Spare/Back up eLicenser (in event of failure or to minimise down time)

Cubase
1

I was considering contingency plans should my eLicenser stop working. It is around 8 years old.
I have a new eLicenser of about 1 year old that shipped with my Cubase 9 version (Still in the box).

I was just wondering what the procedure would be to transfer the licenses onto a new USB eLicensor.

I suppose 2 scenarios would be helpful to know more about.

  1. Transferring the licenses now to avert problems from an old USB eLicensor failure. (I assume a new one is less likely to fail)

  2. What to do in the event of a failure with the old one.

It would be helpful if someone from Steinberg could run through this so there is a thread to get the information
so the least downtime can be experienced. I suspect we can all find dongle breakage a concern.

Many thanks.

2

All this info can be found on the Steinberg website, and in several threads across the forums…

3

I share what I have found thus far:

https://www.steinberg.net/nc/en/support/knowledgebase_new/show_details/kb_show/how-to-transfer-a-license-from-soft-elicenser-to-usb-elicenser

I am creating a document with logins for MySteinberg, eLicenser serials and activations in a folder along with these links as an offline reference
in the event that such a problem occurs. It might reduce downtime and stress a bit in the event of such problems. Having a spare eLicenser is useful for Zero Down Time registration which affords you a critical 25 hour extension.

Thus far never had a problem but since I have a new DAW going into service soon I started thinking about contingency.

4

It’s very unlikely for the eLicenser to stop working out of nowhere. There are usually warning signs, and you can transfer your licenses to another eLicenser easily if you suspect that your dongle is dying.

The only exception is the very long blue eLicenser from the Cubase SX 1 era, the one to the left:

This one is very prone to malfunctioning, and on top of that it makes Cubase and Steinberg VST plugins run much less responsively than usual. You should transfer your licenses right now if you’re using this eLicenser.

Only the first one is affected by performance issues. The rest allow Cubase to run as fast as possible.


If your eLicenser stops working before you are able to transfer your licenses, you’ll have to contact support through your MySteinberg.
If you can’t wait for support, you can activate Steinberg Zero Downtime, which allows you to continue working immediately, for as long as you have a spare eLicenser around: https://www.steinberg.net/en/support/steinbergzerodowntime

5

Good info.