Help! How to get back my saved files after resetting the database????
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Yesterday I did a cleanup of my database after Measure Metrics had vanished from my product librabry. I did a complete reinstall of alöl my products which come from different stores. I thought he worst thign was my tediously createad categorization was not able to be retored by reimporting the user data - but it never rains... all my saved character, property and shape presets have gone missing. They are still there as files biut how on earth can I get them back into my smartt content library? Any advise would be greatly appreciated, thanks go out in advance!
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Had you exported user metadata before resetting the database? if nto, and I guess not sicne you have reimported meteadata and presubly would have loaded it back in then, I'm afraid you'd have to recategorise them yourself.
Thanks for getting back. Sorry if I wasn't clear: yes i did. Unfortunately reimporting the created And cpied) user date 1 dsx does not what it supposes to. Funnily enough I see old content I created 2 years ago but all other items created since after have disappeared. While I don't mind too much creating the categories all over having lost presets bugs me. I still have a complete copy of my library folder which is going to be my last resort. Or would the runtime folder suffice?
Edit/Addendum: Neither playing back Runtime nor the whole library fixes the problem. I strongly suppose it sits some where in the CMS folder and this wasn't saved. It would be good to get an advise from DAZ here and in case give the option to consolidate everything in one folder for mor comfortable backup. Anyway, since the files are actually there and visible in the legacy content library I will need to take the longer route. Suggeestion: Make products/folder catagorizable...
Suffice for what? You have copied the files across, to the same relative path (that is, they are in the same folders within the content directory even if the location of the content directory has changed)?
Yes, exactly. It's a blunt restore of the situation my librabry folder was in. Before I touched the content database management tool I copied the whole folder to another folder. Then I did the management, lost my vectors, first renamed the runtime folder in the "managed" library to "xxxx_old" put the new in place, problem persists, do the same thing wiht the whole library 8so i have the "managed as "..._ols" and the original one with original name in the original place - problem persists. This only leaves me with the conclusion that the database must sit in some other place.
Look in Edit/Preferences and click on the CMS Settings tab. That is the location you are looking for, I believe. But if you reset your database without backing that up or exporting user data, I think you'll have to start over creating your customization.
Presumably, the metadata for your saved presets was exported with the User Data, so it should have been restored along with your custom categories when you later imported the User Data.
Have you changed the mapped folders in the Content Directory Manager? If you have both the old and new folders, importing the User Data might not go to the right one. If you had the new library first in the list, that's where it would go. If you later add (or change to) the old library at the top of the list, that one will be used first, and it won't have the User Data, since it is tied to the location of the other library.
So, don't include the same content twice. Only the first occurrence will be used. You can have different Content Sets (of libraries), but only one can be active at a time. That would be a good way to quickly switch between the two (old and new). Make a Content Set for each, one for the old, another one for the new, and see if there is any difference.
@NorthOf45: I am only using one, identical library reference, I was simply replacing the folders the program was linked to. and BOTH carry the same UserData_1-dsx.
I'm afraid that's going to be the case as I did only the latter not the first. I had wished DAZ Studio was more clear about this, lesson learned, will move the CMS directory to the folder my library sits in now.
Agaibn, thanks for your help and btw. sorry for the massive amount of typos, I just switched to a mechanical keyboard. Always thought this should improve typing, hmmmm... ;)
Thee xported userdata goes to /Runtime/Support in the first content directory - if I am reading your posts above correctly you made a back-up of that, then exported the suerdata (which therefore wasn't in the back-up).
No, I exported the userdata first, then made a copy and tehn did a database reset - thought I'd be save...
Is the metadata you are trying to restore in fact in the UserData.dsx file(s)? Each is a text file in XML format, so you should be able to search them, either in a text editor (a robust one, the files max out at about 32 MB) or with the command line "Find" command. Search for a file you know should be categorized, or a category you made that should exist. If it is, then it should be restored with the rest of the metadata. If it's not there, well, it can't.