Now that I managed to get Dorico 4 running again on my desktop, I am looking ahead.
Dorico 3 still works on the desktop, but demands the dongle to do so. However, it will not now work on the laptop, and demands an activation code even when the dongle is in its usb hole.
I would like to be able to continue to use Dorico 3 on other computers with the dongle.
Why? Because I can then input notes when I am not at home, without the laptop, and and not connected ot the internet, leaving any formatting for later. (I am one of those who does minimal setup in Dorico when starting a new project, who also habitually uses Notepad or EMACS for creative text writing without the distractions of formatting.)
So, how do I continue to authorise Dorico 3 on any computer by means of the dongle, please?
Your Dorico 4 licence allows you to activate Dorico 4 on up to 3 computers/laptops. Is that not an option based on the operating systems on your laptop, for instance?
You don’t need to be connected to the internet for Dorico 4 to work. It only need a connection for the first-time activation. Once that is done, you’re free as a bird.
As Lillie says, you can activate D4 on 3 computers.
Having said that D3 on the dongle should continue to work, so I don’t know why that’s happening. Make sure your eLicenser software is up to date and that the dongle shows up there.
I just want to plug the dongle into a friend’s computer where I might be staying, copy Dorico 3 to it from my USB stick and start using it. Is that possible? I thought the whole point of buying a dongle was to be able to use Dorico anywhere.
Can’t answer the dongle problem but I can tell you that the new activation system is super efficient - so if you’re using your friends computer for more than a few hours you could easily activate and de-activate at will - it’s instant, and so long as you don’t forget and leave your friend with D4 you’ll be good to go whenever you’re at that computer.
No. You’d have to do a full install of Dorico 3.5 including the elicenser software. The program will not run unless you also install the software that authenticates it via the dongle. The dongle doesn’t work in a vacuum: it merely proves to the elicenser software that there is a license present, so it can allow dorico to run.
Many thanks for the replies. The question I didnt ask is what number is eLCC expecting on my laptop to continue to run Dorico 3.5? The number I gave it originally, or the one I was given recently for 4.0?
Also interesting to know would be whether one can run Dorico 4.0 from a USB stick, or does one need to be connected to the internet on a friend’s computer in order to download the installer and the Steinberg Activator program and install it on the C: drive?
You have to be connected to the internet to download anything!
You could, at least, have the installers for the Steinberg Activation Manager, Dorico 4, HALion, etc on a USB. The licensing software (for either version) needs to be installed on the system that’s running.
Is the dongle listed in the eLCC? I would have thought that Dorico 3 would want the old licence found on the dongle, not the new one for D4. But I could be wrong.
(to the OP) Your license lives on the dongle, as I said, so you can take your dongle to any computer that has dorico 3.5 properly installed. It just also has to have the elicense control center available and running as well. As long as a valid license is detected on the dongle, it doesn’t give a rip whose license it is. That’s the whole point of the dongle; it is agnostic. Dongle with license? check. Good to go. No digital license in the ELCC, no dongle with a license? XXX. Dorico wont start.
I had successfully activated dorico on one computer (my old license was marked “non upgradeable”) but was able to open 3.5 just fine on another computer with the dongle plugged in. In fact, the first three weeks or so of dorico 4 I actually used D3.5 with my dongle more than D4 since I was affected heavily by some of the lyrics bugs. I had no issue whatsoever.
Yes, to be clear: you don’t need to do anything in eLicenser Control Center on any other computer on which you want to run Dorico 3.5. You just plug in your USB-eLicenser and run Dorico 3.5. No codes need to be entered into eLCC: the license is on your USB-eLicenser.
However, the USB-eLicenser isn’t a flash drive. It doesn’t have any storage on it, apart from a tiny amount for your licenses, so you can’t use it to install Dorico on another computer. If that’s something you’re after, I suggest you download the various installers for Dorico 3.5 and copy them to a real removable USB storage device, so that you can use them to install on another computer without having to redownload them.
