Problems with Smart Conent & CMS

markcarrawaymarkcarraway Posts: 0

I updated to the 4.5 Pro release not long ago, and soon after, I started having a problem with my Smart Content disappearing. At first I was able to correct the issue by shutting down Daz studio, restarting the CMS and / or re-importing the meta data. Eventually, these work arounds stopped working as well, and now every time I start Daz Studio, the CMS automatically stops.

I have now tried running a complete, clean reinstall of Daz Studio and Daz CMS, I have deleted the old databases, and recreated, I have reset the database and just about everything else i could find suggested in these forums all without any change. It seems that no matter what I do i cannot get the smart content to show.

Has anyone else seen this issue before? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Comments

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited October 2012

    Did you try the Reset Database and Re-Import Metafata commands?

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  • markcarrawaymarkcarraway Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    When this first started happening, those things would temporarily correct the problem. Now neither one has any effect. As I said, as soon as Daz Studio loads completely, the CM Service IMMEDIATELY stops. This is now happening every time without fail.

    Last night I ran a full uninstall / reinstall as detailed here: https://helpdaz.zendesk.com/entries/20779763 and even when to the extra steps of cleaning the registry. But the problem still occurred. I then went through the steps of completely manually deleting and recreating the database, but that had no effect either.

    As I said, I am currently out of things to try.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Yeah I did understand what you wrote but I did have to ask about resetting the database as you didn't mention it.

    Sorry I could help.

  • markcarrawaymarkcarraway Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Incidentally it doesn't appear to me that the "reset database" command actually does anything. I would think that there would be some progress bar or dialog or something, but there is no indication that it is doing anything at all.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    When I have had CMS issues in the oast this two commands fiixed it and the issues never returned.

    OK next thing to look at is your ANti Viruse program well Firweall really. I have seen a number of posts that report this having an influence on CMS not working properly.

    Again with MS Security Essentials I haven't had CMS turning itself off.

  • cridgitcridgit Posts: 1,757
    edited May 2022

    Redacted

    Post edited by cridgit on
  • KinnieMKinnieM Posts: 132
    edited December 1969

    This issue just happened to me a few days ago and none of the steps of resetting the database and then re-importing the metadata worked for me. Those steps used to work when I was running Daz 4.5 on a 32 bit win 7 OS but now that I have switched over to 64 bit OS those steps no longer worked.

    So the question is what OS are you running and is it a 32 or 64 bit?

    The difference I found was were the database was being installed.
    Under the 32 bit sytem my database was installed to the default location of C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\Content Management Service\database but once I did a fresh install to a 64 bit system I found that Daz 4.5 installed the database to C:\ProgramData\DAZ 3D\Content Management Service\databases.

    Once I uninstalled the CMS and then deleted the database under ProgramData I was able to re-install Daz 4.5 and re-import the metadata and then the Smart Content was visible again.

    Hopefully you will get it working again soon.

  • SimonJMSimonJM Posts: 5,980
    edited December 1969

    Not sure if this is the same issues but the CMS has suddenly stopped running for me too. Most disconcerting for it to go AWOL in the midst of, in effect, using it! A simple restart of the service suffices to get it running again, but to have DS talk to it again I need to shut and restart DS. From not having had any issues with CMS from day 1, it's bizarre this started happening yesterday.
    Being an ex-programmer I am aware of the proverbial 'what did you last do?' and something was done, but which should not have any effect on CMS - though it is simple enough to check.

  • markcarrawaymarkcarraway Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    cridgit said:
    Did you install everything to default locations and are you on a non-English operating system?

    All of installations are in the default locations. My operating system is Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

  • markcarrawaymarkcarraway Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    KinnieM said:

    So the question is what OS are you running and is it a 32 or 64 bit?

    I am running Windows 7 Home premium 64 bit so my situation does sound a lot like yours, although I was able to re-import metadata and restart the CMS a few times to successfully restore my smart content. That stopped working over the weekend.

    Are you saying that you uninstalled the 64 bit version, set up your database, then reinstalled the 64 bit version and imported that database?

  • markcarrawaymarkcarraway Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    SimonJM said:
    A simple restart of the service suffices to get it running again, but to have DS talk to it again I need to shut and restart DS.

    This was my symptoms late last week. After a while, that trick no longer worked and nothing I have done so far has made any difference.

    I saw an obscure post somewhere where someone noticed issues with this related to the size of his content file, but I am just not sure about that, and I haven't seen any other posts. I do have a lot of content, but I am certain that plenty of people have much more than I do.

  • SimonJMSimonJM Posts: 5,980
    edited December 1969

    SimonJM said:
    A simple restart of the service suffices to get it running again, but to have DS talk to it again I need to shut and restart DS.

    This was my symptoms late last week. After a while, that trick no longer worked and nothing I have done so far has made any difference.

    I saw an obscure post somewhere where someone noticed issues with this related to the size of his content file, but I am just not sure about that, and I haven't seen any other posts. I do have a lot of content, but I am certain that plenty of people have much more than I do.

    Hopefully NOT linked to content size/numbers - I have a LOT of stuff, but most (76+%) does not have metadata and anyway, databases are supposed to be able to slosh around huge amounts of data - that's the whole point of them!

  • KinnieMKinnieM Posts: 132
    edited December 1969

    KinnieM said:

    So the question is what OS are you running and is it a 32 or 64 bit?

    I am running Windows 7 Home premium 64 bit so my situation does sound a lot like yours, although I was able to re-import metadata and restart the CMS a few times to successfully restore my smart content. That stopped working over the weekend.

    Are you saying that you uninstalled the 64 bit version, set up your database, then reinstalled the 64 bit version and imported that database?

    Not quite. I had switched to 64 bit OS and installed Daz 4.5 (the latest release) and was using the CMS with no problems for several days and then it suddenly stopped working and no matter how many times I tried to fix it using the reset database and re-import metadata nothing worked.

    So I decided to search the forums and one suggestion was to uninstall the CMS and delete the database but I couldn't find it until I looked into Programdata (which is hidden by win default). So after uninstalling the CMS, I deleted the database and re-installed Daz 4.5 which created a new default database and everything went back to working fine.

    When I opened up Daz it asked if I wanted to import the metadata and everything showed up in Smart Content without any further problems. I believe that the problem of it disappearing is that somehow the database became corrupted and deleting and creating a new one fixed it in my case.

    Hope that helps :)

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    I have noticed that some people hit trouble just after a Win7 Update or a AV Update. Always check what updates have done to your System. Sometimes Updates over ride old settings and require them to be set again.

  • markcarrawaymarkcarraway Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    KinnieM said:
    Hope that helps :)

    Okay, thank you for clarifying. I did notice that the database was impossible to find without searching, and I believe that I have already tried this step, but I will repeat tonight to make sure that I am deleting the correct database and then reinstall just to be sure.

    If that fails, I have a mind to download and install the 32 bit version, just to see what happens. Lord knows it is not worth the benefit of running multi-threads if the software is so buggy that it won't work...

  • markcarrawaymarkcarraway Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Jaderail said:
    I have noticed that some people hit trouble just after a Win7 Update or a AV Update. Always check what updates have done to your System. Sometimes Updates over ride old settings and require them to be set again.

    I don't think there have been any AV updates, but I will check them both. Thanks for the suggestion.

  • cridgitcridgit Posts: 1,757
    edited May 2022

    Redacted

    Post edited by cridgit on
  • SimonJMSimonJM Posts: 5,980
    edited December 1969

    A bit more information ... things look to have settled down somewhat. I think it was just the scene I was working on at the time that was causing the problem. DS seemed to run horribly slowly, despite the scene not being that complex (just Genesis, a few clothing items, hair and a sword) and it was (if memory serves) during those horribly slow moments that the CMS seems to have died. The complexity of the scene was probably mainly due to multiple LIE usage (Gore and Grime, plus Wounds). In the midst of the original setup of the scene I was getting failures to find some of the image/map files.
    I have since gone back and redone things and DS/CMS looks to be behaving.

  • RKane_1RKane_1 Posts: 3,037
    edited December 1969

    Yeah, this is happening to me now to. I tried to reimport the metadata but to no avail.

    Crap... this sucks.

    I can still open my content via the library but no Smart Content at all

    Running DAZ Studio 4.5.1.6 Pro 64-bit on Windows 7

  • SimonJMSimonJM Posts: 5,980
    edited November 2012

    Spoke too soon - now happens pretty much consistently ... exit DS, restart CMS, start DS, CMS has died by the time DS is active. Good news is that theer are debug details in system logs, and that fault offest (I presume progam execution addess is consistant). I'll chuck a bug report at Mantic (or update any existing one I find).

    Created Mantis report

    Post edited by SimonJM on
  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969
  • markcarrawaymarkcarraway Posts: 0
    edited November 2012

    Szark said:

    I was successfully able to restore the CMS and SC last night after following basically the same steps outlined in that thread. I did not start by making a back up of the existing database because I was fairly certain that it was completely shot at this point. I also did not bother to export user data since I had (thankfully) not done a lot of work on my own in the database. I will add that step in my explanation however just in case someone else finds their way to this thread. It is definitely a case of database corruption causing this particular issue.

    First of all I want to repeat my suspicions that the "reset database" function in the 64 bit version of DS4.5 is buggy and could be the likely cause of the cataclysmic failure of the database. I don't want to break mine again by testing that theory but as i backtracked my steps trying to sort this out, it seems my inability to restore my smart content by restarting DS and the CMS and reimporting metadata started after attempting to reset the database which is a common solution for that issue often touted in this forum. I would be hesitant to recommend that anyone using DS4.5 Pro 64bit use that function at all until someone looks at it to be certain.

    So for posterity here are the exact steps I followed to restore the CMS and Smart Content. Please note that this is relevant only to 64bit systems:

    1: If you have done any customization to your database (added categories, user metadata etc) be sure to export user data (as covered in this topic http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/8028/#105548 )if you fail to do this, any work you have done WILL be lost!

    2: Close DS and manually stop the Content Management Service using the executable in the DAZ Content Management Service folder windows start menu.

    3: Use the uninstaller found in that same folder to uninstall DAZ Content Management System. You will receive a warning saying that uninstalling the software will have a serious impact on DS4 and that it is strongly recommended that you do not remove it. Ignore that message and uninstall.

    4: Run the uninstaller for DS4.5

    5: (The next step may be overkill, but I included it in my original process so I am including it here - skip it at your own risk) Run CCleaner and use the registry cleaning tool to remove any pesky remainders in the registry. I had to run 4 scans to completely remove all of the DS related orphans. (make backups when prompted for your registry - ALWAYS a smart choice) Restart your computer when it is clean.

    6: Navigate to C:\ProgramData\DAZ 3D\Content Management Service\ (you can just paste the path into your windows file browser bar since the entire ProgramData directory is hidden by default and a real booger to find.) and DELETE the entire folder called "databases" make sure it is 100% gone.

    7: Reinstall DAZ Studio (always best to use default settings)

    8: Once DAZ loads, you MAY be prompted to import metadata if so just approve the update. If not then check to see that you have the two arrows shown in the attachment showing in your content tree. If you DO see them you are in business..... if not turn off your computer and go straight to bed.

    9: If you do have those two arrows, your CMS is functioning and you can manually import metadata at this point. Once the import is complete your Smart Content should automatically appear.

    This may or may not solve the issue with the Content continually disappearing. That may be an unrelated issue that shows up again for me later. At this point I have had no more issues, but I have also not installed any new content.

    Thank you all for your help and thanks especially to KinnieM who pointed me in the right direction for getting this solved!

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