DIM Thumbnails directory does not exist - where are they? [SOLVED]

suffo85

As titled, there is no directory at c:\Users\Public\Documents\DAZ 3D\InstallManager\Thumbnails

This is the default location of the thumbnails directory set in DIM.  As my system is running low on storage, I decided to move my library to my D:\ drive.  Doing so causes me to lose every single thumbnail for every single product because the aforementioned directory does not exist.

Where is DIM hiding the product thumbnails?  Restoring DIM to its directory defaults instantly brings the thumbnails back, and DIM has again defaulted to the non-existant thumbnail directory.

Rebuilding my content database does not restore the thumbnails.

EDIT for clarifaction: I'm not just trying to move my content library, but the DIM downloads location, manifest, and thumbnails as well.  They're all setable in DIM's advanced options.  I like to keep my downloads archived so I don't have to download them again, the GB's are really starting to rack up.  I've created a mirror setup on D:\ by just dragging the entire contents of the public user's DAZ 3D directory and the My DAZ 3D Library to their own respective directories and pointing DIM at them, and noticed the Thumbnails directory was missing right away since it needs to be set in DIM.

suffo85

For some reason or another I thought Daz Studio would read the paths from DIM and never bothered to check to see if Daz Studio had library paths to set.  I did briefly glance through Preferences and didn't see anything, which was why I assumed.

Found my answer in a somewhat related post, located here: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/407716/moving-daz-content-off-of-c-drive-in-2020#latest

The thumbnails directory still doesn't exist, but I restored my thumbnails after setting content paths within Studio

Hope this may help anyone following in my footsteps.

crosswind

You have to retrieve the thumbnail at least for one product, then that thumbnails folder will be created... Have you ever done so before?

Richard Haseltine

DS and DIM do not use the same thumbnails, DS keeps its thumbnails in the /Runtime/Support folder

nautiwood

crosswind said:

You have to retrieve the thumbnail at least for one product, then that thumbnails folder will be created... Have you ever done so before?

 

No, and can't find anything that tells me how. Can you?

 

crosswind

nautiwood said:

crosswind said:

You have to retrieve the thumbnail at least for one product, then that thumbnails folder will be created... Have you ever done so before?

 

No, and can't find anything that tells me how. Can you?

 

Right click on a product, Retrieve Thumbnail... then the sub-folder will be automatically created under this path: C:\Users\Public\Documents\DAZ 3D\InstallManager\.... (if you've never done so before...)

suffo85

When I created this thread some months ago, I wasn't missing the thumbnails in that directory.  I was very new to Daz Studio at that point, maybe only by a week or two, and I misunderstood the purpose of that directory.

I lost all my product thumbnails inside of Daz Studio smart content tabs, they broke because I moved my Daz installation from one hard disk to a secondary one (C -> D).  While I did set all the correct paths in DIM, I made an assumption that was the only path I needed to set.

There were two places within Daz Studio that also needed to be set after moving all my content directories around and such, in the content manager tab of Daz Studio Preferences, and then in the Content Tab (the custom content library), there are directory-style listings of both the smart content library and manual install library.  Those paths needed to be adjusted as well.  The last time I went through this process the content tab updated itself after editing preferences, but the first time it didn't.  If you need instructions on how to do this, see the link I left in my second post.

After setting the correct directories in those locations my thumbnails returned.

It was my understanding that the Thumbnail Directory I was originally searching for inside of DIM was a misunderstanding since it did not relate to the thumbnails of my products inside Daz Studio's Smart Content.  But if you are looking for your product thumbnails, they are located in My DAZ3d Library/Runtime/Support

edit-> Hope this adds a bit more clarification to anyone who stumbles into this thread in the future. :)

edit x2 -> Short warning to other new users, My DAZ3D Library/Runtime/Support contains a lot of metadata for products.  Messing with the files in there can break your products.  If you need to edit metadata, edit it within the product zip prior to installing and then install through DIM.  The preferred method by Daz3d is to edit the metadata directly inside the application (safest way).

edit x3 -> Also don't move your Daz installation the same way I did.  It'll cause you all sorts of problems.  Search for the actual prefered way to go about it.  None of your existing product metadata gets updated, DIM gets confused with where previously installed products actually are, and a host of other little problems crop up due to just dragging, dropping, and editing content paths.  It can ultimately be done but there will be a bit of time spent troubleshooting, and most likely reinstalling packages/products so metadata manifest is properly updated.