Where did my categories and products go.

kimreb55th

With the introduction of DIM, I eventually took the drastic measure of completely deleting everything and doing a complete fresh install of Daz Studio 4.6 and all of my content. The reason for this was I used to use the method of moving things to where I wanted them, so that I could find them easily. The problem with this method I found was that the uninstallers couldn't find where I had moved them to and my runtime became a real mess.

With the fresh install, I decided to use the category method and over the last few months I have gradually re-installed over 3000 products and categorised each one as I loaded it.

When I got home from work yesterday, both my categorised content and my products databases in Daz Studio are completely empty. All the items are still there in the Daz Studio Formats and Poser Formats files which are now a nightmare to find anything.

Can anyone tell me what may have happened to these databases. Can these databases be retrieved. If they can't, is there a way of marking all content as unseen to aid me in rebuilding them. And can they be backed up to prevent this happening again.

I am using Windows Pro 64bit and have run virus and malware scans and the system is clean.

Any help and advice would be very much appreciated, as I am very quickly losing what little hair I have left.

JimmyC_2009

The smart Content pane, Categories and Products, as well as the search function in DS, all rely on the CMS (Content Management Service), and it sounds to me like it has stopped running for some reason.

You can check in Task Manager, and the CMS should appear as a running Process in the Processes tab (show processes from all users), and it is also in the Services tab as well. If you don't see it there, then go to Start > All Programs > DAZ 3D, and you can start CMS from there. Once it is running, hopefully everything will be restored.

It is a really good idea to backup all of your personal categories, so that if a database becomes corrupted, you can reinstall your own categories, and you wont have lost anything. Right click on the Content Library pane (the label or the dropdown menu), and select Content DB Maintenance. Export User Data is the option that you need for your own categories. Select that, and hit accept.

Mine only takes a couple of minutes to run, but it can take much longer depending on how much work you have done yourself, and how many items you have cetegorised. Metadata is never lost, and it can be reimported again.

See how you get on with CMS, and post back again,.

kimreb55th

Thanks Jimmy and it is the CMS not working. In fact I can't get it to work. Every time I turn it on, when I open DS it stops working again.

Do you think this could be the same problem as this thread

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/24373/

JimmyC_2009

It could well be the same, a corrupted database.

Do you have any backups of your database folders at all? If not, it may mean redoing all of your categories again.

You could try uninstalling CMS first from the start menu, then reinstalling DAZ Studio, which will install the latest version of CMS again, and it may work. Try that first to see if that fixes it for now, and then we can get your user files backed up so that you will be ready if it ever happens again.

kimreb55th

Thanks again Jimmy, and no I don't have the databases backed up as I didn't know where they were or how to in DS. Definitely will in future. Once bitten and all that.

I will give what you say a go and let you know the outcome.

kimreb55th

I have uninstalled CMS and reloaded A fresh download of DS 4.6 to no avail. I have even tried uninstalling CMS and then rebooting the computer, reloading DS and then rebooting. When the computer fires up, CMS is running. As I open DS it gets to where the reading asset window pops up and CMS closes down.

JimmyC_2009

It looks we've had it then, sorry about that.

You may need to just delete (or move) the database files (uninstall CMS first), then reinstall DS4.6, which should create new database files, and you can the reimport the Metadata. It wont help your saved categories I'm afraid, but it will get your Products, Categories, and Smart Content back.

If you can wait a little while, Mike or Adam or Dave may be along, and offer you some more options?

kimreb55th

Thanks Jimmy. I will move them, then uninstall CMS and see what happens when I reload, to see if it is the database files or something else.

kimreb55th

Yes it was the database files. Hard lesson learned and now I know how, I will back them up in future.

Now to aid me in rebuilding the category database, does anyone know if it is possible to mark all files as unread? I know it can be done the other way round.

adamr001

With the CMS stopped delete just the index file (ContentDB.ind).
Start the CMS again.
Start DS and be prepared to *wait*. Do NOT start two instances. Just watch your task list and the databases file folder. You will see the ContentDB.ind re-appear after DS starts and you get the Splash Screen but it pauses for a while before you see the the full GUI. DS is rebuilding the index in the background and it will wait to show you the full GUI until after that's complete.

kimreb55th

Thanks Adam.

I have tried this three times and DS opens almost instantly. The only things that are highlighted are the scripts.

I will do it the hard way with a list in a spreadsheet and mark each one as I categorise it.