Dbmovies moved: one line to fix 2.5.5
The old Dbmovies service at api.dbmvs.com has been shut down. If you are staying on DooPlay 2.5.5, you do not need to update the theme — you need to change one line so it talks to our new server instead.This takes about two minutes.
What you get, and what you don't
The new endpoint serves the IMDb data from our current system:
| ✅ IMDb rating and vote count | live, refreshed daily |
| ✅ Title, year and content rating | |
| ❌ Poster, trailer, runtime, budget, country, TMDb votes | not included |
The old server made a second call to TMDb to fill those in. The new one does not, so those fields come back empty and DooPlay will fall back to what it already has.
This matters for imports. Titles you import from now on will come in without a poster and without a trailer unless you have TMDb configured in DooPlay, which fills them from its own side. Titles already in your library are not touched.
Before you start
You need two things:
- Your license key, from your licenses page. It is a long string of letters and numbers, and it is the same key you already use for DooPlay itself — you do not need a separate one.
- FTP or file manager access to your site.
Back up inc/core/dbmvs/init.php before editing. One copy, thirty seconds, and you can always undo it.
Step 1 — Edit one line
Do this before touching the key in WordPress. The order matters, and the next step explains why.
Open this file:
wp-content/themes/dooplay/inc/core/dbmvs/init.phpFind line 32. It looks like this:
define('DBMOVIES_DBMVAPI','https://api.dbmvs.com');Replace it with this, putting your own license key at the end:
define('DBMOVIES_DBMVAPI','https://edge.wupdater.com/dbmvs/{{YOUR-DOOPLAY-LICENSE-KEY}}');So if your key were a1b2c3d4…, the line would read:
define('DBMOVIES_DBMVAPI','https://edge.wupdater.com/dbmvs/a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0');Save the file. That is the whole change.
No trailing slash at the end, and keep the quotes exactly as they are. Everything else in the file stays untouched.
Step 2 — Put your license key in Dbmovies
In WordPress, go to Dbmovies → Settings → General and paste your license key into the API key for Dbmovies field. Save.
If you already had a key there from the old service, replace it with your license key.
If the field shows up red
Dbmovies checks your key once and remembers the answer for an hour. If you saved the key before editing init.php, that check ran against the old dead address, and the red border will stay for up to an hour even though everything is already working.
Do not re-save the key — saving the same value does not clear it. Instead:
Tools → DooPlay Database → Clear Transient options → Run process.
Reload the settings page and the field turns green. This is also why Step 1 comes first: do it in that order and you never see the red.
Step 3 — Check that it worked
Open this URL in your browser, with your key in it:
https://edge.wupdater.com/dbmvs/{{YOUR-DOOPLAY-LICENSE-KEY}}?auth=1You should see something like:
{"status":1,"credits":9985,"requests":41,"unlimited":0,"used_credits":41,"free_credits":false}"status":1 means you are connected. credits is how many requests you have left today.
Then go back to WordPress, open Dbmovies in the admin menu, and reload. The status should read as active and the counters should fill in.
If DooPlay itself shows the license as inactive
This is a separate thing from the steps above, and you may not need it at all. The change you just made fixes Dbmovies. The theme's own license check is a different connection.
DooPlay 2.5.5 validates its license against our old repository. If your server cannot complete that connection, the status never turns valid — you get the "Please activate a valid license" notice, and the theme's licensed features stay locked even though your license is perfectly fine.
The theme ships with a built-in fallback for exactly this. It is not hidden and it is not a workaround we are inventing today; it has been in the Database tool since 2.5.0.
1. Go to Appearance → DooPlay license and paste your license key into the field, then save. Do this even if the activation fails — the next step needs the key to be present.
2. Go to Tools → DooPlay Database.
3. A box titled Force license activation appears, with the note "This measure is required when your server does not complete the connection with our repository." Click Activate license.
4. Reload the admin. DooPlay now reports the license as active and its features unlock.
The box only appears if a key is saved and the status is empty. If you do not see it, either the field is blank (go back to step 1) or the license already validated normally — in which case there is nothing to fix.
This does not contact any server. It writes the "valid" status locally, on your own site, which is what lets a paid install keep working while our infrastructure moves.
It sticks. Nothing reverts it on its own — not the updater, not a WordPress update. There is exactly one thing that clears it: changing the key in the license field. The theme treats a different key as a new license and wipes the status, so if you edit that field later you will need to force it once more. Saving the same key again changes nothing.
Troubleshooting
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
{"status":0,"error":"API Key invalid"} | The key in the URL is wrong. Copy it again from your licenses page — no spaces, no line breaks. |
{"error":"Api key invalid or blocked"} | Same as above, or the license is expired or disabled. |
{"error":"Insufficient Credits"} | You have used your daily allowance. It resets each day. |
{"response":false} | That specific title could not be resolved. Other titles will still work. |
| The API key for Dbmovies field is red | A cached check from before the edit. Tools → DooPlay Database → Clear Transient options, then reload. Re-saving the same key does not clear it. |
| Nothing changes in the admin | Clear any full-page cache and hard-reload (Ctrl+Shift+R). DooPlay caches the status check for one hour. |
| A blank white screen after editing | The file has a typo. Restore your backup and try again — the most common cause is a missing quote or semicolon. |
| "Please activate a valid license" from the theme | That is the theme's own license check, not Dbmovies. See the section above. |
| The license went back to inactive | You changed the key in the license field, which clears the forced status. Force it again. |
Questions people ask
Do I have to update DooPlay?
No. That is the point of this change. 2.5.5 keeps working.
Will a theme update undo this?
Yes. init.php is a theme file, so updating DooPlay overwrites it and you would have to redo the edit. If you are staying on 2.5.5, this will not come up.
Can I do this from a child theme instead?
Not cleanly. The constant is defined without a guard, so overriding it from a child theme works but makes PHP log a warning on every single request. Edit the file.
How many requests do I get?
Your license's daily allowance — the same one your site already uses, and it is generous: the smallest plan allows thousands of lookups a day. You can see exactly what is left at any moment with the ?auth=1 URL from Step 3. It is measured per day, not per month, and it resets daily.
Does checking my balance use up requests?
No. Only actual title lookups count.
My posters stopped coming in.
That is expected — see the table at the top. Configure TMDb in Dbmovies → Settings if you have not already, and DooPlay will pull images from there.
If you would rather move forward
This endpoint exists so nothing breaks while you decide, not as a permanent home. The current version of DooPlay talks to the new platform directly, with no manual edits and no license key in a URL. When you are ready to move, everything you import will come back complete.
Until then, this keeps 2.5.5 running.