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Steinberg Elicensor to close 2025

Al Maurice

Al Maurice

Active Member
Not sure whether anyone has seen the announcement from Steinberg yet.

We knew the day was going to come, finally here it is: Elicensor to close early in 2025.

It's probably best to read it yourself to see what impact it may have for you:
www.steinberg.net

eLicenser Service Closes Down in 2025

After years of managing your Steinberg software licenses, the eLicenser-based licensing service will be closing down early in 2025.
www.steinberg.net www.steinberg.net
Click to read more...
 
If I understood this correctly, given that I'm on Cubase 10 which I think I got in 2018 or something, I don't qualify for the new licensing because the product isn't supported.

Does this mean I have to chance it with my old eLicenser dongle, or upgrade to something beyond Cubase 11?

Also, sounds like this eliminates the need for a physical dongle?!
 
I like music said:
If I understood this correctly, given that I'm on Cubase 10 which I think I got in 2018 or something, I don't qualify for the new licensing because the product isn't supported.

Does this mean I have to chance it with my old eLicenser dongle, or upgrade to something beyond Cubase 11?

Also, sounds like this eliminates the need for a physical dongle?!
Click to expand...
Yes sir, starting with Cubase 12, you login with username and password, and you get multiple installs, no more buying multiple copies.
 
"Lost licenses cannot be recovered. If you have lost an eLicenser license, please get in contact with us before the end-of-service. It won't be possible to recover lost licenses after the end-of-service."
 
I like music said:
If I understood this correctly, given that I'm on Cubase 10 which I think I got in 2018 or something, I don't qualify for the new licensing because the product isn't supported.

Does this mean I have to chance it with my old eLicenser dongle, or upgrade to something beyond Cubase 11?
Click to expand...
Yes, Steinberg would like you to spend money.

Companies like this wonder why people can object so strongly to copy protection and how this affects things like brand image. This is one of the reasons why. I'm not in the situation where I need to worry about the eLicenser and I have a bunch of Steinberg products. But this "so long and thanks for all the fish" approach to handling customer support is incredibly counterproductive. OK, maybe their server is held together by string and spit and can't be maintained securely but to simply disable the service is just a big slap in the face to anyone who bought something a while back thinking they'd be able to use what they paid for even if a dongle breaks or hard disk fails.

I wasn't a fan of Adobe's shift to Creative Cloud but they came up with a solution for the older copy protection when they killed the server needed for that. In that instance, they just provided the master keys (I may be wrong on the specifics but broadly they said as long as you have a computer and OS that will run CS2, you're fine).

Like NI with the older Battery and effects, Steinberg's decision to not even offer an alternative approach, such as a way of converting the old auth codes to a basic serial-code licence in order to keep stuff running where needed just demonstrates an overall lack of care. When you consider the new licensing is basically a machine-specific file, albeit with a different API, it's striking that they didn't consider a backwards-compatible mode that would support at the very least the hard-disk mode of eLicenser.
 
Oh man, I dare not go on their website to see what upgrading to Cubase 12 costs...

On the plus side, I get to drive over my dongle in my car which I've wanted to do for fucking years.

Just to confirm then ... I can keep using the dongle with Cubase 10. But if if the dongle breaks (I know, I know, rare) I'm out of luck?

Jeez.
 
i thought they had shutdown/closed the elicenser system already.. because of their new licensing system that was introduced a while back (i think a year of close to a year?)
 
I like music said:
Oh man, I dare not go on their website to see what upgrading to Cubase 12 costs...

On the plus side, I get to drive over my dongle in my car which I've wanted to do for fucking years.

Just to confirm then ... I can keep using the dongle with Cubase 10. But if if the dongle breaks (I know, I know, rare) I'm out of luck?

Jeez.
Click to expand...
I am in a similar boat. I still use C 10.5 and 9.5 projects with the dongle. It would be great to be able to just use the product I paid for without having to worry what to do should that dongle ever die. I will try to contact their support to see if I can them give some more options.
 
Will I still be able to use products with the eLicenser-based licensing service?

Yes, eLicenser-based products can still be used without limitations as long as the licenses are available on the USB-eLicenser or Soft-eLicenser.

What happens if my USB-eLicenser gets broken or is lost after the eLicenser service is shut down?

Please contact support for an individual solution. Please note that we can only offer a solution for eLicensers registered in MySteinberg.
Click to expand...

Why not transfer the license to the soft-elicenser, but i would suppose they would give you a solution to your problem. All my products have been transfer to the new steinberg licensing except the UR22c software which "isnt compatible".....
 
gamma-ut said:
Basically, yes. So don’t run over it just yet.
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nitrateaudio said:
I am in a similar boat. I still use C 10.5 and 9.5 projects with the dongle. It would be great to be able to just use the product I paid for without having to worry what to do should that dongle ever die. I will try to contact their support to see if I can them give some more options.
Click to expand...
pegotico said:
Why not transfer the license to the soft-elicenser, but i would suppose they would give you a solution to your problem. All my products have been transfer to the new steinberg licensing except the UR22c software which "isnt compatible".....
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Thanks everyone! Actually I'm just going to email them and ask the very direct question of whether there's any way at all that I can protect myself in the future if anything happens to the Dongle or whether upgrading is realistically the only option!

Thanks all. Will let you know what they say.
 
I am not sure transferring to a soft e-licenser (which may not be even be possible for Cubendo) is a good solution... if you ever need to change computers you are dead in the water. Unless you mean their new system, which I don't think is still called e-license.


Ftr I have never had an elicenser die on me and I have had some from when they were introduced in early 2000s...

rsp
 
zvenx said:
I am not sure transferring to a soft e-licenser (which may not be even be possible for Cubendo) is a good solution... if you ever need to change computers you are dead in the water. Unless you mean their new system, which I don't think is still called e-license.


Ftr I have never had an elicenser die on me and I have had some from when they were introduced in early 2000s...

rsp
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The soft e-licenser wont stop working. I tried transferring what i had left to the new steinberg licensing and customer service told me that i would need it (old elicenser)for the software that comes with the UR22c as it wasnt compatible with newer licensing.

It clearly states none will stop working, but at least the cloud service would be more secure i suppose. Anyways they do specify coming with a solution if dongle dies.

Will I still be able to use products with the eLicenser-based licensing service?

Yes, eLicenser-based products can still be used without limitations as long as the licenses are available on the USB-eLicenser or Soft-eLicenser.
Click to expand...
 
pegotico said:
The soft e-licenser wont stop working.
Click to expand...
Yes, but you won't be able to transfer the licence to a new machine or hard drive because the server that mediates the process will have been tossed into a skip. There won't be a cloud service.

I'd argue the dongle offers greater longevity and flexibility to the typical user, short of running over the dongle with a truck.
 
gamma-ut said:
Yes, but you won't be able to transfer the licence to a new machine or hard drive because the server that mediates the process will have been tossed into a skip. There won't be a cloud service.

I'd argue the dongle offers greater longevity and flexibility to the typical user, short of running over the dongle with a truck.
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My music laptop is in a room where 3 children are running around like maniacs. It will get run over one of these days.

Nothing compared to airport officials that fucked around with the Cubase USB dongle for about 10 minutes trying to figure out what it was. Most nervous 10 minutes of my life. I started sweating the way they were manhandling it, which made them even more suspicious.
 
I like music said:
My music laptop is in a room where 3 children are running around like maniacs. It will get run over one of these days.
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One option is a lockable box or maybe a cable-management box with a (powered) USB hub sitting in it and just keep the dongle in there. It may need to be powered because the dongles can be finicky about power, mainly because their anti-hack procedures go into action if they detect a brownout, which locks out access until they're power-cycled. You can often find these kinds of things on Etsy.
 
gamma-ut said:
One option is a lockable box or maybe a cable-management box with a (powered) USB hub sitting in it and just keep the dongle in there. It may need to be powered because the dongles can be finicky about power, mainly because their anti-hack procedures go into action if they detect a brownout, which locks out access until they're power-cycled. You can often find these kinds of things on Etsy.
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Didn't know that existed. Thanks! Will take a look.
 
NYC Composer said:
My studio is mostly stationary, but I’ve been using a dongle since the first version of Cubase VST in 1998, not one problem that I’m aware of. I’m using 10.5-if they want me to move to a new licensing scheme, I think they should update me to the nearest one that works with it-for free.
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said no developer ever
 
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