How to deactivate an online activation PC to offline activation

I just updated to Cubase Elements 12 from 9.5, and I definitely do not like that I have to Sign In every time I want to use Elements 12. So my question is, how would I be able to deactivate the PC I activated Elements 12 on, to make the same PC “Offline Activation” instead? Would appreciate someone’s help with this matter.

BTW, my PC is a Dell G5 (32GB of RAM, 2TB SSD drive & running on Windows 11)

You should not have to sign in every time. Are you certain that’s what’s happening?

If you are interested in offline activation, do a search for those terms on the Steinberg Support website.

Yes, every time I launch Elements 12, the Activation Manager pops up and tells me to Sign In. On one occasion, I did not sign in, and Elements 12 froze on the Splash screen stating on the bottom left hand something about “validating license.” When I already registered Elements 12 onto the Soft eLicenser, and actually activated on the Activation Manager. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

I haven’t seen this myself.

When you sign in with the browser, a file is saved on your machine with the login token, so to speak. I have a hunch that that file cant be accessed.
Could be due to file permissions, file corruption, or other things.

Make sure the SAM is up to date- it’s 1.4.11.903 (displayed in the lower right corner of the SAM)

Hi Steve, not to sound like a complete noob, but the SAM is in fact the Steinberg Activation Manager, correct? I’ll check it out.

Just checked the SAM, it’s up to date - 1.4.11.903.

Have you done all the basic troubleshooting, like restarting the computer?

I don’t know how comfortable you are with advanced troubleshooting steps, so please, don’t do this if you not sure about it.

If you rename the folder at %appdata%\Steinberg\Activation Manager , you will initialize the SAM. Then you can login anew, and check if that resolved the problem. The only reason that would work would be if there was a problem in the folder %appdata%\Steinberg\Activation Manager (paste the file path into the Windows Run command (keystroke Win+R)

The problem could also stem from some other config on your system, but there’s no way to see your setup from here.

To start, the SAM as admin should resolve permission problems.
Could be worth a try.

Hi Steve, I’m pretty proficient, so I’ll try your recommendation. Just to get it right, I go into the cmd & enter %appdata%\Steinberg\Activation Manager, correct? Would appreciate your reply.

Not exactly.

I think you would be better off contacting tech support.

Hi Steve, I figured out what you actually meant. It was the “Run” program; however, I already emailed tech support. BTW, I tried the Windows Run command , pasted the file path, and it actually opened the Activation Manager file in appdata, so what would I rename too?

BTW, thank you for your assistance.

Yes, you land in the Steinberg Activation Manager folder.

It contains the user settings. If the contents are removed, or if the name of that folder itself is modified, it has the effect of initializing the SAM. Then, you would run the SAM, login again and observe if the problem reproduces or not.

So there’s no guarantee that this will fix anything – it’s more of a troubleshooting step, and if you’re talking with tech support (USA?) you might do better to wait for their advice, and just deal with the tedious logging in each time.