Is my USB-elicenser faulty (not server related!)?

Hi all…

I was forced to reinstall elicenser control centre last week to fix an instability. I use Cubase Pro 10.5 as well as Cubase LE (with separate full Retrologue 2 license) on the same laptop so that I can do some basic Cubase-ing when travelling & to avoid losing my USB dongle & Retrologue kept crashing in both Pro & LE.

Unfortunately, in a moment of comedy bad timing this was coincident with the time that the Steinberg servers went down! I’ve just spent an hour trying to get my licenses back!

During the outage I noticed that the USB dongle red light wasn’t on & ECC kept saying that no USB elicenser was detected - I assumed this was something to do with the outage.

However, when the servers returned earlier today, ECC still refused to recognise the USB dongle, saying it wasn’t connected. I tried different USB ports & another reinstall of ECC, no change. I noticed that when I changed USB ports the red light on the dongle would illuminate for a few seconds, then go off.

I eventually found success via the ECC help application (from Steinberg Support site) which involved another ECC reinstall - I’m not sure what changed but the USB dongle sprung into life.

However, I noticed that the red light slowly pulses - it’s something I’ve not noticed before, although the dongle is not normally in my field of view.

Is this pulsing normal?

Also, was it normal that during the server outage, & prior to ECC reorganising the dongle, that there was no red light?

I’m wondering if the server outage was actually a different issue & that the dongle has developed a fault. Although it’s working now, will it continue to do so? Given that my USB dongle is under 12 months old I may be able to get a warranty replacement.

Thanks all!

yes.

I would just observe the dongle for a few days. It sounds like once you did your steps it began working normally.

Hi Steve, thanks for that.

On a related note, I’ve just discovered another problem!

As mentioned above, I have both Cubase Pro & Cubase LE, plus a full license for Retrologue 2, on one laptop - I use Cubase Pro at home with the USB-licenser & Cubase LE when I am travelling.

I’ve just noticed that following all of the reinstalling etc. reequired that the licenses for Cubase LE & Retrologue 2 have transferred from my Soft-elicenser to my USB-licenser! I need the LE & Retrologue licenses as software so that I can use Cubase LE & Retrologue when I travel & leave the USB-elicenser at home.

Any ideas why has this happened? Is it reversible? The Steinberg Support site suggests that USB to software license transfer is not possible. I’ll be really unhappy if I can’t reverse this…

Many thanks…

Sorry to say, it sounds like you dragged the soft licenses onto the usb key.

Hi, nope, didn’t do that…!

I didn’t even know dragging-&-dropping was possible until I after noticed that the licenses had transferred & I read it on the Support site as a method of transferring licenses to a USB dongle.

I’m guessing something odd has gone on with the servers reactivating & me having 2 versions of Cubase on the same machine.

Might need a call to Steinberg Support…

It’s not possible for a license to be moved from an SeL to a USB key without user intervention. Sorry.

That’s really weird as that’s exactly what happened.

Until the server issues my Pro & Absolute 4 licenses were shown under USB, & the LE & Retrologue under Soft-elicenser.

After the multiple reinstalls the LE & Retrologue licenses were missing from the ECC only my Pro & Absolute 4 licenses were there.

So I copied the download activation codes for both products from my Steinberg account, pasted them into the license activation field & after the licenses were downloaded they appeared in the USB section!

So no obvious user intervention on my part… :thinking:

Probably you had the USB key selected in the Elicenser app rather than the SeL when you hit the button to download the license.

Maybe Steinberg Support will be sympathetic and will help you reverse the action,

That’s a possibility yeah but I don’t recall seeing the option - I was losing interest by this point! :rofl:

I hope Steinberg will be sympathetic given that it was their servers that probably caused it…

Thanks for the input :+1:t2:

good luck! :upside_down_face:

So all sorted - Steinberg phone support very sympathetic. Cubase LE & Retrologue 2 back on the Soft-elicenser where they belong & Cubase Pro & Absolute 4 on the USB.

I think I shall disconnect my USB each time I try to perform ECC maintenance from now on…!

1 Like