This wasn’t happening before the update, and everything (well, a single plugin still on elicenser) still works as expected. This is quite disruptive and annoying, and I wonder if there’s someone at Steinberg that could offer advice (I’m actually not sure where to post this). Thanks!
Aside from ensuring you are on the most up-to-date versions of SAM and eLC, I’m not sure there’s much else you can do. I suspect that the eLC problem - which will be some sort of crash or hang - was still happening even before now, but it is only in more recent versions of SAM that we have been able to detect it and report it to the user. If you are not using the eLicenser at all then there is a way of telling SAM not to check eLicenser licences - you can to set “enableELicenser” to “false” in the Activation Manager settings.json. It sounds like you’re still using that plugin though.
I would try to run the eLicenser Control Center and perform the Maintenance Task. If you don’t get prompted to do that already during launching of the eLCC, you can invoke it via Actions > Maintenance
There are two plugins on the dongle that I still use. The “recover” process had no results and now I have a new window in the project with one of those plugins:
Is the USB-eLicenser still connected to your computer? According to the screenshot it does not get detected. What if you unplug it and replug again?
You can do that while the eLC is open. Does the USB-eLicenser get detected again?
Ulf, you were right - I checked the Device Manager and indeed the eLC wasn’t showing up. Re-plugging it (even in the middle of everything opened!) forced Windows to see it again and now everything back up and running.