New Macbook - how to move Dorico license from another computer

Hi everyone,
I’m sure that this may have been asked before but I couldn’t find the correct thread in this forum…

I run Dorico 4.2.0 on a 2019 Intel MacbookPro but will change to a MacbookPro M1 Pro 2021 this week. I plan to migrate everything with a recent time machine backup. Will I have to unregister Dorico on my old Macbook before migrating?
What are the exact steps to do? I want to transfer the licence, the 2019 Macbook will no longer be in use after.
Thank you for help (or a link to the correct thread)

There are really two facts to bear in mind.

First, you won’t be able to deactivate your licence on a particular computer unless you actually have SAM running on that computer - having the files from that computer is not enough. So if, for example, you are planning to sell your old computer, then you probably want to deactivate all your licences on that computer first. You don’t have to do this before the migration though.

Second, the data that SAM saves about your licence will be specific to a specific computer, so migrating the files from the old one to the new one won’t actually migrate the licence - you will still need to sign in and activate on the new computer anyway.

The upshot is that you don’t actually need to deactivate the licence on your old computer before the migration, but you probably want to.

If you do, what you need to do is:

  • start up SAM on the old computer, and either click the “Deactivate” button for your licence, or Sign Out (which will deactivate all your licences as well as signing out)
  • after migrating, on the new computer you can either run SAM and Sign In there, or you can just run Dorico, which will launch SAM for you
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Thank you! SAM is Steinberg Activation Manager, right?

Yes, that’s right.