Too Many DAZ folders...Need Correct Path
IceScribe
Posts: 690
Thought I got rid of the demon onedrive. 2 PC computers died when that thing took over my machine because it hoovered up my DAZ assets, which are already on a cloud.. I ordered this brand new one to Not install onedrive, but there was an immediate unstoppable upgrade which installed it on my machine latest pack whatever. So I did the logical thing and uninstalled it. But, not before it made new folders here and there for my Daz studio, studio folders, and my assets. They are everywhere. And it made a new folder with my name, and scraped stuff I put on my desktop into it, but not everything. Render library seems to be in 3 places, stuff in one folder broken out into 2 or more. I found out I have to reinstall the darn thing and "go" somewhere and do something to make it stop backing up. You would think that uninstalling it, and shredding its files it gobbled up would do it. But no, this morning, DAZ studio gives me an error message upon loading...OMG, it's back! From the time I started this post, and went to get the error message, the demon made a new folder with my name and took Moved DAZ studio into it, now all the paths are broken, again! DAZ won't open! Arrrrrgggggg!!!
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Comments
Yes, OneDrive is a complete PITA - it seems to do the complete opposite of what it should do (IMO). I had a run in with it early on but was able to disable it and it's not troubled me since. It probably helps that I do not keep any Daz Stuff under "My Documents".
I'm actually quite a fan of OneDrive because it does everything for me; right now I'm working on a sculpt which I started on my main PC (now on a laptop 'on the road') and all I did was let OneDrive sync my stuff. I suppose it also counts that I got a Microsoft 365 subscription for quite some years now...
Having said that though, yah, it's not exactly as userfriendly as it can be and you're right: one mistake can lead to disaster. "Just" uninstalling OneDrive while you've been using it is such an issue, that leads to problems. Best is to start by telling it to stop syncing your stuff before you do anything else. Also make sure you don't allow Windows to "save space" by clearing out your real files and replacing 'm by metafiles. As much as I enjoy / appreciate the software I'll be the first to agree that this critter has some serious issues. ... of course the question (as always) is if you'll be hit by 'm.
I personally enjoy this feature for my laptop but if you're not careful... simply put: 'OD' "removes" files but keeps 'm in the cloud. So when that file gets accessed it'll download it again so that you can use it. I love this feature on my laptop but woe to you if for some reason 'OD' isn't running. And that's just one of 'm.. like you said yourself: it "merges" with Windows which can both be a pro (like in my case) but also a huge con at the same time because: good luck undoing it all, that can be tricky.
This may be a good source of information for this (I hope):
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/turn-off-disable-or-uninstall-onedrive-f32a17ce-3336-40fe-9c38-6efb09f944b0
That thing made up its own folders. I didn't use "My Documents". Had a different folder where the DAZ stuff went. The folder the thing made up today was my user name! With just 3 of the DAZ elements folder, so its done it. I managed to find the button after quite going through various screens on the account took a while to unlink. I don't know if that is working, but no new partial folders with my user name have appeared.
You said " 'OD' "removes" files but keeps 'm in the cloud." That is exactly what I do not like or want. And OD downloading all it hoovered up twice really ate my entire computer memory killed the first computer. Would not reboot. I did not know OD did that, so the next computer OD did the same thing, killed that computer, all my assets, pieces, so no point in downloading that chaos from OD. Think it will be faster to reinstall DAZ, bite the bullet, first clear out my damaged files, and multiple duplicates files scattered hither and yon by OD, and start over. I appreciate your reference. However, it requires the cloud icon to be on the taskbar to get to the place to unlink, and that took 10 pages of wandering on the cloud site because I had to subscribe to the site that crashed a couple weeks ago, agree to subscription so I could find the reinstall button of OD to get the cloud icon on my task bar so I could click on it to get the the page where the secre button was to "unlink". It's worse than tricky, it's downright misleading as well as destructive. I didn't want to subscribe to OD storage, cause I'm not going through that download bs again, paying for my stuff it uploaded. Meanwhile, I need to figure out the DAZ paths to find its way back home. I haven't been able to open DAZ since.
hoping my previous computer will hold up enough for me to look at the path the DAZ studio installed, with all the folders in the correct places it likes. It's not that easy to consider reinstalling DAZ, because of all the stray folders where some files were removed to the cloud, and several folders created by the OD with odd pieces of DAZ studio that must be removed. I can't afford to have this computer die from 500plus gigs this upload/download of OD has stuffed on my brand new computer in 2 weeks even when I had disabled/uninstalled and shredded!
Next problem encountered is that I can't see the full paths in Windows 11 by default. I am trying to find how many instances DAZ studio and associated folders there are. AppData, there it is. I don't know if I should delete Daz Studio from there. I can open DAZ studio now with work on line, but it will not connect to DAZ site. I have DM, I use DIM, and I don't download with Connect so maybe not a difficulty.
Frankly, I am surprised by no other comments about file problems with DAZ STudio files due to OneDrive. I noticed a couple days ago--after I thought I'd unistalled it, json meta files uploading to Meta. Those were not my files, per se, but the meta data associated with the DAZ Studio products I've installed. I did not know MicroSoft made an agreement to share uploaded data with Meta, yep, the FB one. I interrupted that, as I thought that was an error. So, including DAZ meta files, ALL your files are uploaded, and you get a folder installed which looks like File Explorer with your usual folders...
but those are only "Names" to call up to the cloud-your actual files are removed to the cloud, including Desktop, Downloads, etc. I don't need DAZ files uploaded, they are already on their own cloud, and I don't want my works taken from my computer haphazardly. I still can't kill this vampire program. There are at 14 items with OneDrive in the title that are not permitted to be deleted. Not permitted?
Sorry, I missed your reply earlier, however:
This is not quite right - the "meta" here refers to metadata that Daz Connect is downloading to your Daz Connect base folder - nothing to do with Facebook. This is happening because you have signed in to your Daz account within Daz Studio and so this process happens everytime you startup Daz Studio (I think you can disable that if you still want to use Daz Connect to install products).
There are a few previous threads complaining about OneDrive so you are not entirely alone. I won't speak for everyone else, but as someone who does not want it I disabled it from running and that seems to have fixed it on my Windows machine. However, I also do not store any Daz content under the "My Documents" folder and so if it did somehow come back to life on my machine then it would not start messing with my assets.
Unfortunately, like with many things packaged with MS Windows, OneDrive is considered essential by Microsoft so they block you from removing it. It should be possible to disable it tho.
I don't quite remember what I did to get rid of OneDrive, but I am pretty sure it wasn't too much more than going into the config and telling it not to run on startup and then quitting it. Maybe there was more to it but if so there will be some instructions out there that will be easy enough to find.
SofaCitizen: Quote This is not quite right - the "meta" here refers to metadata that Daz Connect is downloading to your Daz Connect base folder - nothing to do with Facebook. This is happening because you have signed in to your Daz account within Daz Studio and so this process happens everytime you startup Daz Studio (I think you can disable that if you still want to use Daz Connect to install products). End quote
I appreciate your reply. However, I am driven to find out what's going on.
This is a good article about the partnership of Microsoft with Meta formerly known as FaceBook.Meta and Microsoft announce partnership to integrate Workplace and Teams (cnbc.com)
note snip "Although Workplace has integrations with Microsoft’s Office 365, SharePoint, Azure Active Directory, OneDrive and now Teams, there is no integration with Yammer, Singh said." end snip from above link
I saw the json files uploading to Meta, thousands of them all by themselves, after I'd unlinked, unsyched, uninstalled, and deleted as many OD files as I could. All by itself ithat uploading event started that process through OD, not FB. I had to chase that down, something else to get rid of. I have no other clouds associations, except with DAZ and Rendo, but have n't loaded Rendo products yet.. I do not use DAZ Connect at all. I use the DIM Installer without problems both to hard drive and external driveevery . I do my own categories when I chose to have a more specific category. My problems is with the OD product that I cannot rid my machine of its noxious interference in my work flow. Every day since I started my new computer, a new folder with parts of DAZ is made, such as My DAZ Library, and a stupid folder for Video placed in my Render Library, every day. I don't make, watch, or download videos. Dont do animation. Just want to create my scene, save that and render it "to the same place it was yesterday".
Apparently, "permission to uninstall" certain MS OD items is through "Trusted Installer" which I finally located. I may have to venture into unknown territory there. Spent so much time trying to locate my original files swept up to the cloud, and their folders in a daily made new folder, as names only, not "here". Thing is, I killed 2 previous computers with the cloud sucking up my rather full hard drives, then downlaoding those files again and again until the computers could take no more, over and over.
Now they do want to charge for cloud space over 5 GBs. What is that? A Gen 9 character and a couple of outfits? Not paying, I declare. Thank you for taking time to make your comments
Well, I am not doubting any posible/potential integrations between Microsoft and Meta/Facebook - I wouldn't trust either company as far as I could throw them. Just pointing out that the hundreds/thousands of json files under the "Daz Connect/cloud/meta" folder are being synced because you are using Daz Connect - if you install products via DIM you should logout of your account within Daz Studio ASAP and ensure that you are always "working offline" there. This will then stop those json meta data files from being synced/downloaded by Daz Studio. You should probably purge your Daz Connect installs too since those usually conflict with DIM installs but if you are not having missing file errors then perhaps best to leave that alone for now.
Again, there is no point in you fighting with OneDrive while you still have it running and logged in. You need to disable OneDrive first and set it to not start-up when the computer does. Also, have it "forget" your login details so it is not able to reconnect even if you do accidentally run it. If you have to, you can change your microsoft account via the web interface so that the OneDrive install does would not be using the correct one. This is entirely possible as I have done it on my Windows 11 machine - OneDrive is not loaded on startup and if I accidentally click on it then it complains that it cannot do anything because I am not signed in. Thus I am safe from it's interferance and this is what you need to do also.
Maybe a new account is the best way to go. Thanks for pointing to that. Just seeing another 'voice' helps with frustration. Nobody I've talked even knows or understands what I am experiencing. But I will persist. I just don't understand how other users of DAZ and the cloud don't have these problems.
However, I do not use Daz connect, I was suspicious of that at the get go. I like seeing what DIM does, and using my paths for my external drive. That's worked well for me. I will look att DAZ connect is doing, in case its up to some shennigans
Well, I wasn't suggesting to change your Daz account - just do not log into it within the Daz Studio application itself. You will sttill need to login to your Daz account on the website and within DIM.
For other Windows-based users, I think most will have either disabled OneDrive from running or at the very least moved their Daz libraries away from OneDrive's applied folders. Of course you had some input from ShelLuser earlier in the thread representing the otherside.
I would say that you are on the right track by using DIM for installation and using your external drives for storing your Daz content.
Maybe a portable drive like the Western Digital "My Book" is the solution here.
It's very easy to setup DIM and Studio so both use the portable for everything.
This is how I've been running my setup for years. Also makes it very easy to move to new PC when I get them.
During DIM install on new PC just point it to the already existing stuff and it seems to work out, so far anyway.
I wouldn't think OD would be setup to index and attempt to upload the contents of a USB portable drive.
I'm still on W10 and don't plan to ever install 11. So I'm not going to be much help with 11 configuration.
edit:
Though, going forward, if Studio users are going to need to resort to portable drives to protect themselves from expensive bandwidth bills and all the other problems inherent to cloud storage I can see a real problem in the making here.
Then there is the problem of IF MS decides to start scanning OD libraries for "unacceptable" or "illegal" content.
This sounds like a problem that needs to address by the developers sooner rather than later.
Which developers? Daz has absolutely no control over what OneDrive does - and last tiem I helped set up a Windows 11 system it was possible to avoid using OneDrive, though since the user had an Office 365 account and had had to switch machines several times in quick succession using it seemed sensible (they weren't into any kind of activity requiring the managemnt of external files).
Studio's developers of course :)
Looks like they might need to adjust Studio's install defaults to avoid onedrive.
The Documents folder is the Microsoft+madated place for user files, so that is the default used.
I checked the "My DAZ Connect" folder today dated as of yesterday There is nothing in the folder except a folder labeled "data", and that's empty. A few days ago, it had 2 kinds of records, one being json other meta. I don't know what was going on there, how those files got to My Daz Connect, and how did they vanish? Perhaps, those are the files I saw being uploaded which I tried to stop unsuccessfully. I think around 12,000 files! I have lost some thumbnails in Smart Content panel, but that's no big problem for me. I can rebuild new paths back to my local folders.
Today, I no longer have an OD account because I don't have the trial version of 365 which OD is part of that service, I just didn't leave any payment. But...the cloud icon is on my task bar, like some kind of vampire, it just won't die. The icon is greyed out and a click on it says "sign in" Oh no I won't .sigh. Well I'll stop posting about it.
Basically, I see that OD cannot distinguish between proprietary necessary folders of a program/app like DAZ Studio has to make it work, from other folders that I created on my desktop for my use. Thought that would be worth mentioning for others who cannot find their Render Library renders, or saved Scenes, etc. if the OD has been installed.
This is what happens if you log into your Daz account within the Daz Studio application. On start-up it will download metadata for all your installed products and save these as json files in the DazConnect/cloud/meta folder - I think there is a message at the bottom left of the screen when this is happening. It will also download Product thumbnails and put them in a different folder under DazConnect/cloud and re-write the path to these in the database so Daz will no longer use the ones that DIM puts in runtime/Support. This is one of the reasons why, if you use DIM or Central to manage your product installs, you should never sign into your account within Daz Studio.
SofaCitizen
quote "This is what happens if you log into your Daz account within the Daz Studio application. On start-up it will download metadata for all your installed products and save these as json files in the DazConnect/cloud/meta folder - I think there is a message at the bottom left of the screen when this is happening. It will also download Product thumbnails and put them in a different folder under DazConnect/cloud and re-write the path to these in the database so Daz will no longer use the ones that DIM puts in runtime/Support. This is one of the reasons why, if you use DIM or Central to manage your product installs, you should never sign into your account within Daz Studio."End quote.
----ah! Big Duh! I start up a DAZ Studio session automatically defaulted to "connect" to store as I assumed it was just to make a bridge to the store. I will change that to "work offline", save a ton of space on my C drive, too.
Thank you for your patience in explaining this to me. Now I know I have a choice, and where the heck those json files came from.
No problem :)