intending to upgrade

desperado

Before I upgrade my DS, currently v.4.9.1.3 , there is one thing that I need to know about. Over the last few years I've downloaded and replaced my DS a few time and each time I lost my category  entries. I once was informed that the category listing was stored as a text file in the C:Users...MyDocuments folder. I've searched and cannot find it, as marked, either there or in the ProgramFiles DAZ directory. So, I'd like back-up my categories entries before I do the upgrade. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

SpottedKitty

Desperado said:

I once was informed that the category listing was stored as a text file in the C:Users...MyDocuments folder.

That's a bit incomplete, I think. What you're actually looking for is the database that drives the Category, Products, and Smart Content views. This is found in the /Runtime/Support/ folder of your content location, but first you have to export the custom data.

Go to the Content Library tab (NOT Smart Content) and click on the Options button (top right corner of the tab, looks like four lines with a little arrowhead). From the menu that drops down, select "Content DB Maintenance". Tick the box for "Export User Data" then Accept. Note that if you have a lot of custom data, this can take a little while to complete.

Now, you shouldn't really be losing the database when you update, but sometimes things go wrong. After you update, if things go missing, you can get the full database back by doing the same process, but tick the box for "Re-Import Metadata" at the last step.

And I just noticed you said "over the last few years". The original content database was run with Valentina software, which turned out to be a bit fragile and prone to breaking if you looked at it funny. A couple of D|S versions back, this was changed to the PostgreSQL database, which (so far) has been more robust. Have you migrated your database to the new setup? There should be a migration tool among all the bits and pieces you can download when you update a new D|S version. Note that the current release D|S version (not the beta) doesn't support Valentina any more you must use PostgreSQL.

desperado

Thank you for the clearly knowledgeable response. I'll go ahead and give it a go and let you know the outcome.

SpottedKitty

Fingers crossed and good luck.

Incidentally, something to keep in mind is that your installed content and the content database are stored separately in different locations from the D|S program — they shouldn't be affected by a program uninstall/reinstall or update. The same goes for the settings that determine where these locations are on your computer. If all goes well, the previously installed content should pop right back up again after you finish updating. If that isn't happening, you might be best to put in a support ticket to see if there's anything you can do to fix things.

desperado

Well, The re-install went well, but I still have no Categories folder in the Content Pane, and the Support folder had just a few misc DS product shortcuts eaxh with a jpg and DAZ script file. What I do get on startup 8is the attached error message. I feel like I've tried as much as I can withou diggi8ng deeper into the "weeds", which I'm reluctant to do blindly. So I'll just take some time and recreate the Categories folder omce again.

I thank you very, very much for your time and effort with this. Your help is genuinly appreciated.