i have a dongle for Cubase 4 and wish to upgrade to Cubase7. do i need another dongle?
No
cheers for that
it is helpful though to have 2 Steinberg ELicense key 
Why?
extra licences or registering a spare dongle with Steinberg just in case something happens to the original one .
I have 3 dongles
The studio one with Cubase , Wl , Soundsets , PS pro , halion 5
The laptop one with Cubase elements .
The spare one with the 24 hour licence on just in case any major problems happen 
Yeah, spares are the only way to go. I have 2 newest style ones and one from Cubase SX days. One of the new ones came with a full Cubase install I bought, still has the 25 hour license (which works for any Steinberg product) and sits in a drawer.
Avoid nervous breakdown for $25. Cheaper than Xanax.
exactly Steve , anything to keep the valium to the minimum 
Hiya,
Hmm, interesting, I’ve not heard of the 24 (or 25?) hour licence. Tho’ a search implies it is on new dongles, but can it be ‘retrofitted’ to older dongles that didn’t come with one? I did buy a new dongle a few years back but it didn’t come with anything like that! Have I got this right then, a 24 hour licence comes with newly purchased dongles nowadays and people purchase these but keep them unused in case they lose they’re real permanent licenced dongle?
Mike.
I have only seen it on dongles that come with a new version (not update/upgrade), and not on dongles bought stand-alone.
Yes I think mine came on the halion 4 dongle
Just keep in mind that this is a false security. If “something happens” with your old dongle, it makes no difference of you buy a new one or have one registered. Your old dongle was your license! And if it gone, so is your license.
completely false information there , it’s down to steinbergs discretion and in most cases Steinberg allow the transfer of a lost or stolen dongle ONCE
The important thing here is that they don’t have to! They might do it out of kindness, but I’ve read about several occasions where they haven’t. You can’t demand that they transfer the license, should they deny it. It also depends on how you have handled the dongle. For example, if you have left the dongle in a laptop at a venue, that a large number of people has had access to…good luck finding a very sympathetic support representative.
The basic rule is that Steinberg only have to transfer the license from a damaged dongle, if you can provide them with the damaged dongle in such a condition that they can verify it’s content. Everything else is out of kindness of their hearts and goodwill. And don’t forget that you might have licenses from other vendors aswell, and Steinberg can’t transfer those without the other vendors consent.
The eLicencer dongle itself might be quite cheep to replace, but that’s not it’s true value. Add together the cost of replacing all the software for which you have licenses on it. That’s its true value, and handle it accordingly. If you take the assumption that Steinberg automatically will replace all the lost licenses if it was stolen or destroyed for granted, you do so at your own peril.
I treat mine almost as if were a bar of gold. I say “almost” because I don’t lock it in a safe over night, but perhaps I should.
The important thing here is that if you provide proof to Steinberg then they will allow the transfer of licence ONCE and it is not out of Kindness as you state it is providing the correct info to Steinberg but as you say , if you want to spend £500 + on a licence and treat it like a throw around toy then on your head be it !
In your statement you make it sound like instant death to anyone that looses or has a licence stolen ,well that is certainly not the case .
And there is the catch. How do you do that when it’s been stolen (borrow it from the thief?) or destroyed? How is Steinberg to know that you simply hasn’t given it to your best Buddy?
Good luck when something like that happens to your dongle. I still regard good insurance and responsible handling a better bet.
But what I was interested in personally was the idea of having a 24hour licence as a backup for that Sunday when my dongle fails and I can’t get hold of Steinberg to apply for licence transfer and none of the shops will sell me a new Cubase!
I really think that there’s a lot of room for improvement in the way the licencing is controlled.
For example, if Steinberg offered an optional 72 hour ‘spare’ licence on each new dongle sold, for a few quid of course, then I would definitely go for this as a backup for future disasters.
Also in this day and age of the Steinberg hub, i.e. permanent DAW’s connected to the web, I’d be very happy if they could check my licence online and enable me to take my laptop out and about without the dongle… Again, for an extra cost, with only one DAW ‘in operation’ at any time (via the online check) say.
I think that people and studios are prepared to pay for some of these options, I am…
Mike.
This is inaccurate.
If a license replacement has been refused, then there is a reason… and trust me, some are pictoresque.
But lost licenses are replaced only once.
We can’t replace other vendor’s license, but won’t refuse to confirm the dongle got lost or broken or stolen, if asked.
Having a spare one is very useful, besides the 25-Hours licence, we can provide Trial Licenses so that it is possible to continue to work with no down-time.
In case something happens, Support will give all of the information on how to proceed (not depending on the guy’s good or bad mood, there is a standard procedure ).
Don’t you invalidate the licenses on a dongle once it’s been reported as stolen or lost? That way noone can use it even if they find/steal it.
Yes, the USBe-Licensers are disabled and marked accordingly.