Dorico 5 doesn’t in general need to access a licence from a previous version. However, because you have bought an upgrade from Dorico 3.5 - rather than a standalone licence - and because v5 and v3.5 use different licensing systems, there needs to be a one-off check as part of the upgrade process that there is a valid Dorico 3.5 licence that is available to be upgraded. This can’t reliably be done by Steinberg on the server side because many people have licences on eLicensers that have never been registered with a Steinberg account. Instead it’s done by the eLicenser Control Centre. This means that you need to be able to access your Dorico 3.5 licence.
Thank you! Do you have any idea about how to redeem a new Dorico 3.5 activation code for eLicenser?
Can you email me proof of purchase of your original Dorico 3.5 license and your Dorico 5 update, to d dot spreadbury at steinberg dot de, and I’ll take care of this for you?
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I have the same problem… hard disk crash, new operating system and I cannot install or upgrade any of my licences. I tried everything, I followed the instructions for the reactivation, used all the registration numbers I have received via email, none of them work. When I login to my account I have no licences I can reactivate. Also, when I click on my products on my Steinberg account, it looks like I never bought anything, but I have several proofs of purchase. Any advice ?
Sorry to hear you’re having problems, @llandini. Please send me a private message here on the forum with the relevant details (e.g. any email addresses you are currently using or have previously used to register Steinberg products) and I’ll see what I can do to help.
Hi Daniel, thanks for your help. I’ve sent a private message yesterday but in the meantime I think I managed to solve the problem. It was a specific passage of the reactivation procedure that I misunderstood, I’ll explain it here in case other people are in the same situation…
When I initially clicked on [Reactivate] the list of licences was empty. I then clicked on “Register elicenser / software” and the label on the field says “Enter your eLicenser number”. A this point I entered the number of the elicenser I installed on my new hard drive. Of course this elicenser has no licences attached, it’s new 
. But I couldn’t understand how I could enter the old elicenser number, as I lost the content of the hard drive. And that was where I was stuck.
The solution is a sentence in the help centre saying:
“Among others, you can apply the already used activation code for registering a licence”
Basically, despite the label, that field accepts also a standard activation code, and the system uses the activation code to find the “lost” eLicenser number.
So, to recap:
If you have lost your eLicenser number due to a hard drive crash, simply put the activation code received via email in the field labelled “Enter your elicenser number” and your licence will be registered
Thanks !
Leonardo
Great, I’m glad you were able to sort this out for yourself, Leonardo. I hope it’s plain sailing from here!
I am desperate to solve this EXACT same issue - Any chance I can email you directly? I haven’t heard back from Steinberg yet. Thank you! - Brian, NYC
I can’t seem to solve this exact issue on my own. I would be grateful for any assistance. I’m pretty computer savvy and still can’t solve. 
Thank you! - Brian, NYC
It’s the middle of the night in London where the developers live. I’m sure they’ll respond when they can.
Meanwhile– Welcome to the forum.