How Best To Fix Full Install Problems?
I tried out DAZ Studio on a laptop and got hooked. So I bought a new computer with dual GPUs for faster rendering.
On the new computer, I guess I made a mistake by asking Install Manager to install everything, including all the content I purchased since getting started. I thought I'd go away for an hour and come back to a computer ready to render.
However, there must be something about the order of installs, because on the new computer, even though Install Manager says everything is installed, DAZ Studio can't find a lot of my content. I think the items are in the proper folders on disk, but DS doesn't have them in its content database. When I realized a certain hair style was missing (both in the Smart Content and Products panes), I went to IM's "Installed" tab and clicked the Uninstall button for that item, then to the "Ready to Install" tab and clicked Install. After that the hair appeared in DS. But there are a huge number of files, and I don't know what's missing that I haven't noticed.
(a) Is there a way to get DS to rebuild its content database by looking at what's on the hard drive?
(b) If not, is there an easy way to uninstall everything and try again?
Previously on the laptop I had a lot of issues where DS would say it had problems with the CMS while logging in, and the solution was to quit DS and restart it until it was happy. To avoid that frustration on the new system, I clicked the "Work Offline" button and have never tried to use DAZ Connect on the new computer. So if the solution is to log into DC and let it talk to DS to tell it what's missing, maybe that's an option. But I don't want to invite the login troubles unless DC will offer a real benefit to ensuring I can see all the stuff I've purchased in the Smart Content pane.
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Comments
It's usually best to only allow DIM to install D|S itself first, then all your content. If you have bought any extra plugins not included in the D|S download, they should also be left until after D|S is installed. This is because DIM has been known to start grabbing and installing stuff before it's finished installing the D|S program; usually this doesn't matter, but sometimes it causes problems.
Before starting your "install everything" binge, make sure that DIM and D|S agree on where everything is being installed; remember that the two programs don't talk to each other — DIM installs content files where it's been set by default, and D|S reads content files where it's been set by default. The only check that the two defaults are the same (should be, but Weird Stuff™ happens sometimes) is you.
First of all, which items do you not find? A lot of stuff, like Victory 4 and such older stuff, donot show up in Smart Content, but only in the Content Directory.
An example or two would be useful, also, do you get error messages?
An easy way would be "reimport Meta Data", if this is really a database problem.
Well, for two examples, I bought the Big Bill tractor (truck) and its trailer. Neither shows up anywhere in Smart Content though IM says they're installed. And of course I mentioned the Adam Hair.
I will look for "reimport metadata" in the menus and see if that works. Thanks!
You might find this article useful: https://helpdaz.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/207530533-Some-items-do-not-show-up-in-the-Smart-Content-pane
And just to be sure: it does show up in the Content Directory, but not in Smart Content, right?
Are you sure whether you bought the original Big Bill truck and trailer, or the recent Iray updates? I'm not sure what would show in Smart Content if you only got the new items, which are dependent on the older ones already being installed.
Also, remember the Smart views (which aren't always all that "smart", although things have improved a lot over the last couple of years) are driven by a database, which is only as good as the files that are installed; sometimes there's a glitch that needs fixing by DAZ. Can you find the missing items in the DAZ Studio Formats section of the Content Library tab (which isn't dependent on the database), or in the Products view (which is)?
Thanks for the suggestions! The article about items missing in the Smart Content pane told me what I needed to do, and it seems to have worked great. Big Bill and seemingly all my other stuff does show up now!