devices to find out where the nearest airport is and how far away other airports are.

The three device limit is not a deal breaker and it is not a heartbreaking hardship. But if we could use 4 devices, it would be more fun and more valuable to us. And like I said, I wouldn't minding paying more. But not 100% more for a 4th device.
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Based on that CONOP, I'd suggest FF on the two ipads and FF on your wife's phone. On your phone, I'd load the Aeroweather Lite and FltPlanGo apps. Aeroweather gives you METARs, TAFs, and geolocation of nearby airports. FltPlanGo gives you charts, plates, AFD, etc. The one thing it is not useful for is armchair flight planning. But it is free. Aeroweather Lite is free too; you can pay for the full featured version, but I get along ok with the lite. YMMV.
 
JOhnH said:
I'm not sure exactly how or why that would help. I still can't use FF on all four devices. And even if it does work, it seems it would be just as easy to log out of one of the active devices and log on to FF on the fourth device. A bit of a pain, but not excruciating.
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Just giving the best solution that I can think of for your situation. @Sinistar had the same idea.

You said you only use iPads in the air and iPhones on the ground. So use both iPads and one iPhone with FF. On the ground, use the non-FF iphone (or either, it doesn't matter) to set up a hotspot, and one of you use an iPhone and one of you use one of the iPads to check weather and other resources while on the ground. How is that not helpful? It solves your 1st world problem as far as I can tell.

Make sure to disable the hotspot after you are done so your Sentry or whatever can connect.

Edit: if the big deal is you MUST be able to use all four devices simultaneously then I cannot help you. I guess that was the main thrust of your post. Honestly I cannot understand why anyone would need four FF apps running at once while in the air.
 
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Register the fourth device under a different account and pay for a second subscription.
 
If you are set on using FF across 4 devices then get out your credit card and a second account as mentioned above. I think its cool that you are into it enough to use it across 4 devices. As I mentioned we have it on 3 and hardly use the 3rd install (on my phone). So you are in the minority and there ain't no way they are going to add a 4th on a single plan for free.

It seems one of your concerns is that you never use more than 2 at a time so why can't you share it across 4? That answer is easy. Since they app can't always phone home to check on your licensing they can't support that licensing scheme. Well they could but it would f up everyone using a tablet with out 3G/4G. My Adobe subscription (way too much $$$) lets me use a single seat on various PC's but never all at once because its always phoning home.

Okay, another longshot then - If part of your goal is to just follow along on one of the 4 devices during flight, doesn't FF has some passenger feature app that requires no license at all and it is sent from the licensed tablet or phone. Probably doesn't have the detail you want but maybe its worth checking out.
 
Honest question: Do you pilots find FF that useful on the phone? Maybe if you have one of those Plus Pro Max iPhones. Even though I have FF on the phone, it's really just a second backup if both iPads go south. In IFR training, having two iPads working at the same time was super helpful for both sim (X-Plane/PilotEdge) as well as real world flying (iPad Mini mounted and powered in plane, regular iPad for preflight planning.) I still use FF but one copy seems to do it, and one for backup.
 
Cogito said:
Honest question: Do you pilots find FF that useful on the phone? Maybe if you have one of those Plus Pro Max iPhones. Even though I have FF on the phone, it's really just a second backup if both iPads go south. In IFR training, having two iPads working at the same time was super helpful for both sim (X-Plane/PilotEdge) as well as real world flying (iPad Mini mounted and powered in plane, regular iPad for preflight planning.) I still use FF but one copy seems to do it, and one for backup.
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I probably file 90% of my IFR flight plans on my phone with Garmin Pilot
 
One thing to consider if you are infrequent users. I believe FF doesn't have a problem if you sin out on a device and sign in on another. Perhaps you could agree to always sign out of your iphones when finished and sign in when you use it.

Personally I think you should buy two seats since that's what you're trying to use but that's just my opinion.
 
It’s dumb none of them coded their licensing systems to handle a la cart numbers of devices by just changing it and paying a different price.

Can write an entire moving map EFB but can’t write a freaking web page and licensing system to register any number of devices to one account?

Come on. Step up.
 
Tom-Flying said:
One thing to consider if you are infrequent users. I believe FF doesn't have a problem if you sin out on a device and sign in on another. Perhaps you could agree to always sign out of your iphones when finished and sign in when you use it.

Personally I think you should buy two seats since that's what you're trying to use but that's just my opinion.
Click to expand...

Agree to this.;)
 
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