Custom Category EXPERTS - Why does it sometimes create Duplicate Icons (SOLVED)
pjwhoopie@yandex.com
Posts: 793
What I am trying to do is organize my assets in a way that makes sense to me.
SO I create a category, and then add assests to that category by finding it in "Daz Studio Formats > My DAZ 3D Library"
From there I right click on the asset folder and select "Create Category From > Selected Folder and SubFolders
So for the sake of argument, I have now taken the asset "old betty" and put a virtual copy of it in my newly created Custom Catagory "Old Crones".
Now here is where it gets tricky.
DAZ sometimes puts the full Character Icon in the Genesis 8 Female CHARACTERS Folder, so if I want to add "old betty" in her entirety, I won't find that in the "Old Betty" that I just created in my Custom Categories. SO.... I go back to my My DAZ 3D Library, Drill down to Genesis 8 Female > Characters, and drag and drop the Old Betty.duf.png Icon into my Custom Category folder.....
This works 98% of the time, the other 2%, it creates TWO copies of that ICON in the Custom Category folder...
I really only want ONE copy, to reduce the clutter... if I delete ONE of them, both are gone.
Any help/Suggestions?
Thanks, in advance!
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
If the same item is dragged from a file based to another cat4gory I would expect it to appear in both, try instead moving the categorised item within the category tree.
I hope I am being clear....
In the same folder, the asset will appear twice, that is two icons right next to each other. Even though I have only "moved" it once. SO the Category folder "Old Crones" will have TWO entries for "old betty" the SAME icon, showing up twice. If I delete ONE of em, they both go.
Here is a screen capture.... In this instance, there are two !Nylyssa's and THREE Olivias
Check the info pane at the bottom to see if they are referring to the same source. One could be in the Product and the other in LOCAL USER for some reason, or maybe it was installed in a different location at one point and you re-installed it. Or, sometimes a file is installed by two different products, and two references are made.
Try uninstalling the product to see if both references go away. If one remains, it should show as an being orphaned (empty picture frame with exclamation point), which you can safely remove. Re-install the product and a single valid reference should return to the custom category.
Are you sure they are all the same file? At least in the case of the Olivia preset you have one without a type tag and two with the Actor tag.
Thanks Richard + Northof45
"Check the info pane at the bottom to see if they are referring to the same source"
"One could be in the Product and the other in LOCAL USER for some reason"
"Are you sure they are all the same file?"
YES
In the case of Olivia... I have two "Olivias" One is SKU 53695 by FWSA and the Other is SKU 58743 by Cherubit. While the files seem to be different for the most part, they share the same Character Duf file "Olivia.duf".... which lead to a cascade of effects that lead to this post.
Is there a way to "rename" the second duf file to avoid these conflicts, or can I really only have one of the two loaded?
Some of my other dublicate issues are showing up as Local User Install... I am guessing those are Non-Daz 3rd Party assets that I did a manual install for, and, after a recent migration to a new computer, I may have re-installed some with a IM packager.
I'll start tacking these issues with the tools I learned here... thanks for the help!
Ok...
How do I go about deleting a "LOCAL USER" Reference?
If I have an asset that was originally installed via drag-and-drop, I am assuming that is how the LOCAL USER instance was created. - I migrate to a new machine, and re-install assets using DIM, which creates then creates another instance (not local, we'll cause it DAZ).
The files have basically overwritten each other, but somewhere, that LOCAL instance is tied in.
My corrective steps were
OPEN DIM
Delete DAZ instance
Using DIM, Right click on unistalled asset and click "Show Package Files"
Using the list from Show package files, I hunt down all the assets listed (which is where I am assuming the LOCAL USER install put them too, and delete by hand.
Now, in therory, the asset should be gone from Daz...
Back in DIM, install the asset
When I do the above, then go to put the newly DIM installed asset into a category, when I drill back down in the category, It shows the duplicate icons again, one under local user, the other under Daz.
I am obviously doing something wrong and not deleting the Local User reference... and suggestions?
Please report the issue with the Olivias, the name clash should be fixed.
The references to files will persist in the database even if the original file is deleted or uninstalled. They cannot be cleared with DIM, that must be done in Studio by removing the orphaned references while the product is uninstalled. You will find them either in any custom categories you have made or in LOCAL USER. Also, in the Products view, delete any Product entries that persist (even if empty) after you have uninstalled it. (There will not be an entry for any manually installed content unless you created one yourself).
Items end up in LOCAL USER if they are not a member of a Product. To be a member of a Product, they have to be included explicitly by the metadata when installed with DIM. (The metadata could have errors and omissions, rarely, so it isn't guaranteed to include everything). They can also be included implicitly even if there is no metadata support file, because DIM will create a minimal support file when it installs a package without one. Manually installing, i.e., drag and drop, unzipping, etc., will not create a new Product, therefore those items will not be members of any Product, yet. That can be done by selecting a folder in Content Library (refresh the view to see all newly added folders), right-click and select "Create a Product from...", supply a name, and voilà, the Product exists. Now go to any other folders with content for the same Product and repeat, being sure to use the same Product name. You will be warned that the Product exists, and to confirm if you want to add to it. Yes, you do.
As for collisions between products, a ticket will take some time before a final correction is available. Meanwhile, you can work around the conflict. In this case, the last installed Product will overwrite any common files. Rename or copy the item (if you rename inside Studio in Content Library, files will retain their metadata, but will break their links with DIM), then re-install the first product. Take the same conflicting file(s) and rename or copy them. This way, you will always have a working copy of each even if you re-install at a later date, although they will be cut off from any modifications or updates later. You will have to deal with them manually.
This should take care of most cases, but there could be some persistent ones.
Thanks North...
I am running into a dead end though... at least I think. I 'll use uc_Art's Selina as an example
I've drag & dopped (D&D) her original install, and then I have gone back over the top and installed via DIM. I migrated to a new computer a few weeks ago, and some of my assets were not showing up (user error I am sure) so I re-installed using DIM.
For the original D&D install, I then created a custom category, and moved her in there via Create Category From... feature.
Later, I installed her via the DIM, and repeated with the Category Creation, this time using the DIM installed one.
SO, now DAZ, at least with the Categories/Smart Content etc thinks I have two copies... When I go to the categories and click on her folder, there she is in duplicate, when I click on one of two identical character icons, one says LOCAL USER, the other says uc_Art.
If I delete either of them, they both go.
So....
I unistall the DIM version (using DIM) then, go through the MY DAZ Library files and delete every mention of Selina in People, Runtime and Data. To be sure, I thin run a windows scan of the My Daz Library files searching for any mention of *Selina*, and if anything comes up, I delete it.
I open DAZ up and Search for Selina, and I will get a bunch of ghost files.... I can't delete these ghost files... at least I can't find a way. It does allow me to "show content in" but when I click that, it doesn't do anything (presumably because the content is now gone).
So If I re-install via DIM Selina, the Selina Files/Folder in People>G8F>Characters all have legit product name, but if I search the DB for Selina, the items returned have the LOCAL USER name, and if I try put it in a category then I get duplicates. If I select the LOCAL USER copies, and do the Create Product from trick, It doesn't change
I guess my real question here is how do I delete the Selina entry in the Database? Or whereever it is holding on to the the info that thinks its LOCAL USER.
You are this close. The first part about having two references is exactly what would happen. There was the first one from the manualt install and custom category. Then there is the second from the DIM install. One is in LOCAL USER and the other is a real Product (right, you said that...). If there is already a product, creating another from those in LOCAL USER will not help, because the database considers them another instance already, and won't merge the two. Databases. Can't live with them, can't delete them...
When you delete the manually installed one and uninstall the DIM version, you see those "ghost files", as shown in the second attachment. Those are the orphaned references that you need to remove. Select them all, right-click on one of them and use "Remove Orphaned References..." and accept at the prompt. I have seen where there have been multiple instances of the orphaned references, so keep doing it until they are all gone. Search might not find all of them, use the custom category folders you created, and for good measure, delete them, too.
If they persist, look for that Selina product in the Products view, and delete it. Next, go to Product LOCAL USER and delete those items completely. I have had this sort of thing happen to me, and sometimes you have to resort to a scorched-earth approach.
So close, and yet... so... far.....
"Those are the orphaned references that you need to remove. Select them all, right-click on one of them and use "Remove Orphaned References..." and accept at the prompt. "
and there in lies the rub. *Quick Q - What is the FASTEST way to get to the panel that has the LOCAL USER on it? I stumble bumpble around til I bump into what I think is the Local User panel... and that may be why I have an issue, becuase when I FIND it...
It doesn't have the "Remove Orphaned References option (see screen cap). Its like DAZ is taunting me. "We know they are here... but we are not letting you have access to deleting them."
Again, maybe I am in the wrong place, but when id do get to the ghost files, I only have the options shown in my attached screen cap.
LOCAL USER is a Product entry, under "L". Best to not use the Smart Content pane as it will not necessarily show everything. The Content Library is a direct image of the file system, so you can be sure to catch it all.
Ok... that makes sense.
But, If I can bend your ear a little longer....
I'm not going to lie... I got a shit ton of these LOCAL USER files. Is there a way to delete them in bulk? Or, a way to reset my database so just the non Local User files are kept and the rest are purged? Its got me thinking it my be better to start over from a clean daz install.....
I almost had a stroke the first time I looked in LOCAL USER. I had been categorizing everything since re-installing when DIM first appeared, and had close to 100,000 items in there. Most were legitimate items that should have been in Products, but before a certain point in time, all the products without metadata (explcit or implicit) ended up there. I found the only foolprooof way to clear them was to re-install it all, with a twist. If you delete them outright, you might lose all references to them, and be left with nothing.
That's when I found the redundant entries, since I had already categorized them and re-installed, creating a new, different reference. In the custom categories, I still saw only one, because they were already there, but the Product still showed as LOCAL USER, and I was getting quite annoyed not seeing the proper info. If I copied a category or made a new one, I saw the double references, and, as you found out, deleting one deleted both.
Not wanting to start over with the categorizing (almost 10K at the time), I found that the sequence of re-installing (if not already done), copying the custom category somewhere else, un-installing, removing orphaned references, installing one last time cleared out most of LOCAL USER. There will still be a number of files left there, but they are usually not functional, mostly web links, placeholders, vanity cards, and the like, that were not explicity included in a product.
Looking back, I suppose I could have just exported User Data, reset the database, and re-import metadata, including User Data, and be done with it, but that was years ago, and I wasn't so sure what I was doing. Plus, I didn't realize the extent of it until I looked at each product. That might be the easiest solution, but there's no going back unless you backup the existing database cluster before trying it. (It won't help with manually installed products, unless they come with metadata).
I hear you about Categorizing. When its all "done" it really helps getting around quickly in DaZ... but by the time you figure out you need a robust category system, It feels like you are already have burried in the quick sand. I am really not that OCD except for computer files... Every time I search through the DAZ My Library assets and see all the unnessessary clutter (an Environment and Environments folder, Documentation and Documents, Camera Presets AND Camera Preset... just to name a few) it makes me cringe. So of course, having duplicate icons in my carefully crafted custom catagories (oooohhh... an Alliteration win!) causes me some panic.
If I new a clean install would help with the Local User issue, I just might be OCD enough to give it a shot... these are the steps?
"Looking back, I suppose I could have just exported User Data, reset the database, and re-import metadata, including User Data, and be done with it, but that was years ago, and I wasn't so sure what I was doing. Plus, I didn't realize the extent of it until I looked at each product. That might be the easiest solution, but there's no going back unless you backup the existing database cluster before trying it. (It won't help with manually installed products, unless they come with metadata)"
Regardless, you gave me some tools to get started cleaning up the duplicates, and for that I am truly grateful!
Yup, those are the steps. The only gotcha will be that the re-imported custom categories will be read-only, unless that has changed. But that is easily remedied by duplicating the whole custom category tree and deleting the original. Actually, you have to make the new root first (can't have the same name) next to the original, then duplicate all the branches from the original under it. Have fun!
One last thing...
continuing on my last post...
Some asset designers/makers trip up close to the goal line by misspellings or brain freeze when it comes to how they package their assets.
I put some examples above, but would it be a DAZ no-no to actually move the one or two assets that were placed in "Enviroment" into the conventional "Environments" folder (where 99% of the other Environment(s) assets are) OR, do I just have to just play the ball where it lies?
Personally, I just leave things where they fall. The custom categories can be organized however I want, and I never look at the physical locations again (unless I lose something and need to track it down). Yes, it can be a mess, but I gave up trying to care about it. If you move things, DIM will lose track of where they are, so updates, uninstall, operations like "Show Installed files", and metadata validity for smart content will be broken.