Hi guys, hope you’re all well. I own a MacBook Pro 15" Retina (2015 model) with 16 GB RAM and a 512 GB SSD. I’m running the latest El Capitain and eLicense Control Centre.
Due to the fact I only have 2 USB ports, I’m using a USB 3 hub on one of the ports which houses the following:
I sometimes have also tried the eLicenser on one of the ports on my Apple keyboard too.
From time to time, the eLicenser simply stops being recognised on my Mac. The right is still on but Cubase hangs on start and eventually spits out the “No valid License found. The program will quit now.” message.
If I open eLicense Control Centre, it just loads forever.
If I disconnect the dongle, kill all Synsopos processes and plug it in again (to the same port), it often resolves the problem.
This happens pretty frequently (say 1 time a day) and is really really frustrating. All other devices on the hub work perfectly at all times, but I will be getting a new Belkin Thunderbolt 2 Express Dock soon too which might be a bit more robust than the hub.
My dongle is a couple of years old and although I don’t believe it’s faulty, here’s a pic of the dongle below:
The USB connector does look a pinch crooked but it’s been like this for ages and used to work perfectly on my PC previously (which was around late 2014).
That looks like a fairly old elIcenser. The newer ones have been redesigned to prevent that from happening.
I’m not sure if this will completely fix your issue, but I would recommend buying the newest model: USB-eLicenser | Steinberg
This one is more mobile friendly and far less likely to break overall. It may also perform very slightly better due to new hardware being used (I haven’t checked this).
Just to clarify, my dongle is the 2nd one on the left here:
Buying direct from Steinberg is very pricey for me as there is a > $40 shipping charge to Australia (which is strange since YAMAHA Australia should be sending these out locally).
I’m going to visit another retailer soon which sells it cheaper to ensure I get the smaller version of the dongle which would be greatly beneficial to me. I just hope it also resolves this problem.
