Is it now possible to Buy Cubase Pro/Artist 12 second hand?

I can’t see any info on buying Cubase 12 second hand using the new licensing system.
Is this possible and would be grateful for a link to the support page.
Thanks

Yes, they have a resale wizard and new owner gets a download key to activate it.

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I notice that Cubase AI is linked to the hardware that it was bundled with.
So is it allowed to buy Cubase 12 that was upgraded from Cubase AI even though you aren’t buying the original hardware that AI came with?
Thanks

My understanding is that it should be fine provided the seller can transfer the key to your account.

Starting with Cubase 12, the registration was moved to a new dongle-free system. Transfer of licenses is done through your MyStenberg accounts.

You’ll probably want to go ahead and get the Steinberg Download Assistant so you can easily and accurately install the most up to date stuff that’ll work with your keys. You might be required to get your license accepted before it will download much.

To do that, after the seller has transferred keys, you’ll first install Download Assistant, then launch the “Steinberg Activation Manager” that gets added to your system app/start bar. Activate registration of Cubase 12 for your computer, and at that point the Download assistant should grant you access to everything you’ll need to download.

With the older elicencer based stuff: Once you ‘upgrade’ a key to a higher and or bigger version of Cubase, the key(s) being upgraded at the time are replaced and become the ‘new version’, so no requirement for specific hardware exists any longer.

I.E. If the seller started with Cubase AI, then later upgraded to full Cubase Pro, that AI key should have been ‘replaced’ on their eLisencer with a full Cubase Pro key.

With a Cubase Pro 12 key, you can also run the little brother versions (Artist, SE, LE, AI, etc) if you wish, and it shouldn’t be bound to any specific hardware.

If the seller also upgraded the keys on a dongle, or soft-elicenser at some point, be sure to ask for those too! You will need that if you ever desire ‘rolling back’ to older versions of Cubase (11.5 and before).

Make it a point to ask for those older eLicenser keys! If the seller had them on a dongle (not sure if the AI version needed this), then they’ll need to include their original dongle in the deal, or move it to a fresh dongle for you (Once Cubase eLicencer keys are put on a dongle, they can never be moved by back to a soft eLicencer partition, but they can be moved to a new Steinberg dongle)!

If they never had a dongle and there are associated keys from the older eLiscener system, then the seller should release the key(s) in their MyStienberg account and transfer them to yours. Such a key will be called something like Cubase 12, and will be marked as (Not Upgradable). You won’t need it unless you intend to ‘roll back’ to older versions of Cubase.

If the seller never had a key on any eLicencer at all, and jumped straight to Cubase 12 somehow…be sure to get any registration codes that the seller received with their initial Cubase Pro upgrade so you can have such a key generated (you’d do that through the old eLicencer Manager software, and it ‘might’ require a dongle)!

Once you have Cubase 12 up and running…
Check your MyStienberg account to see if you have any unused promotional vouchers that might be of interest (Free or Discounted third party plugins).

If you don’t see any vouchers, you might ask the seller about the ones of interest that you might have been entitled.

Depending upon the policy of the third parties in question, the seller ‘might’ be able to transfer some of those plugins (if they activated them already in their own name) to you as well.

If the seller never touched any of those vouchers, they should eventually show up in your MySteinberg Account? If they never show up, you might contact Steinberg Support to see if they’ll make it happen for you.

See this thread for more info about Plugin Vouchers:

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Thanks.
That sounds very complicated.

It’ll be better in the long run. It’s due to a transition from dongle-ware to a different way of product registration.


are you still interested in buying a license ?