Cube 12 and dongle

If I upgrade to 12 pro from 11 artist do I do away with the USB dongle??

Yes unless you have any steinberg vsti or any other steinberg software that uses the dongle. That includes full versions of halion etc.

Check your dongle contents via the e-licenser control center. If you only have Cubase on there, yes you’ll be dongle free.

However, if any additional libraries or plugins like Backbone, Groove Agent (Not SE), Or HALion (Not SE) are part of your ownership then you will need a dongle for those in the meantime.

I don’t have any add on stuff on my SE. Since they have changed this, could I do away with the dongle on my Artist 11 also?? if so how?

Only way is by updating to Artist 12, as that’s on the new licensing which doesn’t require hardware dongle.