the preferences not updating perfectly.
I didnt even have the new auto alignment feature at all after updating to 8.1, possibly a few other features were weird as well. but once trashing the preferences folder, all seems well, no other specifics, just thinking out aloud.
You (always) need to update your elicencer.
Fredo
I did the elicenser maintenance, and made no difference. only deleting the preferences folder fixed the missing feature. Which makes me think how many other issues may also be caused by the same (preferences not correctly updated by the nuendo version updater) problem.