I work in a studio in the UK, I recently upgraded to cubase 10.5 from cubase 5, and received my activation code via email. I also bought a USB e-licenser and tried to register my new product (cubase 10.5) with the licenser. I have registered the USB e-licenser as well as the software e-licenser on my computer with my Steinberg account. But whenever I enter my activation code I just get the message; ‘Currently, there is no license available which can be upgraded by your upgrade license. Please connect an USB- eLicenser which holds an appropriate upgradable license to your computer’.
I’ve tried forums and different videos to try and figure this out and I’ve had no luck. I bought the upgrade to cubase 10.5 a couple of months ago now and so I’m really eager to get this sorted. I’ve opened support tickets with Steinberg but no one has replied to me… Any help anyone could give would be really appreciated, thank you!
What exactly are you upgrading/updating from and to. Cubase artist, pro … ?
Are you sure you bought the right update ?
I am updating from Cubase 5 to Cubase 10.5 pro. Yes, fairly confident I bought the correct update
I’m a little confused, you bought a Dongle you say. But Cubase 5 would not be able to run without a Dongle.
So you should have a Dongle already that has a Cubase 5 license on it. To update, eLicenser control center will use that old license together with the activation code you have received to create a Cubase pro 10.5 license, replacing the Cubase 5 license.
If you have the license on an old dongle, you can plug in both dongles and move the Cubase 5 license from the old to the new using the eLicenser control center.
If you on the other hand have a Cubase 5 version that not requires a dongle, then it uses a soft eLicenser.
This license can also be moved to the dongle before UPGRADING to the more powerful PRO version.
The devil is in the details 
Hi yes, sorry I should have clarified this. Cubase 5 uses a software eLicenser, but it doesn’t show up in my eLicence Support Centre software and I can’t see a way of adding it. It’s registered on my Steinberg account under ‘eLicensers’ but I can’t see it in the native application. Any ideas where I’m going wrong here…? Thanks for your reply!
If you post an image of your Elicenser window maybe it will be easier to understand.
I thought Cubase 5 used a hardware elicenser. The software licenses were for lower or free versions.
Well, that shows a license for Cubase 4, not 5.
But it’s the Elicenser Control Center application on your computer I was actually asking about.
Hi Joe,
As you can see the Cubase 4 license is on the 360159… USB eLicenser. On the second screenshot there is only the new 1970734… USB eLicenser, which doesn’t have any license on it.
You can now activate your update to Cubase 11 on the 360159… USB eLic or move the license from the old to the new dongle and then activate the update on the new USB eLic.
Or is your problem that you have attached both dongles, but only the 1970734… is recognised by the eLic system?
Best,
Matthias