Hi,
I own Cubase Elements 9.5, but when I try to open it the soft e licenser says that it is deactivated because the validation could not be veryfied.
In a announcement from Steinberg I read that it is not longer possible to activate e Licensers since they discontinued the service.
Does this mean my 9.5 Elements is gone for ever now?
I mean, this would be really crappy if Steinberg would just terminate old full versions of their software to force you to buy new ones.
The important thing is that you registered your elicenser prior to its discontinuation, so you can update for, I believe, $50, without going through the support channel.
I get why one would be roiled about it – especially on principal – but that’s the state of things…
I would risk mentioning that nine years have passed since your purchase, and a about four years since the elicenser’s demise.
Thanks for your reply, on my profile it tells me that I activated the license in 2022, so the DAW is 4 years old at this point for me.
As I understood, I was paying for a full version without end date back then. So Steinberg just revoked my license and says screw you? Was this some 4 year license that they sold to me? How is it if I would buy a $600 version, is it just gone in 4 years too?
I have the ableton $600 full version for a handful more years and it’s working totally fine without any error or anything, I am staying far away from buying any more Steinberg products at this point, if they will just deactivate my purchases in 4 years again. Nope, thanks. No upgrade, reduced offer for upgrade or anything, I just want to keep what I payed for. Ableton, Logix, Pro tools, none of them ever revoked any version I payed my money for. Why would I buy any Steinberg product ever at all? They’ll just take it away and laugh at me being empty handed and having payed them, lol. wtf?
I can update for $50? Can I just use the 9.5 version for $0 that I already payed $99 for back then and enjoy it? I don’t really want any update or anything. Just the product I bought.
Steinberg released Cubase 9.5 November 15th, 2017. There was a time window of 364 days to buy this version before the release of Cubase 10 in 2018.
I am having trouble to follow your math.
I can relate to your disappointment from a principle point of view like @steve. However, 50 bucks for an upgrade that offers a lot more than version 9.5 ?
Whatever, you do you.
You didn’t buy a product, you bought a licence. Soft licences being fragile, you should have bought a dongle.
I didn’t upgrade Cubase for 15 years (1995-2010! 
) because what I hade served my purposes. But when my purposes changed, I started over and bought Cubase Essential 5, in 2010, along with a dongle for the licence. I still have that dongle plugged into my PC. Cubase 5 still runs, if ever I want it.
That’s called “protecting your investment”. The world is what it is. We wish and say “this should work like this!”, but it never does.
Bite the bullet and buy a new licence. Or stick with Ableton.
I just read what it says in my profile on steinberg . 28. Jan. 2022, 20:05
yeah this is more about a principle than about the $50. I payed much more for many DAWs that I own. I really thought about buying the $600 cubase version, but If I would buy that, I really don’t want to just lose it like that or having to pay extra to use it again. So it was good for me to experience this with the $100 version, so I don’t lose my investment.
To me, in my mind, my investment is protected better online on a server that probably has a backup with my data somewhere, instead of having a physical stick at home, that can be broken or that I can lose. Opinions differ, maybe I am a younger generation, idk.
If I would get the choice again: stick or server, I would chose the server every time. I usually trust the servers that have my data and never had any bad experiences in my life so far with trusting online data. Also my whole apple account is set up to work with my cloud thing, I broke my iPhone, bought a new, said copy from old phone, it did everything on it’s own and like 5 minutes later it was just like my old phone, just from backup data from some cloud. If it works for me, why not? I just stay away from steinberg then. I would never get comftable with owning a piece of hardware for any software that I bought.
Just think about steam. How my hundreds of € did I spend there? thousands maybe even. It is all secure there in my eyes. I can download ALL my library and anything from all over the world and don’t ever need any hard copy of any game/software that I bought there. To me this is the better solution. If the sources are reliable. At least somewhat.
I mean, breaking the old versions of their DAW licenses for no reason is just a dick move from Steinberg. They could have found a nother solution.
And yes, in my profile it says “Products: Cubase Elements 9.5”
It does NOT say “Licences: Cubase Elements 9.5”, it is clearly listed as a product that I bought and own.
And you are probably right, in the agreement that I signed, I probably bought the license, but nevertheless it is called product in my profile, so I am not 100% wrong calling it that, if Steinberg themselves do.
Your post pretty much explains why Steinberg switched from the old eLicenser based system to the new one. Users had demanded this change for years and Steinberg delivered.
If you still got your physical eLicenser you can run Cubase versions from the 90s! Up to this day.
I still have my eLicenser plugged in just in case I’m feeling nostalgic 
Steinberg used to allow you to run most any version of your software up to the lastest one you own…but that changed with the new licensing system so now you can only go back to version 12…as long as you don’t treat your things like a 4 year old they will last for years, unfortunately a lot of people were unable to figure that out 
Ok boomer, so you are the super adult, because you only stick to physical media, nice. I just mentioned reasons for me why I prefer not having a stick. This has nothing to do with treating my stuff good or not, what the hell is wrong with you telling me I would treat my stuff like a 4 year old. Are you ok?
I can totally understand your disappointment. What I don’t quite understand is why cannot start Cubase Elements anymore.
From what I learned a Cubase Elements 9.5 should continue to be accessible on the computer it was installed on before Steinberg exchanged the licensing system. It shouldn’t simply stop to be run.
The program can not be installed on another computer anymore, though.
Most unfortunately (from my point of view) Cubase Elements is the only version that got hit this hard by the change. Old Cubase Artist and Pro can still be installed and run on other computers.
Thomas_Loschke My comments weren’t directed at you but at the people who caused Steinberg to change their licensing in the first place. If they hadn’t changed their licensing you wouldn’t have the license issue you have now!
With that said you are throwing a temper tantrum like a 4 year old…I’m actually on your side, I like the old licensing.
You have bought a “license for a product”, so it is fully correct how it is called. It is always the agreement that decides what you get.
This is true for all software products out there, you never buy the product itself, it is always just a license to use it.
Well… the product that one buys is a license, innit?
Not really. The product is the software itself, bacause that is what you physically get. However you never own this product, instead the vendor gives you a license to use it.