Moving the "My DAZ 3D Library"
gerdweissenbach
Posts: 2
in New Users
My main drive (SSD) is almost full. I wonder if I can move the "My DAZ 3D Library" to another drive. It should be possible, because I found some discussions where this is explained. The problem is that these discussions are several years old and the explanations don't fit to my current version of DAZ Studio.
I am using DAZ Studio 4.20 and the Install Manager 1.4.0.80
Does anyone know how to move the "My DAZ 3D Library"?
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Here is what worked for me:
If you plan on getting a lot of content from other sources, you may want to do the same with your "My Library" folders (stored under your user name as opposed to under Public). The same procedure applies, but with the different folder name.
Daz will now know your new location(s). If you want to test, exit DAZ and DIM and then rename the old My DAZ 3D Library folder to something else. Open DAZ Studio and load a scene or click an asset and everything should still work as it is pulling from the new folder. As long as that is the case you can delete the old My DAZ 3D Library.
Hope this helps.
@gerdweissenbach
Last year, I did something along the lines of what @Chezjuan has described. I have two internal drive in my two-year old laptop - a 500 GB SSD and a 1 TB HDD. To keep both of those drives as lightly loaded as possible, I only installed the base 3D programs (Daz Studio, Poser, iClone, etc.) on the faster SSD. I install all content to a 1 TB external HDD and map the content locations on the drive in the Content Directory Manager. I use DIM for Daz Studio content; for any other content I either manually install it to the external drive or use Poser 11 to do the same thing with zip folders.
When my 1 TB external drive starting to get filled last year, I bought a 5 TB external HDD. I used Windows File Explorer to copy all of the files on the 1 TB drive to the 5 TB drive. I plan to use the 5 TB drive as my working drive. To ensure that the copy worked, I changed to drive letter of the 1 TB drive and then the drive letter of the 5 TB drive to what the 1 TB drive had, and then opened Daz Studio. All of the content was recognized and available on the 5 TB drive since it had the same drive letter as was in Content Directory Manager.
Another way may be FolderMove, a small free tool: https://foldermove.com/
It moves the complete folder to a new destination and sets a symbolic link at the original place. No fiddling with changing preferences and paths in the software, Daz Studio and Install Manager will not even notice that the folder has moved.
Sysinternals Juction can also be used, downloadable from MS for free
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/junction
Another method is to use the built in functions in Windows to mount a new harddrive as a folder to your current drive, the new hardrive will contain your Content Library without the DAZ installers and/or DS understanding that anything has changed = No changes necessary in any of the DAZ programs or their settings.
@Chezjuan
Thanks a lot for your help! I did an initial test and everything seems to work fine.
And also thanks to the other commenters, the thing with the symbolic links / mounted drives sounds interesting. And very simple.
Hello.
I followed your instructions but when i do so, all the images in the smart content disappear.
I can see clearly that the paths are correct. I did not change the path of MY Library folder, though.
Even when i install something new with the DIM, i can see that the file is in the new drive, but the image is not appearing in the content manager. Any thoughts?
Thanks
R.
Have you done database maintenance since moving your directory? I did the same thing when I moved mine and it caused a few issues. As long as you set all the paths in DIM and Daz Studio, everything will work, but DIM will not be able to uninstall anything you had installed when it was on your C: drive because DIM reads the product's Manifest file to determine whether a file is located on your drive or not. If you go into DIM and find any product that was installed before you moved it, and click the Show Files button, it'll say they're all missing.
The easiest way to deal with that is to just uninstall everything, and reinstall it all. DIM can't actually uninstall it because it thinks the files are somewhere else, and when you reinstall it'll just overwrite what is already there. To clarify this a little more since it sounds a bit dumb, lol, when you install a product with DIM it also installs a Manifest file at the same time that contains the name and location of every file in the product. When you update your installation path in the advanced settings of DIM, DIM does not correct this information inside the Manifest files.... soooo, all the manifest files say all of your products are still installed in their original location.
If that's not an option, you have to manually edit the Manifest files with something like Notepad++ to update the install locations. Depending on how many files you had installed, this could take a very long time... Someone else lurking about the forum may know some Daz voodoo magic that might fix it differently, but that's just how I did it.
But, your Smart Content icons should return if you do reimport your metadata by clicking the hamburger looking icon near the Smart Content window pane at the top, and then go to Database Maintenance, and go through the re-import process.
EDIT:
Oh and reading over those steps above, there's one that was missed. You have to go to the Content Library section of Daz Studio and also add the new folders under the DAZ Studio Formats folder. Right click it, and choose Add a Base Directory. The Content Library path and the one you set in Preferences (and the one you set in DIM), are three separate things. I don't know why Daz doesn't add it automatically when you add it in Preferences, but.... it doesn't. Content Library is your Smart Content but in a directory style format with much smaller icons, there's a window pane for it in Daz if you're uncertain where to find it or closed it out in favor of using Smart Content all the time. Window Panes are in the menubar at the top, Window -> Panes -> Content Library (if you closed it out)...
I know this was 2 years ago, but I just wanna say thanks. I found this thread/comment via Google and it saved my bacon! After following it word for word, it only felt right to say thanks!
Only thing I'll add to it, is that Windows 11 needed the index rebuilt for me (if one uses indexing!). Because after following your instructions, I tried to load up a G8 and just a blank figure loaded (which nearly gave me a heart attack, I thought I'd done everything wrong and destroyed my content library!) but after rebuilding the index, everything loaded fine. Completely successful migration of content.
Thanks!
Hello Chezjuan, please may I ask one question? I checked this forums for how to move DAZ from one drive to another, there are a lot of posts include yours teach about this, I fully understood your idea, now my question is: sounds like the DAZ works well after the movement, but how about the DIM? Can DIM uninstall the old installed files? I saw some people said since the DIM relies on those old manifest files to do the uninstallation, but those manifest files still contains old path information, so DIM totally can not find where those files are and can not do the uninstallation, and can not do the update also, is this true? If so, maybe the Symbolic link idea is better.
I didn't use the Foldermove on DAZ so far, but had tried it on another software's folder, there is a problem on it, it can not dealing with a long name file (nearly 36 characters!) and interrupted, so it left the last few folders in the old drive and I have to move it manually, the problem is, no Symbolic link now! Maybe can use Junction or win command mklink to save it, will try later.
OK, finally I decided to use Foldermove, unfortunetly it reports error at the last minute, says it can not visit one of the original folder, maybe it is because my DAZ is so big, 40K files, 270GB, so I had to move the last few folders manually, and therefore no symbolic link created.
Fortunetly the DOS command mklink can save it, just go back to the original drive ie. E:\ , cmd into DOS window by Administrator, type E:\>mklink /d "DAZ 3D" d:\"DAZ 3D" is OK. The d:\DAZ 3D is the new address and "" is just for space in the folder name. It generates the symbolic link immidiately.
That's it, works well. Anytime you want to go back to Chezjuan's idea, just simply delete the symbolic link, and set up those file paths in DAZ and DIM. Then if you want back to the symbolic link, just do the mklink again. Back and forth, back and forth...
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Supplement: I have suffering a difficulty on the menu Favorites, the Favorites still in my DAZ menu, all its sub-menus and items still there, but no function. When click any item, nothing happened, not go to the pointed folder in the Content Library like previous.
After many trying, the solution is: in the DAZ preferences - Content Directory Manager, should add the new Library path under the DAZ Studio Formats, then the Favorites works. Not like @stefan.hums said 'Daz Studio and Install Manager will not even notice that the folder has moved', actually it noticed and taught me a lesson.
Although you used a different method to move the files, here;s how to fix the DIM for people who decided to move the files without using symbolic links.
You can use Notepad++ to do a batch find/replace in the manifest files folder. You want to replace the part of the path in the UserInstallPath entry: <UserInstallPath VALUE="C:\Users\Public\Documents\My DAZ 3D Library"/>
To do this:
When done, DIM will work with the installed content and allow you to view installed files and uninstall items.
(edited for clarity)
You're welcome! I'm glad it helped!
I'm sorry, but I think some of the above advice is way too complicated. I totally ignore Smart Content, Manifest, and all that complicated stuff. I've installed my DAZ Studio stuff on an external hard drive for many years. That includes on a Macintosh and PC.
When I first switched to an external hard drive, I just copied the files and folders to the new hard drive. You can tell DIM to uninstall the files from the original location.
When I switch to a different PC, I just tell DAZ and DIM where to find the stuff. Point at the folder, and it's done.
If the user doesn't manually install and ignore Smart conect and other emtadata-using featurs then the extra steps are needed. It is up to them to decide whether theya re relevant, not our place to simply assume that their approach will match ours.
Richard, I got lost in your first sentence. I believe in a simpler way of working with DAZ Studio. I'll let it go at that.
Thanks @Chezjuan , this is the first time I heard (and think) about batch editing files, I did it now by EmEditor as same as the notepad++, it is great, now I can delete the Symbolic link at anytime.
Last month, I dropped the portable drive on which all of my Daz Studio content was located; the drive is unusable. Fortunately, I had been installing content to another portable drive each time I used DIM to install. I changed the paths in Daz Studio to look at the backup drive and almost all of my content was available to me again. I also changed the install location in DIM to the new drive. There were a very few cases where I had missed making the backup install but those were easily fixed with a new DIM install. DIM however, shows all of the installed files that went to the dead drive as broken links because that drive no longer exists.
The contents of the dsx files in my Runtime/Support folder are a bit different than the contents of the corresponding dsx files in my Install Manager/Manifest Files folder. For example, in Manifest Files, I have a file named IM00068867-01_HHWyvern.dsx while in Runtime/Support, I have a corresponding file named DAZ_3D_68867_HH_Wyvern. If I change the install path in the file in the Manifest Files folder, what becomes of the file in the Runtime/Support folder? Show Installed files in DIM for the installed product shows the file in Runtime/Support.
Thanks.
The dsx file in Runtime\Support folder stores metadata while the dsx file in Manifest folder stores installation data, so they're different things. And if you change the file path(s) in dsx file in Manifest folder, nothing will be changed in dsx file in Runtime\Support folder 'cause that file was just installed from the original IM package... there's no link / replationship in b/t them.
Not so sure what you want to do but if you want to modify the paths of installed files according to the current file locations, modify IM00068867-01_HHWyvern.dsx... if you want to update paths for correcting / re-importing medadata, modify DAZ_3D_68867_HH_Wyvern.dsx
Show Installed Files action in DIM reads the data from the file : IM00068867-01_HHWyvern.dsx and will check if the files locate in the paths specified in the file, so DAZ_3D_68867_HH_Wyvern.dsx is irrelevant. In this case you mentioned, I think you have to synchronize the file paths in both of dsx files by manual modifying them, separately.... or go for a re-installation of this product.
Thanks much for clarifying the difference between the two types of dsx files. Daz Studio could read and open product files on the new drive but DIM did not know that the files were there because of its now outdated manifest files. I knew that using DIM to uninstall from the now phantom drive and reinstalling to the new drive would resolve the issue of dead links in DIM's Show Installed Files. A moment ago, though, I manually changed the install path in the product's manifest file from the former drive path to the new one and now all of the files in DIM's Show Installed Files are live links again. I will slowly over time manually update the installed path in the other manifest files. Again, thanks.
That sounds great ! You're welcome.