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Move content to external drive questions/problems

jays222jays222 Posts: 10
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

Hello, I've read many many posts about how some users have done this, with many varying opinions and degrees of success. 

I want to: Keep Daz installed on local drive, move ALL content/assets to an external drive. This includes DAZ purchased products, products from other providers, and scenes created by me. I use Daz 4.20.0.17 (current as of today), and use DIM for managing DAZ installs. I am using a Mac in case that matters.

First question: When you save a custom scene which uses many DAZ and third party products, custom textures, morphs from different products etc, and you save the scene (.duf) -- does that .duf file contain everything I need to successfully open that scene again regardless of the drive location of my installed products? OR, does the duf file still require pulling in assets from various library items? (in other words, what exactly is inside a duf file?). One of the issues after my move to ext drive was that when loading my scenes Daz kept asking for many missing files. This surprised me for 2 reasons. A) I assumed .duf files were complete and self contained. B) Even if .duf files are reliant on other library assets, I assumed that DAZ cms would know to manage the new location of the assets, and allow previously created scenes to load correctly without manually having to locate them.

Beyond the above issue, all of my installed content was available and worked under "Products" (albeit with some broken thumbnails), but in Smart Content nothing would open even though the content seems to be there (again, still with some broken thumbnail images).

Here is what I did:

  1. Made a copy of all assets and put on external drive. Directories at root level are "My DAZ 3D Library", and another path i use for other content "My Library".
  2. Changed the paths in Content Directory Manager under "Daz Studio Formats" to point to the above mentioned directories on my external drive.
  3. In DIM, changed the path under "Content Path Shortcuts" to point to the external drive location "My DAZ 3D Library".
  4. Deleted from my local drive (moved to trash) the library directories mentioned above.

What happened:

  • items showed up under products, and do work, but nothing in Smart Content will open when clicked (can't find it). Some thumbnail images blank.
  • my saved scenes ask for missing content when opening

I then tried:

  • re-importing metadata in Content Database Maintenance (brought back some thumbnails, but solved nothing else)
  • reset database (not sure if that was a good idea, but grasping at this point)

So, I now put all my content back where it was, but am getting some weird issues that didn't happen before I started this process. Most notably when opening my saved scenes, everything looks correct, but all custom morphs that used to be available when editing are no longer there.

Apologies for the long-winded question, but:

  1. Am I missing or misunderstanding any steps in this process?
  2. Or, (I ask fearfully) Am I better off uninstalling everything including the Daz app, install Daz on local drive, re-install products directly on external drive? If I do this, will DAZ automatically install my library to local drive by default, or will it ask me where to put my library? Otherwise I may end up in the same place I am now.

I'm concerned that in either case all my existing scenes will no longer load or work correctly. Any help or suggestions at all are greatly appreciated... Thanks!

Comments

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,728

    jays222 said:

    Hello, I've read many many posts about how some users have done this, with many varying opinions and degrees of success. 

    I want to: Keep Daz installed on local drive, move ALL content/assets to an external drive. This includes DAZ purchased products, products from other providers, and scenes created by me. I use Daz 4.20.0.17 (current as of today), and use DIM for managing DAZ installs. I am using a Mac in case that matters.

    First question: When you save a custom scene which uses many DAZ and third party products, custom textures, morphs from different products etc, and you save the scene (.duf) -- does that .duf file contain everything I need to successfully open that scene again regardless of the drive location of my installed products? OR, does the duf file still require pulling in assets from various library items? (in other words, what exactly is inside a duf file?). One of the issues after my move to ext drive was that when loading my scenes Daz kept asking for many missing files. This surprised me for 2 reasons. A) I assumed .duf files were complete and self contained. B) Even if .duf files are reliant on other library assets, I assumed that DAZ cms would know to manage the new location of the assets, and allow previously created scenes to load correctly without manually having to locate them.

    The file contains pointers to the assets, otherwise it couldn't beshaed and would waste a lot of disc space with duplicating content. The pointrs are relative for files in a known Content Directory, just the location withind the directory 9e.g. /data/daz 3d/Genesis 8.1/female/some file.dsf) so as long as the content directories are properly set the files should open. One reason they might fail is having one content directory inside another one.

    Beyond the above issue, all of my installed content was available and worked under "Products" (albeit with some broken thumbnails), but in Smart Content nothing would open even though the content seems to be there (again, still with some broken thumbnail images).

    How was it installed?

    Here is what I did:

    1. Made a copy of all assets and put on external drive. Directories at root level are "My DAZ 3D Library", and another path i use for other content "My Library".
    2. Changed the paths in Content Directory Manager under "Daz Studio Formats" to point to the above mentioned directories on my external drive.
    3. In DIM, changed the path under "Content Path Shortcuts" to point to the external drive location "My DAZ 3D Library".
    4. Deleted from my local drive (moved to trash) the library directories mentioned above.

    What happened:

    • items showed up under products, and do work, but nothing in Smart Content will open when clicked (can't find it). Some thumbnail images blank.
    • my saved scenes ask for missing content when opening

    I then tried:

    • re-importing metadata in Content Database Maintenance (brought back some thumbnails, but solved nothing else)
    • reset database (not sure if that was a good idea, but grasping at this point)

    So, I now put all my content back where it was, but am getting some weird issues that didn't happen before I started this process. Most notably when opening my saved scenes, everything looks correct, but all custom morphs that used to be available when editing are no longer there.

    Apologies for the long-winded question, but:

    1. Am I missing or misunderstanding any steps in this process?
    2. Or, (I ask fearfully) Am I better off uninstalling everything including the Daz app, install Daz on local drive, re-install products directly on external drive? If I do this, will DAZ automatically install my library to local drive by default, or will it ask me where to put my library? Otherwise I may end up in the same place I am now.

    I'm concerned that in either case all my existing scenes will no longer load or work correctly. Any help or suggestions at all are greatly appreciated... Thanks!

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,728

    It would have been better to ask follow-up questions here rather than move the topic to a different thread https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/7767681/#Comment_7767681

This discussion has been closed.