Can't open my old .daz files...is there a workaround

Raitan2008

Almost all my .daz files won't open in 4.6....is there a way to resolve this, else I am going to have to redo several characters...

JimmyC_2009

What error message are you getting? Help > Troubleshooting > View Log File.

It usually means that DS cannot find the 'data' folder that was used in the original save of the .DAZ file. Have a look on your HDD to see if you still have that folder, if not, then you will have to rebuild a dummy scene to get the information into the data folder, but check to see if you still have the data folder first.

Raitan2008

So what name form do these data files take so I can try and find them....I was saving all these files to the same folder, but a lot of these have the original genesis characters and clothing..if I know the type of data name, I can do a search...

JimmyC_2009

Did you look at the Log File?

I am not certain that this is your problem, but if it is, the error log will say something like 'Cannot find file for storable ...' Does it say that?

The data folder is simply called 'data', and you should look to make sure if you have it or not. Inside DAZ Studio, paths are listed in the Content Directory Manager, and on any system, DS writes the data folder to the first listed path. DUF file work differently to DAZ files, and don't usually require objects stored in the data folder.

If you have not saved the data folder from a previous DS install, then you may need to recreate data content by creating a dummy scene using the content that cannot be found. That will place it into a new data folder. You do not need to pose the items, just load them into a dummy scene, and then your old scene will open.

It is important to look in the log file to see what is missing first though, to have somewhere to start from.

Bejaymac

If these are in the old .DAZ scene format, then they are pretty much trashcan fodder if you don't have a copy of DS3 or DS4.0, as you will need one of those two versions to recreate the DSO, DSD & DSV files that were written into the data folder when you saved the scene.

Jaderail

Bejaymac said:

If these are in the old .DAZ scene format, then they are pretty much trashcan fodder if you don't have a copy of DS3 or DS4.0, as you will need one of those two versions to recreate the DSO, DSD & DSV files that were written into the data folder when you saved the scene.

Nope, I have used DS4.5 and DS4.6 to just do the DUMMY data creation with zero errors on old DAZ files. If the Content is Installed to your paths it works just fine.

Bejaymac

Kindly explain to us all just how you are able to create the missing DSO, DSD & DSV files for the old DAZ scene format in 4.5+, seeing as they removed that function from 4.5.

You can still load the old DAZ scene files, but if you don't have the mesh(DSO), morph(DSD) and UV(DSV) files to go with that old scene, then all you will get is a pile of "missing store-able" errors in the log, and probably a pile of cubes where the models should be in the viewport.

Trust me on this as I've been here dozens of times with friends and people on the forums, it's why I keep a copy of DS 2.3, 3.1 & 4.0 on my system.

Jaderail

Any Item that LOADS as A BLOCK you LOAD by HAND from your content and THAT corrects the ERROR. This is DONE to a EMPTY DUMMY scene. As I said the Content HAS to be installed on the NEW DAZ Studio before you do this. Then you LOAD the Items USED NOT the scene file. THAT load creates the DATA the scene File is looking for. ITS a Dummy File to CREATE all the Data again. THEN the Scene file will OPEN. As for Characters Still having all the Morphs NO that will not happen, but you CAN recover the scene to almost the full original. I have done this.

jestmart

Newer versions of Studio do not generate the same "data" folders and files that older versions did. Only the geometry and morphs are saved to an "auto_adapted" sub-folder of the "data" folder

vwrangler

Not the original poster, but I've been following along, sort of.

So, if I'm understanding this correctly, the non-character content of scenes can be recreated, but the characters themselves cannot; is that correct?

My situation really isn't the same as the above. I never moved my content to My Library or My DAZ3D Library; I've always used the same content and data directories. At first by accident -- I apparently didn't define paths properly, so all the things that would have gone into My Library went into Content as though it were Studio 3 instead of Studio 4 -- and then when I figured out what was going on, I left it that way because it worked. Until version 4.6.

The message I get has nothing to do with storables; the error is more like this:

Opening file genesis-D3ZedJ-1.daz...
Error setting pointers while reading file C:/Users/vwrangler/Documents/DAZ 3D/Studio3/content/genesis-D3ZedJ-1.daz : C Exception: Memory Access Violation - Attempted to read memory at address 0x00000000
File read time: 0 min 22.3 sec.
Building Scene...
WARNING: Object::disconnect:  (sender name:   'ZRotate')
Ran tdlmake on image C:/Users/vwrangler/Documents/DAZ 3D/Studio3/content/Runtime/Textures/smd_J_M4/smd_J_Eyes_Green.jpg
WARNING: Object::disconnect: No such signal QObject::currentValueChanged() in properties\controllers\dzerclink.cpp:1150
WARNING: Object::disconnect:  (sender name:   'ZRotate')
WARNING: Object::disconnect: No such signal QObject::currentValueChanged() in properties\controllers\dzerclink.cpp:1150
WARNING: Object::disconnect:  (sender name:   'ZRotate')
Ran tdlmake on image C:/Users/vwrangler/Documents/DAZ 3D/Studio3/content/Runtime/Textures/smd_J_M4/smd_J_Eyelash_Trans.jpg
WARNING: Object::disconnect: No such signal QObject::currentValueChanged() in properties\controllers\dzerclink.cpp:1150
WARNING: Object::disconnect:  (sender name:   'CTRLlFingersInOut')
WARNING: Object::disconnect: No such signal QObject::currentValueChanged() in properties\controllers\dzerclink.cpp:1150 
...

and so on for a few thousand lines.

Every great once in a while, I can rescue one of these scenes, but mostly, they just say they can't be opened and I should look at the troubleshooting log file.

It's not a huge deal, but there are some characters I'd love to rescue at some point.

al_iguana_23_683c4ec9aa

jestmart said:

Newer versions of Studio do not generate the same "data" folders and files that older versions did. Only the geometry and morphs are saved to an "auto_adapted" sub-folder of the "data" folder

they do. I was having a problem where I would save a scene (in latest Daz Studio) and then it wouldn't load back in. It was because I was using an external poser runtime (Studio didn't like that for some strange reason).

So after much fiddling, I worked out that if I saved my scene IN THE SAME FOLDER as the external runtime, Studio would save it, and create a data folder with all kinds of bits in it, and then the scene would load back in OK.

To OP, try moving your old files into the same folder as the runtime and see if they load then

eg:

MY FOLDER
>>>>>>>>Runtime
>>>>>>>>myscene.daz
>>>>>>>>myscene2.daz

etc. If your original scenes used the Daz Studio Library folder (wherever you put that), then I dunno, but you could try moving the scene file there too

stitlown

Hi there.  I've got a similar log result to vwrangler and several old .daz files I cannot open.  My library has the 3_0, 4_0 and 4_0_2 data files.

Any hints or suggestions on how I might recover some or all of what's  in the problem files?  Screen shot of the start of the error log attached. If you click on it you can see the whole first error line.

Cheers,  Lx