Blank icons in Smart Content
James_H
Posts: 1,046
in The Commons
I'm starting to reinstall a lot of content. I have a lot of blank icons showing in smart content. Is there a way to get rid of them?
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File or products? Installing how?
If you are using DIM, unfortunately installing then uninstalling products often leaves a "ghost" of the product in Smart Content. I run into this all of the time.
One time consuming way to fix this is to reinstall then uninstall the offending products. Most of the time this will clear out the blank icons.
Another way that I have had less luck with is to use the "Condense Database" option under Content Database Maintenance. I would not try any of the other options as I have only had more problems with them; particularly Reset Database and Re-Import Metadata. Sometimes those two make more empty icons appear.
Another option is to make sure that you have the "Installed" tab as the active tab in Smart Content. This is a kind of obvious one, which I left for last... but I have accidentally clicked All or Available and not noticed.
I am installing my content to a new directory, and have removed the old content directory from the list of locations. I screwed something up but I also wanted to get round the duplicate formulas issue with G8F. So now, lots of exclamation marks. I should have wiped everything I suppose.
I suppose what I want to know is if there is a way to reset the database compoletely, then rebuild it based on the directoies now selected in Daz.
There is... but its ugly and complicated.
The first step is that you need to locate every directory that DAZ is using, including the directories under My Documents and User (if on a PC).
Then uninstall everything. DAZ Studio, all content, even DIM. Use DIM first, then follow up by checking Windows Uninstall.
Go through those directories you found on the first step and clean them all out. The uninstall process can leave files behind in unexpected places. The only thing you shouldn't delete is the directory you are downloading your packages to.
The last step is to start reinstalling. A bit of advice in this...
I create a "DAZ" directory off of one of my root drives, usually D. Under that I put a 32 and a 64 directory. I then put EVERYTHING to these directories; the DAZ Studio application area, the CMS database, the Content Directories, etc.
I do this in preperation for the next time I have to "reset" everything. This keeps it all in one place and makes it easier to fix in the future.
There are probably ways to do this within DS, but I haven't had any luck with any of those methods. Some have totally broken my content directories, destroying the CMS database and having me have to do the above process out of necessitiy. Other suggestions didn't do anything to remove the ghost icons.
Right now I only have a handful of these icons and consider that a sucess. Look at the second screen shot below, when "All" is selected I have hundreds of these icons. There is nothing you can do to stop these, other than not installing content. It looks even worse when you hae "Available" selected because DS remembers / sees all the possible content you can install (and I am not logged in in my DS).
Duplicate formulae are unlikely to be an instalaltion issue, they are usually a conflict between two products using the same name for their properties.
Exclamation marks usually mean the content is not found, so most likely you need to fix the paths. What are the current paths you have selected, and where are the files relative to those?
Duplicate Formulas is not the issue in this case.
In this case DIM often leaves ghosts of items in Smart Content during the product uninstall. I see it all the time. When this happens, the icons shown in this screenshot appear:
They are products that DS thinks is installed when, in reality, they are not.
If you isolate the directories where these items are installed, often you can find a couple of files that DIM did not uninstall. Re-installing them to the same location and then uninstalling them can sometimes remove the ghost.
Other times its DIM leaving the product entry in the database when the uninstall is completed.
I only install a small set of permenant items. Everything else I use I install and uninstall as I need each, meaning that I end up with a lot of these exclamation points. I regularly (once every three to four months depending on the number of projects) have to burn the directories to get rid of them.
Bear in mind that this doesn't occur with every install / uninstall. I have about a dozen of them in my Smart Content right now after the last couple of months of work and a couple of hundred products being installed and uninstalled.
What appears to happen is DIM either forgets some of the files (for whatever reason) or the files are marked as "in use" and DIM doesn't register the error.
Sounds like I have to manually remove Daz data and start again from scratch.
This is painful.
DIM does keep a record when a file already exists, so that uninstalling the product won't uninstall the preexistign file. I'm not sure if that would cause the product metadata to persist, though.
It is painful, but...if you isolate your directories it will be easier in the future.
Also, I would try the Compact Database option first. Sometimes that clears out a bunch of my bad icons. Other times I have found that it makes no difference, but it is worth the try.
Second, I would hunt down any rogue DAZ directories that DS might be pulling from. Look under My Documents, C:\Users\Public\Documents, and C:\Users\<your Windows log on name>\AppData\Roaming\DAZ 3D
Don't wholesale delete these directories though; look to see if anything seems out of order. particularly in the CMS and Studio4\RunOnce directories. Sometimes old metadata could be hiding in there.
Lastly, go into DS and remove as many of your content directories as you can, from both DS Native and Poser. Then close DS and reopen it. Check your Smart Content then. If you have a bad content directory, you'll be able to spot it this way.
Then I would try uninstalling and reinstalling everything.
It doesn't help you now, but I have found some practices to minimize the occurances of these ghost icons... I have at least three content directories:
One is my required content, the things I always use: Base figures, important morphs, scripts and such. The things that I never uninstall.
The second directory is a long term work directory. I store projects and custom files in this.
The last directory is my project directory, which I name based on the date I create the directory. I install all of my temporary products to this. When I don't need those anymore I uninstall them. When I start to get too many ghost icons, I uninstall everything from that directory, remove the directory from my DS content, and archive whatever is left in it. This usually clears out the ghost icons.
Thanks, Jason. I was trying to do this. I've set-up some directories for tutorials, hdri, and was going to put old stuff somewhere separate. I will have a go at this. I'll also put some G8 in a separate location.
No problem. Happy to help. This is something that I have been fighting with for years.
I had an ulterior motive for posting this... The hope that someone has a better way to resolve this. I'm sure my process has flaws in it and I am always hoping someone will show up with pointers to a magic button that will auto-fix it.
OK, just to report back.
Compacting the database took some time and didn't appear to do anything.
However I then tried an experiment, as I could see 'Michael 8' was a blank icon. I reinstalled Michael 8, and then the icon was again an image. So it is possible that if I restore my stuff, across a range of directories, then much of the problem will go away. I'll experiment a bit more after a trip to the dentist today.
I will be left with some blank G8F though, as I don't intend to reinstall all G8F: I want to try to avoid duplicate formulas there, so I'll be a bit more cautious.