Yes, the escape hatch from eLicenser world is to update to Dorico 4. I hope you will find Steinberg Licensing a lot more user-friendly. The hop, skip and a jump to go from eLicenser to Steinberg Licensing is one final hurdle to clear, but we are here to help you get over it.
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Welcome to the forum, @sfsmuse. Sorry you’re having a problem! If you run eLicenser Control Center, do you see a Dorico Pro 3.5 license listed there on one of your eLicensers, either on the USB-eLicenser (if you have one) or on the Soft-eLicenser?
Thank you for the welcome, Daniel!
Yes, I see Dorico Pro 3.5 Edu license listed here as a Soft-eLicenser.
Great, then we should be getting somewhere. So right now you are able to run Dorico Pro 4 because Steinberg Activation Manager says that the verification is pending, and when you run eLicenser Control Center, you see “Dorico Pro 3.5 Educational” listed, but it says neither “(Not Upgradeable)” nor “(Grace Period Eligible)” after the product name?
@dspreadbury I am able to run Dorico Pro 4, yes. When I run the eLicenser, I do see "Dorico Pro 3.5 Educational (Not upgradeable) and I also see (Grace Period Eligible) (SeL).
I have also gone through fresh installs of the Activation Manager and Download Assistant, and have done reboots/signing in and out.
Hang on, so you have two Dorico Pro licenses? Perhaps you could send me a private message with a screenshot of your eLicenser Control Center window.
Just sent you a message with the details, thank you!
I’ve been round and round with this issue for some time now. I spent at least an hour on it yesterday. I felt that I was following the instructions but maybe I wasn’t. The thing is I don’t see why - having paid for the update, I should have to be spending so much time figuring out how to register it. None of my other expensive software is as difficult as this. I’ve opened a ticket with Steinberg now and hopefully they will do a remote session and get it registered/activated/reactived or whatever and then the annoying error windows will stop popping up.
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Hello,
I changed the administrator on one of my computers, so can’t to reactivate Dorico 4? or maybe I changed the administrator unnecessarily
Thank you in advance
Sigitas
You don’t need to be an administrator user to activate Dorico on your computer. Provided you haven’t changed any of the hardware in your system, you should simply be able to run Steinberg Activation Manager and reactivate your license; it will still only count as one of your three activations.
Sorry, if this has already been answered, but looking at the above thread I’m still a little confused about this issue:
I have a Dorico Pro 3.5 EDU-License which supposedly makes the Update to Dorico 4 free. How do I activate Dorico 4 without having to pay? I’ve been told that there are instructions online for how to do this, but I can’t seem to find any info…
Thanks,
Jack
Follow the link that says “Steinberg Licensing” on this page https://helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/en-us/articles/115001891190-How-to-verify-eligibility-for-free-Grace-Period-update-
Thanks for your help!
Unfortunately I’m still having a problem 
when I click “check for grace period” in the activation manager, I get a message saying " no software to be updated." I tried reinstalling the eLicenser and restarting the check but I still had the same problem.
Jack, it looks as if you have had to reactivate your software on a different eLicenser. Can you send me via direct message some proof of purchase, so I can see when you originally bought your Dorico Pro 3.5 license? Then I will be able to determine your eligibility for the grace period update and provide you with the necessary code, provided you are indeed eligible.
OK, I sent you a screenshot of my eLicenser and license information. I bought the license through my university and not directly through Steinberg, so I don’t have any proof of payment from Steinberg.
Thanks for your help!