I have Dorico 4 Pro and today I got the dreaded ‘No license found’ error. I looked in Windows Programs and Features and no updates have been made since February 9, 2022 and I’ve used Dorico 4 Pro almost every day without problems since then, until today. As mentioned in previous posts the VST Audio Engine wasn’t even showing in task manager after I killed Dorico in task manager, so it wasn’t even there to kill.
Can someone help me? It seems that the licensing system is rather fragile and needs some work. Meanwhile, I can’t work in Dorico. I should not have to restart my PC to get it to work correctly. I did finally try restarting my PC which made no difference. I’m still getting the ‘no license error’.
I have NEVER experienced such a convoluted upgrade process. PLEASE FIX YOUR UPGRADE / LICENSING PROCESS!!! No other app I’ve ever used has such a complicated licensing process that uses SO many different apps just to license a software product. I’ve never had to use the dongle with Dorico 3.5 and had no issues with installing and activating Dorico 3.5 Pro. Dorico 4.0 Pro was fine since February 4, 2022 until today when it told me ‘no license found’. And now it’s saying my Dorico 3.5 Pro version is “not upgradable”!!!
This is very aggravating and making me think twice about upgrading in the future.
Please, please, please SIMPLIFY the process. I feel like I need a degree in computer science just to upgrade to the next version of Dorico!
Steps I’ve taken to try to resolve the issue:
Restarted my PC (made no difference)
Uninstalled and resintalled Dorico 4, but it insists it’s “already installed” even though I uninstalled it in Programs and Features. This made no difference.
The eLicenser is like a black hole and no help at all because it keeps showing that 3.5 Pro is 'not upgradable ’ so it won’t let me apply my download code. Gave up on the eLicenser which really should be trashed as it doesn’t seem to work very reliably.
Started up Studio One 5.5 Pro (Presonus) thinking it would force the VST Audio Engine to run which it did. After this I started up Dorico and the ‘no license’ message flashed briefly, but then and ONLY then Dorico finally opened. After this, I closed Dorico and reopened it with Studio One remaining open. This time, the no license message did not come up and Dorico simply opened. Then, just to make sure there was no further dependency on Studio One, I closed Dorico and Studio One, waited about 30 seconds, re-opened Dorico by itself and it worked.
Steinberg Dorico 4 Pro support: PLEASE read that point numbers 4 and 5 and take note. This is crazy!!!
One hopes that the process of transferring from the older licensing scheme to the new one opened the process up to multiple potential pitfalls given the variety of ways people were transitioning and the variety of hardware involved.
Presumably future upgrades, all done within the new system, will be smoother. We should find out this week or thereabouts.
rothvin,
it is not totally clear, what your issue is.
a) You are talking about the upgrade process from 3.5 to 4.0 and it’s different and new licensing system. You must have gone past these steps and have a working system since beginning of February.
b) And you are talking about your new 4.0 version not being recognised as a licensed version suddenly.
If I understand rightly, part a) was not easy, but you got it to work. Now your computer does not recognise Dorico 4 Pro as licensed, but a restart does help?
@rothvin, I can see from the Steinberg Licensing back-end that you have activated Dorico Pro 4 today, so is the issue now resolved for the time being?
I suspect the issue you experienced is that the update wasn’t verified at the time you first installed and activated it, so you ended up with a 30-day “pending verification” license that then expired. However, it looks to me like everything is OK: your Dorico 3.5 license showing “not upgradeable” is expected, and means that it has been successfully upgraded to Dorico 4, and you now have a permanent Dorico 4 activation showing in our system.
Future updates from Dorico 4 and later versions will be much easier because they won’t need to involve the eLicenser system at all. I’m confident that when Dorico 5 arrives in the far future, you’ll find that update experience much smoother.
Just had similar problems upgrading from 3.5 to 4.10. It’s an absolute nightmare. They really need to fix this, if I’m confused then how is the average user (who may not be computer savvy) going to cope?
Activation manager wouldn’t run, so I clicked ‘relaunch’, this button simply doesn’t work.
I eventually got the product running and activated but only after a lot of mind numbing, convoluted clicking. I also have never used a product that makes you jump through hoops like this just to use it. Hopefully these issues, (which shouldn’t exist in the first place) will be fixed.
Sorry to hear that you had problems upgrading, Nick. Thousands of Dorico users updated with no problems but of course there will always be exceptional cases, and I’m sorry you ended up in that unlucky minority!
For future reference, if you run into this kind of issue again, I would recommend running Steinberg Activation Manager separately: if you can sign in there and see your license is working correctly, then you should find that Dorico (or Cubase, or whatever) will start right up without prompting you to open SAM at all.
I’ve had a quick look on the server back-end and your Dorico Pro 4 license is definitely correctly activated, so you should have no further problems. Sorry again for the inconvenience.
re: Helping a friend who got stuck in the license upgrade spiral: The helpful US Steinberg chat agent provided a direct link to download the updated Steinberg Activation Manager, which we installed after rebooting.
Apparently, if you stick with it, it all works out in the end. We used the Download Manager to update to 4.0.2, and after a couple more screens asking him to login, etc., he’s up and running. A brand-new future Dorician has been born!