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As many of you know, I have purchased a lot of content from MOPAR Tech Authority over the past few years. I acquried hard copy training manuals, as well as the USB card versions of the 2017 Service and Wriing Manuals (Lusso and Classica), and the 2019 Service Manual (Abarth). Long story, but brief version is that I own a 2017 Abarth and they didn't produce Abarth versions of the manuals until the 2019 MY.
So a couple of weeks ago, I ordered the 2019 version of the Wriing Manual for the Abarth. It arived today. That's where the good news ends.
First, it now includes a lovely little application called "unlock_manual.exe", which means that if you copy the manual onto your laptop for ease of access, you now also need to have the USB version plugged in at the same time to open it. Okay, I get it that they're trying to protect their content from being redistributed.
BUT, that's not the end of the issues. Now, when you open it, it takes your browser in offline mode, so you can't research anything on the machine at the same time as you're reviewing the manual. You can't take screenshots. You can't print. Which sucks, because when I work in the garage, I prefer to print out the pages I need and take them with me. That way I'm not having to worry about balancing my tablet or laptop somewhere on or in the car while I'm performing work. And, if I run into a snag, I don't want to have to close the browser session on the manual so I can get an active Internet access browser session to look up information. Oh, and the last bit of great news.... only the electrical schematics display. When you click on the "connections" tab where we would normally see all the important details regarding where things are and how they're connected and accessed.... nothing. The content is completely missing.
Maybe the rest of you feel different, but for me, this is a game changer in a very big way. And by that, I mean, not in a good way. Given that they have a 25% of purchase cost restocking fee, I feel I can't in all fairness recommend anyone purchase content from them anymore. From what research I've done, I've discovered they're now managed and hosted by another company. Although I have no evidence to prove it, my suspician is that all the manuals that are provided for any Steallantis vehicles are now buggered up in this manner.
You've been warned. And for grounding, here's a photo that shows the 2017 and 2019 versions of the manal side by side. You can clearly see the huge amount of missing content.
So a couple of weeks ago, I ordered the 2019 version of the Wriing Manual for the Abarth. It arived today. That's where the good news ends.
First, it now includes a lovely little application called "unlock_manual.exe", which means that if you copy the manual onto your laptop for ease of access, you now also need to have the USB version plugged in at the same time to open it. Okay, I get it that they're trying to protect their content from being redistributed.
BUT, that's not the end of the issues. Now, when you open it, it takes your browser in offline mode, so you can't research anything on the machine at the same time as you're reviewing the manual. You can't take screenshots. You can't print. Which sucks, because when I work in the garage, I prefer to print out the pages I need and take them with me. That way I'm not having to worry about balancing my tablet or laptop somewhere on or in the car while I'm performing work. And, if I run into a snag, I don't want to have to close the browser session on the manual so I can get an active Internet access browser session to look up information. Oh, and the last bit of great news.... only the electrical schematics display. When you click on the "connections" tab where we would normally see all the important details regarding where things are and how they're connected and accessed.... nothing. The content is completely missing.
Maybe the rest of you feel different, but for me, this is a game changer in a very big way. And by that, I mean, not in a good way. Given that they have a 25% of purchase cost restocking fee, I feel I can't in all fairness recommend anyone purchase content from them anymore. From what research I've done, I've discovered they're now managed and hosted by another company. Although I have no evidence to prove it, my suspician is that all the manuals that are provided for any Steallantis vehicles are now buggered up in this manner.
You've been warned. And for grounding, here's a photo that shows the 2017 and 2019 versions of the manal side by side. You can clearly see the huge amount of missing content.