Lost Search functionality in DS
Mr Gneiss Guy
Posts: 462
So, awhile ago, for no apparent reason, the search window stopped returning results. I'm kind of at a loss, I've tried kickstarting it through various menu options, but haven't yet found the solution. Is there a way to get it back, without wiping it and re-installing? Any thoughts?
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Is the CMS running?
Do you use Smart Content, or the Products/Categories view to see your content? If that isn't working either, then it's your Content Management System. It's a bit flaky sometimes; some people never have a problem, some people (including me) can never get it to work.
BTW, "wiping and reinstalling" will make no difference (except to take up time), it's the solution to a completely different problem.
Whether or not you use Smart Content, the search needs the CMS (don't ask...it's better not to know the why...).
Remember there are two different kinds of searches. Possibly you toggled it from one to the other?
Under Services, it shows the CMS as "Stopped". Do I need to start it somehow? It won't let me with right button context click.
Also, what's the distinction between the two search types, is one preferable?
In Windows:
Start > All Programs > DAZ 3D > DAZ Content Management Service > Start DAZ Content Management Service
(in one version of Windows it puts up a dialog box asking something like "do you want to protect your computer"..., you need to uncheck whatever that checkbox was.)
That did it! Thanks. Although I don't what I did that could have stopped it in the first place. I blame DAZ. Heck it might even actually be their fault, though it might just as easily have been mine. :roll:
You haven't said if you're on Windows (which one can also be important) or Mac — getting at the on-off switches is different. In Windows, go to the Start button and find the DAZ folder in the programs, there's a pair of shortcuts there to activate or deactivate the CMS.
Note that some CMS problems are caused by the database (which the CMS uses to drive your searches and Smart Content view) becoming corrupted. Again, this happens sometimes. If that's it, someone here will be able to guide you through saving any user data you might have and resetting the database. It's one of those things that's not too hard to fix, if you know what you're doing. (Translation: be careful with this stuff, it can bite you.)
Not sure why it was stopped. Normally it starts automatically by itself when you start your computer. Perhaps something is blocking it for security reasons, or somehow you disabled the automatic start, wherever it is? Obviously if it crashes it could stop. For a while in a much older version that happened a few times, but I haven't seen that happen for a long time.
Somebody else will have to answer that one, I have forgotten. I have it set to use the database. I know the tooltip says it uses metadata, but it seems to find stuff that presumably has no metadata anyway, so I'm unclear what that means. I tried changing the search to search for files, but it doesn't actually find the filename I entered when I do that, although it does find the filename if I use the database rather than the file search, so I've just always kept it set that way.
The two file type searches are Database and Files. The Database option will only return content in your SMART Database, File search will find all files (by exact name only so use wildcards if not sure) from the Mapped folders smart or not.
EDIT: by Name that means the File name in Content Library View.
Just to clarify, the database option works on more than just Smart Content. If you install a product with DIM, for example, even if it isn't Smart it does gt added to the database (which is why it shows under Products in the Content Library pane). If you extract the files manually, doing a "Scan Known Directories for Files" will add them to the database.
Very good point Mike, yes there is more to your Database than JUST the Smart content. As Mike has pointed out all DIM installs do get a database entry even if that item is NOT flagged as Smart content. Then the Database search will find those files as well. The File search as I noted only uses the Content File name and will find All files by name even if not DIM installed as long as the content is in a mapped file (content folder) path.