Lost and Found growing! Is that right?
AndrewJJP
Posts: 711
I'm getting more and more content in Lost and Found. I think these are items that lack metadata (?) so I tried an update, and some were fixed, but it left plenty behind.
I read in other posts that this tends to happen with old stuff. That's not the case here. True, there's some G3, but it's mostly G8 and a few 8.1, including things that are still advertised as new.
If I counted correctly there are still 34 including...
Which is a new product.
Is this supposed to happen?
How hard is it to correct the metadata when this happens? With so many items, even if I could do one every 5 of minutes, it would take hours. And given the complexity of the dialog that appears when you select "Edit Metadata", 5 minuites feels somewhat optimistic...
Sorry if these are silly questions, but I have focussed on the fun side of Daz and updating the metadata database doesn't go in the fun side 
Thanks everyone!
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Comments
You should be able to categorise by right-click menu, that is all that is needed as a fix.
Thanks Richard! That sounds easy!
Sorry, is that from the pop-up? I dont' seem to have a menu item to do it. (Please feel free to point me to the relevant docs).
I get...
I'm sure I'm looking in the wrong place!
Thanks, I'll do that tomorrow. Given how much there is, I think it would be screenshots too. I get the feeling that when you say they occasionally fix it, they often don't, although I am sure they will want to fix things that are new at least. There also some OOT hair in there which is very popular (with me anyway!)
It goes in spurts. Sometimes they fix metadata in a timely manner, and other times I've been told by customer service that they are too busy "fixing things that don't work at all" to spend time on metadata. Some of my reports are fixed and others are ignored for years. The quality of the metadata initially released with new products also seems to go in spurts. I sometimes wonder if they have new inexperienced employees or interns or bots creating metadata at times. Lately there seems to be problems with scene identification metadata that prevents compatible assets from showing in Smart Content. It is pretty clear that they are not testing the metadata well or at all before release.
In Daz Studio, there is usually more than one way to do things. Here is one:
In the Smart Content pane, select the Files tab. Select The Lost and Found Category Select an asset. Right click on the asset and select Categorize from the dialog that pops up.
Interesting. Certainly there's stuff not working for me and it sounds like probably everyone. I shall see what happens tomorrow! I'm sure they won't fix all of them...
it is actually 79. 34 is the number that contain "8" in the title. (I didn't notice the filter was active)
I was thinking of getting the metadata course when it's cheap, but that was for adding it to content from other sites rather than fixing things
Thanks very much! Very, very helpful!
If it's 79 products, I wonder how many files? PC is off now (it's 23;40 here) so I can't check. I might need to focus on what I care about but support can have all of it!
Hmmm that really seems excessive. Before you take too much time to write help requests, try reimporting metadata through the Content DB Maintenance selection in the Content Library "hamburger" menu. See if that resolves some of your issues.
Unfortunately, that has increased it to 82 products and I counted 661 files, so there's no way I could fix all those myself.
I think I'm going to have to contact support, but it sounds like more from the perspective of "my metadata is broken" than "this product needs to be fixed", so thanks for clarifying that this is not expected.
Redacted
Ah, well that's very interesting to know it's not just me that has a large number. I think I have about 1,200 products, so proportionally, that's not so very far off.
What a wonderful idea for a song!
Ah, well that's very interesting to know it's not just me that has a large number. I think I have about 1,200 products, so proportionally, that's not so very far off, or same order of magnitude anyway (though I think you're actually worse off). I'd say about half mine are G8, but there a fair number of 8.1 and I've noticed at least 2 that still have "New" in the store page.
What a wonderful idea for a song!
Lost and Found category is for assets that have eluded the metadata in some way:
1. Asset not included in Product.
2. Asset path or filename incorrect.
3. No default category defined for the asset.
4. Category explicitly set to "Lost and Found" (yes, it happens, but rarely)
Products with no included metadata (i.e., Poser products, and pretty much anything before Genesis) get something generated by DIM (and DAZ Central?) that at least defines the product and all included assets, but no product thumbnail, no categories and no compatibilities (or anything else, for that matter).
1 & 2 will also result in the assets ending up in product LOCAL USER, since they have been orphaned from the real product to which they should belong.
Thank you!
Looking at my lost and found products, I think they fall into a few categories and how to fix them is not always entirely obvious.
So for the two products I linked, or indeed the G3, I'm curious as to whether anyone else that has them sees the same as I do? I'm on Daz 4.1.5 rather than the latest for reasons that I might moan about elsewhere one day, so I suppose that could be a factor?
And one thing that puzzles me. That flash at the top that says "Material" was added by Daz. I know that because I checked the PNGs and they do not say "Material" on them. So Daz knows it's added that to the icon, then it knows it's a material somehow. In that case, why did it not put it in the materials? (I don't expect anyone to answer that, it's more a rhetorical question, but if anyone does know, that would be interesting.)
For the products mentioned in 2 and 3, I don't have either, so can't really say.
As for the Genesis 3 Essentials, I do remember having problems with the presentation when updating the products. Try uninstalling, and re-installing. If it is still hiding, re-import the metadata. If it is still hiding yet, go to the Product view in the Content library (under G) and delete the product. Re-install... (My Genesis 3 Male and Female Starter Essentials are both in the same product listing, whichever was installed last; never could get them separated).
Thanks, I will give that a try. I don't ever use G3 now, but it would be nice to get this cleaned up so that when new things go in there, it'll be easy to spot them!
The file type (when saved as an asset) determines how it will function when it is loaded. Scenes, scene-subsets, material presets, character presets, etc., are all a function of how it was saved. The files themselves contain no metadata of any kind. It is produced by DAZ to enhance the user experience by adding more information about default categories, compatibility, and those coloured flashes in the upper right corner that identify the content type. The metadata is contained in a separate file that is installed with the product in the Runtime/Support folder.
Sorry, my fault. I think we might be talking slightly at cross purposes. I was taking "metadata" in the more general sense of "data that describes data" rather than the more precise (and relevant!) Daz sense. (Sorry, it in with my day job - I need to learn to separate the two...)
What feels wrong to me is that I have to go and say that all the Neko hair Hairblending Materials are Materials when there is something in the file that says "this data describes a material". If Daz can display that flash, it can put it in with the materials. That doesn't seem too much to ask. But I maybe missing something...
Anyway, I have told support that I think this sounds normal, and offered to tell them the problems I'm seeing if they assure me that someone will correct at least some of them. Because that will take me a while to do, and I'm not going to waste time on it if nothing happens!
I just purchased a product that went straight to Lost and Found. It's got over 300+ files associated with it (it's a complex environment), I really don't want to have to sort that myself. Hopefully a support ticket will get things straightened out.
If it is part of a bulk transfer from Renderosity then it probably won't get official metadata - but if someone, using the default install locations, created metadata for it that could be shared.
Users are probably not eager to do Daz's work for them for free. Even packaging up the metadata for sharing after creating it takes time. That is followed by the requests for help because people don't know how to install it, or they don't know how to import it, or they don't have their product installed in the same hierarchy, or... I volunteer you, if you are interested.
@barbult Well said !
@geekydad123 Name the product... or optionally, installl the product with Content Wizard or just by using the function in DS > Create a Product from...
I don't have all, or most, of the trasnfers but I do have some (mostly Lully outfits) and it is my intention to do and share metadata for those. When is another matter.
I only bought a couple items, to discount other things. When I saw that there was no metadata, I quit buying them. One of the first things I bought was a Lully outfit. Creating metadata for that was a huge job and pretty confusing. That effort was what soured me on these transferred products without metadata. They dilute the value of shopping in the Daz Store. Metadata had been a discriminator, but we can't count on it anymore. We can't even count on getting a readme or proper listing of required products. High SKU numbers no longer mean recent products; they could just as well be old stuff brought over, with old tech and materials. Shopping has now become "buyer beware" in the Daz store, sadly.
Hi Lully here
I'm sorry this is a problem. :(
I attempted to do the metadata for my old items, but due to the size of each pack (which have a large number of duf files) it would have been a ridiculously massive task.
My more recent DAZ only store items (from my sconces pack onwards ) all should have metadata files as they have gone through the same process as any other vendor selling here.
Over time, this shouldn't be a problem as the older stuff will eventually fade into the background.
Thanks for joining the discussion.The lack of metadata is not your fault. Metadata is the responsibility of Daz. not the PA. I don't place any blame on you or the other vendors for this situation.
While I am limiting my purchases of the transferred items from Rendo, I accept that the ones I buy will entail my adding metadata to them, just as the ones from RuntimeDNA did. On the positive side, it makes me really learn the contents of the products. I only get frustrated with complex packages that have shaders labled as materials, lights, and of course dForce and simulation items that don't quite match the older Smart Content categories.
Sets are easy, it is the accessories, lighting, shaders, and clothing that often takes hours per product. The PAs pack a lot into them, and why I would buy from them at Rendo.
I'm pretty sure the Lully sets I did (ones I purchased from Renderosity) didn't take that long, more like ten minutes (possibly twice if I forgot a step due to rustiness). Don't forget that one you have created the product you can use the right-click Edit Metadata option in a folder of items to simplify, for example, setting the content ttype on Iray or 3delight materials without having to try to select them individiually in the editing window. Also, compatibility and type can be handled by drag-and-drop to Smart Content with the base item selected in the scene. Those can save a lot of fiddling with long lists. I would also suggest installing the product to its own content directory, so files are easier to find initially, and then move it/reinstall it to the real content directory later - the CMS stores only relative paths, where possible.