How Do I (easily) Find The Things I Never Downloaded?

Type 0 NegativeType 0 Negative Posts: 323
edited July 2012 in The Commons

Several times, more than I can count, I would get the weekly freebie, or a cheep intro, or use a GC or a Voucher or buy a FastGrab item; purchasing things I was not in a hurry to download and install; I would not get around to downloading the product and the download would expire.

Question!

I only want to see the things I never downloaded and reset them so I can get them; how do I do that?

I would say I've easily purchased around or over 500 things here and I know how to reset a download, but, I need an easy way to find the many things I never downloaded so I can reset them and get them in my Runtime.

Thanks In Advance :)

Post edited by Type 0 Negative on

Comments

  • frank0314frank0314 Posts: 13,189
    edited December 1969

    There currently isn't an easy way. You just have to remember the name of the product and find it then reset it.

  • carrie58carrie58 Posts: 3,949
    edited December 1969

    Did you by any chance keep your reciepts? If so then at least for the freebies just find the ones with no charge ......I tend to keep the freebie reciepts in a seperate folder from the regular purchases.

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 40,515
    edited December 1969

    ...this is just one of my complaints with the new site as your itemised order history no longer sorts by date but by name and can only display a maximum of 50 items per page. On the old site everything was listed on a single page and the default sort was by most recent purchase so if you knew roughly when you placed the order it was relatively easy to find it. If not, you could always use your browser's "search current page" function using a keyword from the product name.


    This new site software has taken several steps backwards with respect to user friendliness.

  • TimoteoTimoteo Posts: 63
    edited December 1969

    Kyoto Kid said:
    ...this is just one of my complaints with the new site as your itemised order history no longer sorts by date but by name and can only display a maximum of 50 items per page. On the old site everything was listed on a single page and the default sort was by most recent purchase so if you knew roughly when you placed the order it was relatively easy to find it. If not, you could always use your browser's "search current page" function using a keyword from the product name.


    This new site software has taken several steps backwards with respect to user friendliness.

    Hear-hear! I have stated this many times and have made numerous requests for DAZ to fix this. I also had hoped the new DIM (Daz Install Manager) might address this very real need. However, so far, it too is a disappointment. Not only is there not an option to view all "un-downloaded / non-downloaded" products, but the information it displays about when a product was downloaded is nonesense ... the dates are incorrect, and seem arbitrary.

    I too have dozens, if not hundreds of files I have never downloaded, and now with the site change it is beyond a PITA. Daz keeps promising to fix the site in this regard, but it has been many months now and still nothing. My fear is they put all their chips on the DIM, but it is not a valid solution either, sadly.

    I don't understand why it is so hard to introduce sort by date functionality, or at the very least allow for (200, or even unlimited liked before) items per page. ???

  • LeatherGryphonLeatherGryphon Posts: 11,139
    edited March 2013

    timoteo said:
    Kyoto Kid said:
    ...this is just one of my complaints with the new site as your itemised order history no longer sorts by date but by name and can only display a maximum of 50 items per page. On the old site everything was listed on a single page and the default sort was by most recent purchase so if you knew roughly when you placed the order it was relatively easy to find it. If not, you could always use your browser's "search current page" function using a keyword from the product name.


    This new site software has taken several steps backwards with respect to user friendliness.

    Hear-hear! I have stated this many times and have made numerous requests for DAZ to fix this. I also had hoped the new DIM (Daz Install Manager) might address this very real need. However, so far, it too is a disappointment. Not only is there not an option to view all "un-downloaded / non-downloaded" products, but the information it displays about when a product was downloaded is nonesense ... the dates are incorrect, and seem arbitrary.

    I too have dozens, if not hundreds of files I have never downloaded, and now with the site change it is beyond a PITA. Daz keeps promising to fix the site in this regard, but it has been many months now and still nothing. My fear is they put all their chips on the DIM, but it is not a valid solution either, sadly.

    I don't understand why it is so hard to introduce sort by date functionality, or at the very least allow for (200, or even unlimited liked before) items per page. ???

    I'm of the opinion that DAZ has no intention of mucking with that level of programming. They complained of being bitten by "spaghetti code" in their old highly customized site so why would they repeat that "mistake" and hire someone competent enough and give them a mandate to essentially redesign an off-the-shelf product? And taking into consideration that we've seen other indications that the bottom line now rules the hearts and minds of management at DAZ I'm not going to hold my breath.

    The old DAZ that we loved and admired has been eaten by corporate goblins.

    Of course they'll be quick to point out that they've given us the "Download Manager". But I'm not yet convinced that it is stable enough or complete enough for me to work with yet. Although I do keep watching the issues about it brought up in this forum.

    Post edited by LeatherGryphon on
  • zawarkalzawarkal Posts: 1,018
    edited December 1969

    The best way that I have found is to search my computer for the main keyword of the product. If I find the keyword then I search further to verify that I do have the download. If I cannot find the keyword then I assume that I have not downloaded the item and I get it again, even if I already have it.

  • SpitSpit Posts: 2,342
    edited December 1969

    The store has no way of knowing whether you've downloaded or not. The number of downloads left resets after a period of time anyway.

    But you should know what you've got and there are a couple of programs to help with that.

    Download taozen's DAZ History Manager: http://taosoft.dk/software/dazhm/

    This program will download your item history list. You still cannot sort it but....
    your item history is now in .csv format and can be read and formatted easily by any spreadsheet program.
    I use the free Open Office for this.

    Just point your spreadsheet at the .csv in the data folder and up comes a formatted spreadsheet with your item history in it. You can sort on any column if you wish.

    the other program is DAZ's new Install Manager.

    You don't have to actually DO anything with it if you don't want. You can use it to get a list of the content you have (minus Bryce stuff, plugins, 2D stuff etc which taozen's program will show you) and sort it in various ways. It will export to .csv as well but I find it easier to do with taozen's utility.

    Since you only have about 500 items it shouldn't take too long to find things you don't recognize as having installed and to download them with the DIM. If you have a decent connection it won't even hurt to download everything then back up the files for safekeeping.

    Besides what I've mentioned that your item history shows (via taozen) that DIM doesn't, DIM shows stuff that Item History does not: namely the sub items purchased in bundles. Item history (taozen) shows you purchased a bundle. DIM shows you purchased all the items IN the bundle.

    Also there may be still a few files missing from DIM that they're still working on though most of them do show up.

    Anyway, with these tools you should be able to figure things out and get the files you may be missing.

  • namffuaknamffuak Posts: 4,040
    edited December 1969

    timoteo said:
    Kyoto Kid said:
    ...this is just one of my complaints with the new site as your itemised order history no longer sorts by date but by name and can only display a maximum of 50 items per page. On the old site everything was listed on a single page and the default sort was by most recent purchase so if you knew roughly when you placed the order it was relatively easy to find it. If not, you could always use your browser's "search current page" function using a keyword from the product name.


    This new site software has taken several steps backwards with respect to user friendliness.

    Hear-hear! I have stated this many times and have made numerous requests for DAZ to fix this. I also had hoped the new DIM (Daz Install Manager) might address this very real need. However, so far, it too is a disappointment. Not only is there not an option to view all "un-downloaded / non-downloaded" products, but the information it displays about when a product was downloaded is nonesense ... the dates are incorrect, and seem arbitrary.

    I too have dozens, if not hundreds of files I have never downloaded, and now with the site change it is beyond a PITA. Daz keeps promising to fix the site in this regard, but it has been many months now and still nothing. My fear is they put all their chips on the DIM, but it is not a valid solution either, sadly.

    I don't understand why it is so hard to introduce sort by date functionality, or at the very least allow for (200, or even unlimited liked before) items per page. ???

    And I'll throw in a plug for DIM, even if you don't want to use it for anything else.

    Download it, install it, and connect to DAZ with it.

    When it finishes populating the available to download tab, click on the 'products' checkbox; this will select everything.

    Right-click; at the bottom of the resulting menu is 'export to csv'. Click on that, and select the directory you want it saved in and the fields you want to export.

    You now have a complete list minus plugins, Bryce and Carrara content, and executables, of everything you've purchased. And yes, the download date is bogus but the order number and date are correct.

    As near as I can tell from my order history - I think DAZ has finished the conversion to the new format downloads and unwrapped all the bundles.

  • TimoteoTimoteo Posts: 63
    edited December 1969


    The old DAZ that we loved and admired has been eaten by corporate goblins.

    Of course they'll be quick to point out that they've given us the "Download Manager". But I'm not yet convinced that it is stable enough or complete enough for me to work with yet. Although I do keep watching the issues about it brought up in this forum.

    That's a pretty grim/pessimistic view of things, albeit not necessarily inaccurate I'll grant you. The DIM seems to be stable enough, and is not a particularly bad idea, but it just not fulfill some very basic needs for DAZ's consumers, and some functions are not working properly.

    I hope you're wrong about the "corporate goblins" aspect, but I've seen it happen to many a creative company unfortunately. Needless to say, but I have been very disappointed with the response since the inception of the "improved" web site.

  • TimoteoTimoteo Posts: 63
    edited March 2013

    Zawarkal said:
    The best way that I have found is to search my computer for the main keyword of the product. If I find the keyword then I search further to verify that I do have the download. If I cannot find the keyword then I assume that I have not downloaded the item and I get it again, even if I already have it.

    Yep, that's what I've basically done in the past ... when I knew the approximate date range of undownloaded items. OR, before I could sort orders by date, and then spot whole orders that went un-downloaded and simply reset the entire order. I could also easily use the links from within the order to open the product pages, and then easily right-click and download the various images for the product. (Never understood how some people deal with their massive libraries without a visual index.) Ahhhh, but that was when the website was actually user-friendly. *sigh*

    Post edited by Timoteo on
  • TimoteoTimoteo Posts: 63
    edited December 1969

    namffuak said:
    And I'll throw in a plug for DIM, even if you don't want to use it for anything else.

    Download it, install it, and connect to DAZ with it.

    When it finishes populating the available to download tab, click on the 'products' checkbox; this will select everything.

    Right-click; at the bottom of the resulting menu is 'export to csv'. Click on that, and select the directory you want it saved in and the fields you want to export.

    You now have a complete list minus plugins, Bryce and Carrara content, and executables, of everything you've purchased. And yes, the download date is bogus but the order number and date are correct.

    As near as I can tell from my order history - I think DAZ has finished the conversion to the new format downloads and unwrapped all the bundles.

    Thanks Namffuak, but I'm trying to understand (and it could be because I haven't slept in the last 30 hours) how that would be helpful. What am I missing?

    Thanks,
    Tim

  • TimoteoTimoteo Posts: 63
    edited December 1969

    BTW, where is the DIM being discussed? I have done searches for things like "wrong download date" and other DIM related items, and come up with nothing. Is it only in Plat. Club forum or something?

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 40,515
    edited December 1969

    timoteo said:
    Kyoto Kid said:
    ...this is just one of my complaints with the new site as your itemised order history no longer sorts by date but by name and can only display a maximum of 50 items per page. On the old site everything was listed on a single page and the default sort was by most recent purchase so if you knew roughly when you placed the order it was relatively easy to find it. If not, you could always use your browser's "search current page" function using a keyword from the product name.


    This new site software has taken several steps backwards with respect to user friendliness.

    Hear-hear! I have stated this many times and have made numerous requests for DAZ to fix this. I also had hoped the new DIM (Daz Install Manager) might address this very real need. However, so far, it too is a disappointment. Not only is there not an option to view all "un-downloaded / non-downloaded" products, but the information it displays about when a product was downloaded is nonesense ... the dates are incorrect, and seem arbitrary.

    I too have dozens, if not hundreds of files I have never downloaded, and now with the site change it is beyond a PITA. Daz keeps promising to fix the site in this regard, but it has been many months now and still nothing. My fear is they put all their chips on the DIM, but it is not a valid solution either, sadly.

    I don't understand why it is so hard to introduce sort by date functionality, or at the very least allow for (200, or even unlimited liked before) items per page. ???

    I'm of the opinion that DAZ has no intention of mucking with that level of programming. They complained of being bitten by "spaghetti code" in their old highly customized site so why would they repeat that "mistake" and hire someone competent enough and give them a mandate to essentially redesign an off-the-shelf product? And taking into consideration that we've seen other indications that the bottom line now rules the hearts and minds of management at DAZ I'm not going to hold my breath.

    The old DAZ that we loved and admired has been eaten by corporate goblins.

    Of course they'll be quick to point out that they've given us the "Download Manager". But I'm not yet convinced that it is stable enough or complete enough for me to work with yet. Although I do keep watching the issues about it brought up in this forum.
    ...as to the DIM, it does not work on content archives. You have to use it to DL the files first in order to install them. Crikey you know how big of a cawfeee bill that would be for me at the hostspot? They may as well let me bring in a cot & bedroll. This is just one big oversight in it's design. I'm also told it will not work with older installers (like the pre Bitrock ones). Right now I've been having to do it one file at a time and over the last several days I maybe maybe have 1/5th of my entire Daz content library installed.

    And I have yet to install Carrara, Bryce, and PoserPro 2012 and all their content as well as a plethora of Reality shader updates.

    For me "March Madness" has a whole different meaning.

  • TimoteoTimoteo Posts: 63
    edited December 1969

    Kyoto Kid said:
    ...as to the DIM, it does not work on content archives. You have to use it to DL the files first in order to install them.

    Not sure I am following you there, Kid. What do you mean by "content archives"? Or are you just saying, you thought it would (or should) just install them directly over the net ... installing from the cloud?

    ... I'm also told it will not work with older installers (like the pre Bitrock ones)...

    Actually, what it does is put them in a zip, and the zip just contains the Poser folders and files, and then the DIM installer, just unzips them to the runtime directory you have defined. OR, you can always just open the zips and drag/drop them yourself. I was just told today that they are no longer using the EXE's for new products. So, the only way to get EXE's is with via the website. Not sure how much longer that will be an option either.

    For me "March Madness" has a whole different meaning.

    LOL.

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 40,515
    edited December 1969

    ...#1. I have all my content that I purchased and downloaded over the last five years backed up in archive folders. Transferred a couple of the archives (not compressed) to the new system then fired up the DIM to install. Much to my disappointment, there is no way use it to access content in a folder that has previously been downloaded. You have to use the DIM to DL content first so it has the files in it's database or whatever. That would take several days even at the speeds I get at the local hotspot. It is totally impossible from home because of the frequent timeouts and resets I am hit with (not to mention occasional disconnects).

    This could be such a useful tool if it allowed you to install content from existing folders on your system rather than having to re-download it all first. Seems they missed the target on this one.

    ...then it is a "beta" so I guess I should not have expected as much.

  • TimoteoTimoteo Posts: 63
    edited December 1969

    Ahhh, gotcha. Right, sorry ... was treating that as a given. That is, I knew from the get-go that DIM was not going to do that. Yeah. I have a massive archive going back about FIFTEEN years! I've been a customer since the Zygote days. Not to mention all my R'osity, RutimeDNA, TSquid, Vue, etc, etc. stuff. Not to mention the 1-10+ pics of each item for visual reference. Needless to say it is gigs, and gigs, and gigs. It's all backed-up offsite as well.

    Although, what would be the advantage ... a search on an Indexed archive drive is super-fast (plus thumbnail visual searches), a double-click and it's installed. Not sure I see the point? Again, forgive me if I'm missing the obvious.

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 40,515
    edited December 1969

    ...well with the DIM I felt I could set the process running & go off to do something else. Instead, I have to sit at the keyboard to manually launch each installation individually. Yeah, each install goes really fast (particularly with the Pre Bitrock Installers) but I'm effectively chained to the system until its all done. I take a break to make lunch, rest my eyes & get some fresh air etc, and the installing stops until I sit down again.

  • ameesa001@gmail.com[email protected] Posts: 282
    edited December 1969

    Kyoto Kid said:
    ...well with the DIM I felt I could set the process running & go off to do something else. Instead, I have to sit at the keyboard to manually launch each installation individually. Yeah, each install goes really fast (particularly with the Pre Bitrock Installers) but I'm effectively chained to the system until its all done. I take a break to make lunch, rest my eyes & get some fresh air etc, and the installing stops until I sit down again.

    You should be able to step away, unless how you do it is vastly different from me. For the big download days, back when DIM started, I'd start the downloads plus install, then head for bed. Admittedly, I did downloads and installs at the same time. Maybe people who download, then install later have a different experience then myself.

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 40,515
    edited December 1969

    ...well my connectivity at home is poor to say the least, very slow and rife with timeouts and resets that kill or corrupt a download attempt, so I could never simply leave it run overnight. One time I tried to DL a 30 MB file and its aid wit would take over five hours. I have to go to my local hotspot to do my downloading and I don't think they'd let me leave my notebook running there overnight.

    As I mentioned I have everything I ever purchased and downloaded backed up in archive folders. DIM cannot read those. It can only install whatever you DL with it. I find this an oversight and flaw. Because of this it is of little use to people like myself who are setting up a new system and performing a full clean install of everything.

  • ameesa001@gmail.com[email protected] Posts: 282
    edited December 1969

    Ahh connectivity, definitely explains things. I'm setting up a new system also, but have cable internet. Though already planning to possibly redo the whole shebang. I want to divide things up a bit more then they are, but before I redo everything, I have to try a couple of experiments when I have time.

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 40,515
    edited December 1969

    ...I have 3G wireless with, believe it or not, unlimited download ability and no contract obligation. Works great away from home, but a total dog from my flat as I'm in a "shadow".


    Cable connection = too expensive where I live to get unlimited download bandwidth, and with a more restricted plan, I'd still end up going to the hotspot and drinking waaaaay too much cawfeee because I'd quickly use my monthly allotment up (just finished DLing Vue Infinite PLE and the .zip alone is something like two thirds GB in size).

    To get the best deal you have to get one of the bundle plans, however I don't have a telly or a phone (nor want either one), which also involves agreeing to a long term contract (that makes you have to pay even more if you want out of it).

  • SpitSpit Posts: 2,342
    edited December 1969

    Ameesa said:
    Ahh connectivity, definitely explains things. I'm setting up a new system also, but have cable internet. Though already planning to possibly redo the whole shebang. I want to divide things up a bit more then they are, but before I redo everything, I have to try a couple of experiments when I have time.

    I'm, planning to redo some stuff myself..I want to pass this along...

    If you want to uninstall from a folder and instead install to another it's easy to do IF you are selecting by a criteria that remains after the uninstall. ie, if you select an item by name, uninstall it, it will show up on its own in the 'ready to install' folder after the uninstall.

    If, however, you want to uninstall ALL items in one folder and move them to another folder you can select by the installed-to folder

    ie, search term would be for example

    path::c:/users/your name/Public/Documents/My DAZ Library

    will select ALL the items the DIM installed there and it's easy to now uninstall them all in one operation.

    However once they're all uninstalled, the 'ready to install' column will show 0 items (because nothing is left that matches the search term) with no way to select the ones you just uninstalled in order to install them en masse to another folder. Remove the search term and all the files will show, not just the ones you just uninstalled.

    Just something to be aware of. I'm keeping my 'ready to install' column empty until I've settled on a final set of folders to install to.

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