Im gonna start hassling Apple now because I want to run System 7 on my new ARM Mac and they better well accommodate me or else!!
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Please show us where youāve been told you must update when they decide. Because iāve not seen that written anywhere.
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Yes indeed! 
The OP has become unnecessarily irritable and I fail to feel sympathy for someone who throws a public temper-tantrum and begins to insult all of the folks offering common-sense solutions.
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The āofferā and ārebateā contradicts the suggestions that say that IĀ“m want upgrade for free.
I realized about the issue just before 14 release and was 200 update, I decided to wait to black friday and now is 250, but now you said it was offers, and rebates, os is just a game of how much money the company may take from users right? is capitaism. but many say I must support the company? what one? the rebate offer? the sales offer? the actual price?
I just should want a clear politics. No sense criticize me for not supporting the company and the same time blame me for not being looking at their web, or awaiting newsletters or offers. IĀ“m a user not a fan.
I have my account in My steinberg with my main email but I donĀ“t remember have seen no one about the issue, and even no about offers.
So yes, IĀ“m not a āfanā on any company. The only fact that was offers contradicts that some claim me IĀ“m asking favoritism, just because IĀ“m not pending on SB newsletters.
But even if I should, you recognize that were āoffersā just even talk worse about all the issue, so depdending if you are pending on a newsletter a user get the same version with different price, and some of you say is my blame?
And the other point, another posted, the same update is now posible at price, two weeks at another prices because was c13, and but earlier was rebate offers, and is my blame?
I just didnĀ“t realize it because I record most on hardware and use Cubase Pro 10 for mixing, have my job and my life doesnĀ“t revolve around newslatters, so since C10 Pro was enough, I was quiet. I realized that elicenser issue because opened the steinberg web randomdly from a youtube video about Spectralayers, and now I have to decide, keep on a dongle with unknown future, or update, but at the same time I realized that was rebate offers this year, and you blame me??
Even on update:
1- is the same version now, and on june next year
2- But next year will not posibe because they decide not posible even IĀ“m registered.
3- There was offers and rebate offers on the past
IĀ“m not asking preference. If have to update from C10 to 14 because the lincese is a problem prize should be the same, not dependeing on marketing strategies.
The situation where blame me that IĀ“m asking a preference, and at the same forum iĀ“m stupid because I was not attetive to rebate offers, just say you applaud marketing above a firms and stable politics.
On guy said above ālets they get money with the 14 releaseā so just applauding a newbie pay more than others that get the same on an offer?
I really donĀ“t understand what you defend really.
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ItĀ“s clear on the web, options:
1- update before end earlier 2025
2- After that time, will have to buy from Zero.
Can you explain me why, since my data is stored on My Steinberg, why I cannot update on february?
I asked you what you wanted to see moving forward and I canāt make sense of your post. Looks to me like you are just venting. Thatās not necessarily productive.
Because Steinberg is no longer using the eLicenser servers and software.
In the process of moving over to the new system the authorization on the eLicenser dongle goes from being āactiveā (or whatever it is called) to being listed as āupgradedā (or whatever it is called). (my mistake here:When that happens the dongle can no longer be used to run Cubase, as far as I know. Instead you need to use the new system with a version of Cubase that can use the new system.)
Because the authorization on the dongle has to change there needs to be a system in place to read the dongle data and then change it. That is currently the servers with software. If you take that hardware and software out of commission then there will be nothing left to change the dongle.
[edited post to take out or blur mistake]
Nowhere does it say that you must update, itās simply informing you of the closure of the old licensing server.
If you could link to where youāve been told you must update, would be really helpful as it just doesnāt exist as far as I can see.
As above, and twice quoted on this thread. Theyāve said contact them in that instance. The announcement is explaining that it cannot be done via the automated service as the infrastructure will cease to exist.
So any response they can provide after that time will need manual intervention, something which they will clearly work out on an individual basis and as stated in the help page you need to have a license registered to your mysteinberg account so they can qualify it.
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IĀØm not venting.
IĀ“m started asking, then replies blaming me, as if I was stupid. So I just reply to their own contradictions.
From what I did understand on the web, maybe IĀ“m wrong, o the option of update to C14, should get two licences. The original C10 in the elicenser and the C14 on the web.
Anyway, still donĀ“t understand why IĀ“m stupid because have passed ārebate offersā but accussed IĀ“m looking after a preference priceĀæ?
Understood now.
Thank you.
Thatās correct, C10 becomes NFR (Not for resale) which prevents any further updates from that version as C14 is the active license and backwards compatible to C12.
In fact, they may even return C11 NFR license back on the dongle so you have full backwards compatibility from C14? Iām not sure on that though as I went from C11. So maybe notā¦ @MattiasNYC may know as heās better educated than me.
Iām definitely not.
Thanks though 
Not sure, I asked a week ago, and they replied me will no price differents. So i will start a ticket about if they can clear about the options and decide.
As said before, I started using VST32, that if I remember correctly had no dongle, then got the dongle on one SX version.
But now, analizing the issue now the licence will be on the cloud. Sincerely, make me wonder if will be more or less reliable or sutainable than the dongleā¦
I also have an Apollo duo that I have as stand alone and have passed some years without connection to internet because have not bought more plugins butā¦, will work till the machine dies.
The new ācloud licenseā make me wonder more about pros and cons.
At last, the update seems not that bad, since have a C10 on elicense and C14 on ācloudā, in the worse scenario the cloud go wrong have the elicenser if still alive.
But still make me wonder how much complication and long term use.
The amount of energy (electricity) youāve used to type all your responses, you would have paid for half the update already! 
Accept the simple fact that technology and requirements change! You are not writing the code or developing the software, a company can decide whatever it wants to do, and you can then choose to walk away if you want to! A parent cannot keep one child happy all the times, and you think a company can keep thousand of users happy simultaneously?! Get real! When the new licensing was announced, quite few spoke against it, preferring the dongle, in contrast to so many wanting a new flexible licensing method! I believe early on, Steinberg wanted to implement a reactivation every 30 days (call home) but changed it to a one off activation due to users sharing their opinions/frustrations here, so they listened and changed it! Note, this was before the actual change! This time itās different as that server crashed few times when there were new releases, no doubt, some of the people who worked on that system have left/retired, it becomes harder to maintain and doesnāt have the flexibility which many users had been asking for, donāt forget, Steinberg is also competing against others so it needs to adapt to the market! The dongle is old school by todays standards and the newer generation donāt want it, especially since many are purchasing laptops with very few USB ports!
Steinberg customer support is rubbish overall (too slow), and the annual updates do feel like a subscription where they skip on fixing bugs on previous versions, but luckily, you donāt have to upgrade every year, in your case, itās best you do it this time, clearly, because of the new licensing changes and lower cost!
Itās not a case of opinions now, itās happened, accept it and move on with your life! Most of us have already paid for the update, it wouldnāt be fair if you were given a free update for example, not that you are asking for it. The offers are what they are, hopeful they do one before the final switch off and I would think Steinberg will do one, silly not to! You still have time to upgrade to v14 regardless, itās been announced for some time that this change is coming!
Hopefully, after this licence change, there wonāt be one for many years to come and you wonāt need to upgrade every year if you decide not to! Besides, moving from v10 to v14, very little difference in functionality, so your projects should open fine (apart from VST2 plugins being disabled by default which you can correct).
just 2 questions
1- what server crashed? the elicenser, the earlier? the actual? IĀ“m courious
2- Where on my posts I suggested a free update?
Only on the Mac. And that was a big part of Steinberg moving to a dongle. The VST24 ISOs and a free serial number were all over Hotline. Back then Windows users had the big plastic parallel port dongle we had to screw in to get it to run. Still have mine in my VST24 box. And towards the end of its lifespan, VST32ās license was in fact switched over to a USB dongle and you had to return your parallel port one for it.
Ultimately, it just connects the once and pops an activation file on your computer and it needs no further activating after that. You could use that machine for 10 years offline if you wanted, it doesnāt need any other interaction.
This is something Steinberg made possible after communicating with customers that didnāt want the licensing to ācall homeā each month.
There were also instructions on how to move it to another drive or computer when it first went live but I donāt know if the ability to do that exists or not.
Whether it has the lifespan of the dongle, who can say. Personally, I donāt worry about it too much but iāve always exported projects to audio stems so I can move to other software should I need to in the future.
Personally, Iām more precious about my content than the applications used. But appreciate not everyone has that opinion.
As the servers were getting old, whenever there was a paid update thousands of users would do it on day one and the process should be that you buy a key, and when it came to activating it your current license would go to the server for validation and then it would return the new license to your dongle
So, something like this:
[Dongle] ā Old License ā Upgrade Server ā New License ā [Dongle]
But what happened to a large number of users during those busy periods is that the old license would leave the dongle, go to the server which was too busy, and not return back on the dongle:
[Dongle] ā Old License ā STUCK ā New License ā [Dongle]
People were then complaining that Steinberg were stealing or erasing their software, the threads were a nightmare to be honest.
Example of a tame one:
People would then be retrying over and over again which would just cause the the issue to aggravate further. It got to the point where people just stopped updating on the first day and let it settle for a bit.
One instance iām sure that Steinberg staggered the timeframe in which you could first order updates vs upgrades to alleviate the strain.
So, Steinberg were at the mercy of those eLicenser servers, and I think it was a third party that hosted them which didnāt help. But iām not 100% sure on the infrastructure really.
Curious. I didnĀ“t know about the elicenser server fails, none about the new license story.
Have been replied by the support team, that they have no control about the prices, he sai also about offers and rebates, but say update prizes are out of control of them. (Fastspring), so there is a marketing player on this game.
A agree with you about the tools and the content. I have an old yamaha AW4416 and still use it to record.
IĀ“m not agry about paying for a service, but IĀ“m donĀ“t like marketing random offers, thatĀ“s not justified by tech avanced, thatĀ“s just speculation on a market.
The phrase you have what you paid for, is more fair to gear. If you want a U87 or a DPA must pay for it, I have not seen rebates or offers in this sense.
Thanks all for the info. I will wait and think about it.
Well thereās people to pay, and shareholders to please. Itās the modern world really. Think of all the additional accountancy, taxes, legal and human resource staff you have to employ nowadays too - itās not like you can just throw a load of developers in a room each day and then let them out at 9pm!
This is why I initially said to you that itās only Reaper that truly offer a perpetual license with maximum longterm compatibility. Theyāre very lean, and donāt have shareholders to pleaseā¦ But itās far from a suite that Cubase is.
I think Steinberg are one of the better companies out there, but I do have suspicions that the new licensing will eventually be used for subscriptions - but letās hope they donāt have to do that if people see value in their products and update every few years at least.
Itās a good model that they have right now, and I find it fair on the users.
To be sincerely, I donāt use 95% of its features. Got pro because some absurd limits like can mp3 export. But I could live with any version. Use Cubase because is familiar to me. I have two elicencers, and even I could be happy with one have Cubase 9 as a backup.
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