Smart Content "Greyed Out" after fresh install
duckbomb
Posts: 585
Hello!
I know there have been threads about this, and I've read through most of them (and attempting to fix my problem along the way), but I'm really struggling to understand what I need to do and am hoping one of you who are much more experienced with the database stuff can help me.
I recently re-installed Windows to just refresh everything, and I backed up all of my DAZ content (which I had already in a folder on a different drive), so I have my DAZ Library intact. I didn't, however, know about any kind of database or smart content things that needed backing up, and now when I open DAZ I can see all of my library in the content pane, but in Smart Content it's all grey and looks like it wants me to re-download. I've attached screenshots to show what I mean, and my current library settings in the preferences window.
Do you think I should allow all of these products to "re-install" in the Smart Content pane, or is that going to duplicate everything? I do not have room on my main drive to have the whole library hosted there, which is why it's on the "E Drive"... Really, any help is appreciated. I know this shouldn't be this hard, but I'm really struggling...
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Comments
Re-import the metadata.
I went into the Smart Content, right clicked on one of the items that is greyed out, and clicked on "Update Metadata", but nothing changed on my end. I saw a message at the bottom of that 3 updated and 2 failed, whatever that was referring to, but the item I clicked on is still grey and I still have the option to "install" when I right-click.
Is this what you meant for me to do, or is there a different way?
Open the Content Library option menu (the lined/hamburger button in the top corner, orr ight-click the tab)>Content DB Maintenance, check Reimport Metadata, click Accept, a dialgue will open, check to import all products (and user data, if any) then click Accept.
Excellent! Thank you so much! I honestly didn't even see that little hamburger icon, but this makes so much sense now that I see it. It seems to be stuck at "100%", but that probably isn't surprising given the large number of products, so I'll let it sit there for a while and my assumption is that it'll sort out. Thanks again, I'm super grateful!
Hmmm... unfortunately, this seems to have made things worse... It finished, but now my Smart Content pane shows only 64 items when I view all items (instead of close to 5,000 like it did before), and some of them have a weird "U" icon over them. Has anybody seen this? Pic attached.
Ok so I refreshed the entire database and got it back to where it was, all 4900 items just greyed out.
What would happen if I were to just highlight them all and click "install"? Would it re-download them all? Or, would it just add it to the database or whatever so I can access it in Smart Content? I tried it on a few, but I can't figure out what it's doing.
How did you initially install? The fact that you can see the files in the Content Library (I think, can't check since this has taken me to a new page) suggests you used Install Manager/Daz Central/Manual installation. Selecting Install within DS uses Daz Connect, which places its files in a different location, so yes it would fetch fresh copies of everything. If you did install some files through Connect then it should notice the files and just check they are current, but I've had limited success with that.
If you still have the zips it may be simplest to just let Install Manager reinstall everything.
Thanks again for your response, Richard!
I initially installed this all via DIM, and I specified in DIM a library location on a larger hard drive separate from the main one with the programs and OS on it. Since I used DIM, and I chose to delete all of the downloads, I did not keep the zip files.
1) All of the content downloaded via DIM to this external drive, and that's where the library is. When I refreshed Windows, I only wiped and reloaded the primary (C:) with the OS and the applications on it. I re-installed DIM, used DIM to re-install DS 4.15, and then I went into the DIM settings and pointed all of the library and path stuff to that external location. in DIM, after I refreshed it, I see all of the items in the "Installed" tab, as it was before I reloaded everything.
2) Now, when I loaded up DS, I went into the Content Directory Manager and edited all of the paths to be the locations on that external drive that already existed. After applying, I saw that it was updating all of the items, and as I refreshed the list in Smart Content more and more of the icons appeared (although they were grey). That's pretty much where I am at.
I DO have all access to the content in the Content Library Tab, however, and if I right-click on any of the smart-content items that are greyed out I can choose to show the item in the Content Library, so this is a good workaround for now because I can use Smart Content to filter and find my items (all of the categories work and everything), but instead of loading from Smart Content I can have it take me to it's place in the Content Library.
I suspect you are right about it just being easier to allow DIM to do its job again. I don't have that kind of data available to me at home, but I can take the machine to work and use our corporate network to pull all of the stuff down, so I think that's probably the right course of action here. This way, I know that it's all re-installed fresh, all of the management links are in the right place, and I'm back to where I started. I feel like deleting my 1.5 TB of library data is a bit of a waste, but I suppose so was blasting away my computer just to "refresh it", so that's on me.
Thanks for confirming what I was worried about with regards to Daz Connect installing... I would have been really frustrated with myself if I chose to download them all again, used up all of my space, AND incurred overage charges in the process, so just re-downloading is the right way to go here most likely.
I do appreciate you chiming in to help!