Daz Lost its Library
vaysheth
Posts: 31
Ok, I've been a Daz user for over ten years now and I've seen a lot of things, but this one takes the cake and I think I might need to pick someone's brain for answers. I use a custom directory due to space limitations on my main drive. Admittedly this has led to a host of problems all by itself as Daz does not like to be moved. I just updated from 4.21 to 4.22 and, not only did Daz pick its own directory from its goozle pipe for the install, but when I opened the app. it could no longer log into CMS. About a year ago, when I got a new computer, I had a similar problem which I never actually solved... but I had found a work-around for it and managed to limp by ever since; I can't remember what I did to circumvent the issue, though. When I go into settings, the CMS Cluster Directory field is blank. I can add a new directory, accept the path, reopen the window, and find an empty field again. This is the same thing it did to me last time, I remember getting it to take its info some other way, like a mirror directory or something, but I can't recall or re-figure out what I did. The install manager's directories are still in tact, which gives me hope because I know last time I had to fight with Daz and Daz3Dim. Was there a way to force Daz to use Daz3Dim's info? Someone smarter than me, please help.
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Comments
That sounds as if there are permission issues with cmscfg.json in (for Windows)
%appdata%/daz 3d/cms/
or the folder itself.
Sadly, it is not that simple, Permissions are all intact. Everything was working before I updated 4.21 to 4.22, that is the change that killed it.
PostgreSQL is very fussy about permissions, so what do you mean by intact? Have you tried removing the cmscfg.json file and then restarting Daz Studio?
I mean my User Profile still has Full Control and I can manipulate the file however I want with no messages asking what I'm doing or why. I had not tried that before you suggested it, but I have now and no dice. I remember working some kind of voodoo on it before, but I don't remember the process. I think I told Daz to link its folder in some way. This is extremely annoying, I just realized the Install Manager has a wrong file extension as well for its Content Database Base heading as well and it has the same problem. I can input the correct path and after I hit Accept and the window closes, it resets to one it invented for itself. The cmscfg.json file contains the correct path even after I deleted it and opened Daz to create a new one, so this is really confusing to me. Why does Daz have to erase the manually input data, replace it with false paths, and rufuse to connect because it can't find a "valid PostgreSQL CMS connection"?
Your windows User is with auth group ADMINISTRATORS ?
Yessir. Everything has worked for ten+ years... The only thing that changed was this update. Whatever work-around I had used before got reset, or at least that's my guess. Anyone know a way to bypass the internal settings? Because I think that's what I had done. I just don't remember how....
The way I suggested in this thread always works for me - https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/661411/i-ve-got-two-cms-folders.
On the contrary, I just suggest you create a new Windows user (DO NOT use ADMINITRATORS) and try again.
Ok, the thread you pointed me to looks like the same work-around I had used before. I'm out of time today to try any of it, but I'll post here after I get a chance. Thanks, guys.
I have repeatedly tried everything from that thread with no change. I can't figure out why Daz won't take any input.... DIM won't start CMS any better than Daz will and I can't change the paths. I have Admin. controls and permissions for both Daz and DIM so I should be able to alter the paths. Any fresh ideas?
Overuse of admin rights may be the issue.
We've suggested try with a new Win user without Administrators auth. group...
OK, I've tried that as well with still no luck. I did run into one thing, though. My postmaster.opts file had a bogus path, likely created by the update because... Daz. Any idea what obscure file might be hindering path-changes? Or may contain a bad cms path? Daz just requires too much space to pitch a fit over being moved. In my defense, I did install to its current location and everything has worked for the last year (since I got my new computer). All I did was update from 4.21 to 4.22 and Daz changed settings to paths that have never existed. What I really need is technical info, what file holds the path data, since I can't change it from within Daz?
The other option is if someone knows what I did the last time. lol That's all, just tell me what I did. There was a way to import my library somehow, maybe from the Content Library. I got the steps from the forum when this happened a year ago, so somebody around here knows. I called it a work-around because I never did solve this issue, I just circumvented it so I could continue working. Fixing it would be best, of course, but I would be happy to just get back to work.
Importing the library is not the answer as that is for when you have a working CMS connection but the database is empty/incomplete/corrupt. If you cannot connect to PostreSQL then you will not be able to do the import since there is nowhere for it to go.
As true as that may be, I did something very similar to that which had the whole thing working. Does anybody know the name of the file I need to correct to make it work? I'll find it eventually, but the name woud really help.
Does nobody else have any ideas? Why can't I start CMS? Why won't Daz take any manual input? What could this tiny update possibly have screwed up? I just did a complete wipe; manually deleted everything but the Content Library and all that did was mess up my view port settings, which I've had the way I want them for so long, I had forgotten I had changed them in the first place. Daz wants to put the PostgreSQL CMS file on the C drive so bad that it won't allow me to designate a different path, but the C drive is so full, I don't want anything else to even look at it. I have an 8T SSD just for Daz and Daz spits in its face and insists on putting stuff on the main drive. With as much space as Daz takes up, somebody out there has to have moved it somewhere else... Any advice?
How are you installing? Calling everything "Daz" makes it very hard to sort out. And what is getting isntalled to C: - the PostgrSQL executables or the Content Cluster (database)?
I'll take those questions from the top: 1) To uninstall, I went through the Programs/Features in the Control Panel and removed Install Manager, which also unstalled Daz Studio. Since that doesn't delete files or folders, I ran the Uninstall.exe from the Daz folder then deleted everything from AppData, Program Files, Documents, and everywhere else Daz had hidden files away for a rainy day. The only thing I did not burn was the Content Library itself. 2) I went back to the home page and installed Daz3DIM, set all the paths after signing in (almost), and installed Daz to D. The Content Cluster insists on being in C:/Users/Me/AppData/Roaming/Daz 3D and there is no convincing DIM or Daz that it should be somewhere else (I can't manually set a path from within Daz Studio, with F2, or from DIM). When deleting everything, I found two different paths "Daz" had created for the executables and neither were the one I created. As I said before, this is bewildering and frustrating because it was all working before this minor update. "Daz", for lack of a better term, changed paths and created folders all over without ever asking if I wanted to make and changes to settings. I just can't figure out what it changed so I can make it all work again.
These are the directories that will not take any input. The CMS Cluster Directory remains blank no matter what I tell it and the PostgrSQL Cluster resets as well. The "Start" button for CMS is grayed out in every window I can find it and when I click the "Login" button it immediately returns and error.
Here's the message I get when I click "Login".
Please say Daz Studio or DS, it is confusing when you are talking about more than one app and call one of them plain Daz.
So you cannot use Edit>Preferences>CMS Settings in Daz Studio to select a new path, or it doesn't stick? (Selectign a nwe location won't copy the existing database across, you will either have to move the files with all applications that use the database closed or rebuild using the Reimport Metadata command in Content Library option menu>Content DB Maintenance.)
DIM doesn't let you set paths for individdual applications, but it does let you select and should then respect a base path for applications of a given bit architecture (32 bit or 64 bit).
For some reason the pictures that showed up when I posted earlier are gone now, so I'm reposting those. The only time I don't distinguish between Daz and DIM is when I can't. I don't actually have any way of knowing which is the culprit in creating new paths as both have been guilty of doing so. From within Daz Studio, using F2, where it shows a blank cms Directory, when I give it the correct path, everything looks fine, when I click Accept, it automatically closes that window and returns to the previous. If I reopen the window, nothing has changed and the cms Directory is blank again. For the Content Cluster tab, I can put in a path and port and select Apply, which doesn't auto-kick me out of the window and everything looks normal, but the "Start" button stays grayed out which tells me it's still not happy. When I finally hit accept and close the Preferences window, next time I open it again, the input is gone.
I have moved files from incorrect paths, Reimported Meta Data, and corrected incorrect paths in .json files that had to be moved. Every time I restart Daz, it generates new .json files in random places, sometimes the default path, sometimes not, it just depends on how its feeling that time around.
DIM is a little better, but it also insists that the Content Database Base (Advanced Settings/Installation) is C:/Users/Me/AppData/Roaming/Daz 3D/cms and I input the correct path before I reinstalled Daz. This is the reason I keep saying "Daz did whatever". How am I supposed to know which program is responsible when neither one will take manual data input? Daz owns the Studio and Daz owns DIM so neither one can keep their paths straight. I have been speciffic whether I'm talking Daz the Studio or DIM the installer where I can be, but this pathing issue is like the chicken or the egg. Did DIM pretend to make a correct path until I closed the window then change it back when I wasn't looking just before installing Daz? Or did Daz define a new path for DIM during installation? I'll never know because I didn't reopen the window between setting all the paths and installing the Studio and I really don't want to do all that again. Although, at this point, I may have to concede defeat, let Daz put more data on an over-stuffed drive, and do another clean install to fix the mess. What bothers me most is that this was all working, just as it is. What did Daz change in that tiny update that broke the whole system? I know this is all from one file. A .dll or .json with a bad path in it and neither Daz nor DIM let me change it from within the program; it has to be changed when the systems are not running. I just can't find the file.
That sounds like a permissions issue on the configuration file.
Do you know the names of the files I should check? I've tripple-checked every configuration file/folder I know to check.
%appdata%/daz 3d/cms/cmscfg.json
Ok, here's what Ive figured out so far. I did another fresh install using the same steps I described before, but this time, the only path I designated was Daz Studio itself. I also spent time, ran some searches, and tracked down every folder I could find related to Daz, and deleted it. After the install, letting DIM define all its own paths, neither Daz nor DIM could connect to CMS. In DIM, under the installed tab, I filtered by A-Z so I could find the PostgreSQL CMS package. After highlighting it I ticked the Show Details box in the bottom right corner. The short story is, the cluster and database paths did not exist. I browsed to the file locations and whole folders were missing, none of the files were there, I clicked Reinstall, and that didn't fix anything. Under the Show Details viewport, the working paths were blue and I could click on them to quick-browse to their location, the files/folders that were broken were in black. Without changing any of the paths, I moved the folders (I actually copied the folders so that previously set paths would still also be correct... not that any of them were working anyway) when I was done, all the files/folders in the viewport were working blue-links for quick-browsing. It looked like success until I clicked the Start button and DIM could still not connect to CMS. Knowing I was sunk, I opened Daz Studio and it also could not connect to CMS. For some reason, the new path DIM created was c:/ProgramData/DAZ 3D/CMS/cmscfg.json. I had to edit the .json file and change its path to reflect this change, as well as move it (copy it) to its new home. Of course I changed only the copy and only after I had copied it over, the original still maintained its correct path. So... now that everything is in the right place, what is wrong?
When I use F2 from within Daz, or Edit/Preferences/Content-tab/Content Directory Manager-button, since I can't get any path to stick, I'm not confident I'm inputting the path it's looking for. Can someone give me their working link so I can figure it out on my system? Also, what, aside from the .json file is in that folder location?
Then, F2 - CMS Settings-tab, what path is supposed to be under PostgrSQL: Cluster? I have the same problem here, I input a path (that I think it wants) hit apply, and Start button stays grayed out. Once I close the window (by hitting Accept) and reopen it, all the info i put in is gone; it has me questioning whether I'm putting it the right paths. If someone could attatch a picture so I can see where the path is supposed to end, that would really help.
So PostgreSQL itself is isntalled? Does it show in Task Manager (you will need More details on) when DIM or DS run?
I ever spent time on digging out where the link / path of cluster was saved... but I failed to find it. It's not saved in Daz / cms folders under %appdada%, Windows Registry, DIM settings, DAU file, any related *.ini....etc. If deleting cmscfg.json, no impact... it'll be recreated when launching new DS instance.
So I'd also like to know where it's saved...
Yes, PostgrSQL is installed and everything looks like it's working except actually starting CMS. No, it does not show in Task Manager, I'm assuming this is due to Daz and DIM not being able to start CMS.
Crosswind, look in your preferences menu with Daz Studio running. You can either hit F2 (if you haven't changed default short cuts) or use Edit then Preferences. From the Menu, click the Content tab, at the bottom of this window is a button - Content Directory Manager. Under normal circumstances, there are paths here that will tell you where your CMS and other content is located. Mine is blank, and no matter how I change it, it stays that way. The next tab to the right is the CMS Settings tab. Again, under normal circumstances, there is a path for your Cluster. Mine is blank. A picture would be best, but if someone could shoot me those two paths, I can think I can finish solving this puzzle.
A big thank you to everyone who has helped me so far.
Yeah, I know where to configure the path.. what I mean is where it is saved. That path of cms cluster must be saved in somewhere after clicking Accept otherwise you won't see it in that tab when you open it next time. And yes, it's weird that it is blank on your side and it seems not changeable or not able to be saved...