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FAQ > SimPlates
USA plates are not loading correctly.

It's really important that you have the latest version of both the program database and the program / app itself.

Using the PC version? Newer versions of SimPlates for PC indicate whether you have the latest version of the program from the help/about screen. Older versions of SimPlates, including versions that you might have obtained from third party sellers or sites, do not. If you're using the PC version and are experiencing this problem, please uninstall SimPlates, reboot your PC, and re-download and-reinstall SimPlates directly from our www.SimPlates.com website. Most of the time, when people tell us that plates aren't working for them, the problem turns out to be that they are running an old version of the program.

Using a Mac, iOS, or Android version? If you are, it's pretty likely that you already have the latest app/program versions as most people have this set to auto-update from their associated app store. If you don't or think you might not, it never hurts to check via your app store / app market app to see if there is an update to the basic program available.

No matter what version you have, once you are sure you have the latest program/app, use the in-app update feature to check for the latest version of the SimPlates database. If this still doesn't fix it, please read on.

This is usually an easy fix (update your database within the app and make sure you have the latest version of the app / program itself) or a temporary issue (FAA website down, something with your ISP, etc).

SimPlates feeds you with USA plates directly from the FAA's website. As such, these are a different from non-USA plates in SimPlates, which come from our own servers.

If USA plates aren't loading, make sure that you have the latest SimPlates database. If you're sure you do, please wait a day or so and try again.

If you're sure you have the latest database and have waited sufficient time, try rebooting your PC. Sometimes the issue for some users have been DNS issues at their ISP. Rebooting can often fix this.

Sometimes, the FAA site may be down temporarily. Waiting a while and trying again fixes this.

Sometimes, the FAA changes their data formats. They do this about once every few years. If you have tried all of the above and it's still not working after a few days, please let us know. We'll try to fix this, though please be advised that fixing this is often a multi-day project that we need to schedule internally, so we thank you for your patience should this be necessary.

Related Issue
Common Fixes to most SimPlates issues