Activating Dorico 4 Upgrade from 3.5

If you run eLCC on its own - separate from the upgrade process - and you list the contents of your USB-eLicenser, what does that show you for your Dorico 3.5 licence?

Also, is it at all possible that the Steinberg account you used to log in to SDA is different from the one you used to log in to SAM?

Here’s what’s displayed when I run eLCC on its own:

While waiting the five hours before I was allowed to upload this reply, I clicked on the Registration tab and successfully registered both licenses on MySteinberg. However, when I clicked on the Dorico 4 icon on my Desktop, the dialogue box headed 'Launching Steinberg Activation Manager opened once again and, as before, nothing happened. I clicked on Relaunch and again, nothing happened.

I have had problems in the past with different logins on Steinberg as I use one email address for all my online purchases (e.g.Steinberg Shop) and another for music (including notation correspondence). It’s not helped by Steinberg also insisting I create and use a Steinberg ID. In effect, I have at various times had to create a Steinberg Account; a Steinberg Online Shop login with one email address; a Steinberg Shop login with a second email address and a Steinberg ID. It would not be a surprise if these cause some issues as I’m never sure which one to use or why I need so many different logins…

Right, the fact that eLCC shows “Dorico 3.5 (Upgraded to Dorico 4 with Steinberg Licensing)” suggests that the upgrade process did go through OK. That does make me think that the most likely explanation is that the Dorico 4 licence has ended up in a different Steinberg account than the one you have logged in to SAM with. Specifically, your Dorico 4 licence will (as I understand it) have been created in the account you were logged in to SDA with at the point you did the upgrade. I don’t have access to the Steinberg account database - I’m just a tester in the Dorico development team - but if you know what your different account credentials are I would try signing out of SAM and signing in with the new credentials. (This won’t be any of the shop logins, by the way - they’re on a different system.)

Thanks for the reply. I’ve reached a total dead end. There doesn’t appear to be any way of signing out of SAM. When I open it up and run it, the only options are to install or reinstall. I tried uninstalling it and reinstalling it but that made no difference. I’ve tried going to MySteinberg and it shows ‘No Products’. I’ve tried alternative logins and am now just one login short of being locked out.

If you click on the icon in the top right then it brings up a drop-down menu where you can Sign Out:

I’ve reached yet another dead end. Please see the screenshot below:


I’m now seriously questioning whether to spend any more time on what I thought was a simple upgrade. I can’t think of another software upgrade that forces the customer to go through so many illogical hoops, with so little guidance. I’m grateful for the time and effort you’ve given so generously but I am close to the end of my tether on this. What is even more frustrating is that I was unable to raise a technical support ticket on this and had to come to the Forum for help. That is quite unacceptable.

You don’t need to run SDA or eLCC any more - that bit is all done. Assuming I am right about the remaining problem, i.e. that you have two Steinberg accounts/IDs, and the Dorico 4 licence has been created correctly but has ended up in the wrong account, what you need to do is one of two things - either change the account you are logged in to SAM with (currently this REDACTED), or get the support team to move your licence from one account to the other.

In the first option you need to go to the SAM window - the one in your screenshot that says “No Licenses Found” - and click on the icon that looks like a person’s head in the top right of the dialog. That will bring up the menu with the Sign Out option. From there you can Sign Out, then Sign In again with your other Steinberg account details (I don’t know what they are, but they will be whatever you previously used to Sign In to SDA).

The other option is to raise a ticket with the support team to ask them if they can transfer your licence from your other account to the account you are already logged in to SAM with. However, it sounds like you have been having some problems with raising a ticket? I am afraid I’m not familiar with the support process - I work with the development team - so I am not sure why you might be unable to raise a ticket.

I tried yet again to raise a ticket. I clicked on Steinberg Support, clicked on Activation & Reactivation, clicked on Submit a ticket, logged into my account. Under My Support, I filled in my title, name and clicked on Registration/Activation/Licensing issue. Clicked on Continue at the bottom. And immediately got taken back to where I started, the Steinberg Home Page headed ‘Creativity First’. Halfway down, there’s ‘Support, contact customer service for assistance’. Clicked on that, hey presto, I was taken back to Activation & reactivation. A wonderful, completely circular route to nowhere.

I’m really sorry you’re having such a torrid time, Cedric. If you send me a direct message here on the forum including all of your Steinberg IDs, I should be able to see what’s really going on and hopefully resolve it. I’m sure Richard’s correct that in the end the problem is that you have multiple Steinberg IDs and we just need to figure out how to get you signed in to Steinberg Activation Manager with the right one.

We could hop on Zoom/Skype together and I should be able to resolve it for you. If you have some free time on Thursday, we should be able to sort it out relatively quickly.

Hello Daniel,

Many thanks for picking this up. The Dorico 4 upgrade was a Father’s Day present from our daughters and it’s not been the happy experience I was looking forward to. I really wish I’d kept a step-by-step record of what happened. For some reason, Steinberg’s system doesn’t accept logins that have not been used for some time. I tried to use my original login for the Forum when I first encountered my problem with the Dorico 4 upgrade five days ago, aware I’d not visited the Forum for quite a while, but it was not accepted and I had to create a fresh one. The same thing appears to have happened with the online shop as I’ve progressed through the various Dorico upgrades. Add to that the fact that over the years I’ve had to create a Steinberg account and then a Steinberg ID, I have more Steinberg logins than you can shake a stick at.

I appreciate it’s not helped by my practice of having one email address for all online purchases and one specifically for music but I’m equally dismayed by the completely circular sequence when I tried to create a ticket – something is seriously, fundamentally wrong.

Best wishes, Cedric

I’ve removed some of your personally-identifiable information from your post, but have kept it (temporarily) for my own reference. I will have a dig through the various systems we have here and see what I can find out, and I’ll come back to you.

Just a note of appreciation to say thank you to Richard for his continuing efforts on this matter and especially to Daniel whose direct action on this finally sorted me out today. It took a few emails and a Skype call but we got there! Now to start putting notes on the stave…

1 Like