Solved: Licence not found Groove Agent

Cubase
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1

If anyone has any ideas I’d be very grateful. I bought Cubase Pro 12 in 2022, installed it on a Windows 10 PC, it ran fine, including Groove Agent. I’ve now changed my DAW PC to Windows 11, so I used the download assistant and activation manager to install Cubase Pro 12 on the Windows 11 PC.

Cubase Pro 12 runs fine on the newer Windows 11 PC as do HALion Sonic, Padshop and Retrologue, but Groove Agent is blocked by the message “No Licence Found”.

Steinberg Activation Manager presents the message:

“No license for Groove Agent SE has been found on your computer, so your software cannot run. Click “Retry” if a license has just been added to your account.”

I tried clicking retry, no change, I also tried “more information”, but I wasn’t able to fix the issue.

I booted up my now mothballed Windows 10 PC, went online just to log in to My Steinberg and activate Cubase Pro 12 again on it. It all ran fine, including Groove Agent. I went back to my newer Windows 11 PC, Groove Agent still will not run, complaining of license not found.

Any ideas why Cubase Pro 12, HALion Sonic, Padshop and Retrologue all run fine on both PCs, whereas Groove Agent SE runs fine on the Windows 10 PC but is blocked by the message “No Licence Found” on Windows 11 PC?

I tried sending a support request 11 days ago but haven’t seen any response. I just checked and under “supported software” Cubase support only includes 14 and 15, so maybe because my issue relates to version 12 it is ignored by support. Perhaps I have to buy an upgrade to Cubase Pro 15 before they will talk to me?

I tried downloading and reinstalling Cubase Pro 12, no change.

Any ideas? Thanks.

2

Does it happen when you load a project or just loading Cubase 12? Did you already try to clear the preference folder? After a backup of course.

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I haven’t tried loading a previously created project, just starting Cubase with the “create empty” option on the startup hub.

I navigated to \Users\\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\Cubase 12_64\ and copied the entire contents to a backup location then deleted everything in that folder. Not sure if that’s what you meant! But without any saved preferences Cubase started up ok just without my customised background colours etc. But same problem with license not found for Groove Agent.

4

Try deactivating and reactivating Cubase 12 on Activation Manager. Also have a look inside the library manager if there’s some library missing or something related with groove agent

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5

Hi,

this looks like you might have picked the wrong Groove Agent version by accident. Or a version that is not supported anymore.
In Windows, please go to Apps and deinstall Groove Agent.
Now, download just Groove Agent SE 6.0.10 including Groove Agent SE Content directly using this download link:

This version got a recent update and hopefully it will run smooth on your Win 11 system.

You don’t have to buy Cubase 15 just to get an answer from Steinberg support. At least, I have never heard of anything like that and I don’t think I will … :wink:
Steinberg support is known to take its time to put it mildly. If you are based in a country with telephone support access - they are fast and knowledgeable.
Otherwise, the forum is always a good adress - loads of nice people like @Puli willing to help out as you already know by now :slight_smile:

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“this looks like you might have picked the wrong Groove Agent version by accident.”

I was just thinking about that, he might have installed the Groove Agent full version by mistake. Perhaps if that was a activation manager problem he could terminate the process through the windows task manager and then launch it, that will force to read all licences.

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Yeah, this or it could be a more recent Groove Agent SE version that is not backward compatible. Groove Agent SE has undergone quite a few changes over the past years so this might be a reason, too. Hopefully, @badbadger will let us know :slight_smile:

In this case, I would also recommend to deinstall the content, too. Just to avoid stumbling into non-licensed content when using Groove Agent SE.

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8

Solved!!!

Thanks so much Puli and Reco29 for your replies and willingness to help. Very kind of you.

I’ve been busy the past couple of hours testing your suggestions.

Your comments about GA versions helped me find the solution.

I hadn’t checked until you raised the issue which version of GA I had on both PCs, because Steinberg Download Manager didn’t let me choose which version of GA to install. Rather, when I ran the Download Manager, it showed Cubase Pro 12 on the left, and all the related components in the panel on the right.

Windows list of installed apps showed the only installed version of Groove Agent on my Windows 11 PC as GA SE 6. The one that complains no license.

Whereas my Windows 10 PC showed the installed version of GA as GA SE 5. This is the one that ran ok. An a-ha moment, it’s a version issue.

My version of Cubase Pro 12 on my Windows 11 PC is 12.0.70 build 464, Jun 16 2023.

That link you sent me Reco29 offers a download that includes GA SE 6, but that’s the one I already have on the Windows 11 PC that says no license. It’s great you sent me that link, as further down the page I saw a list of earlier Cubase Pro 12 installers. I downloaded them and looked for one that was released just before I first installed Cubase Pro 12 on my Windows 10 PC. That was version 12.0.40.

On the Windows 11 PC I uninstalled Groove Agent SE 6 and ran the 12.0.40 installer, opting to have it reinstall Cubase Pro 12 plus all components. Then I ran the Steinberg Download Assistant and opted to have it update Cubase Pro from 12.0.40 to 12.0.70. Et voila, Groove Agent SE 6 runs fine!

So it appears Cubase Pro 12 first had GA SE5, by Cubase Pro 12.0.70 that had changed to GA SE6. But getting the license to run GA SE6 required me not to run the 12.0.70 installer from scratch, but first run the 12.0.40 installer and then patch it to the 12.0.70 as an update.

Thanks again for your help guys!

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9

Well done!! Quite the detective work, kudos.
I once ran into a similar problem around version 8 or 9. Not as tricky as yours, though.

Thanks for sharing :+1:

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10

Cool :smiley:
Don’t forget to mark your solution.

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