Windows 10 Button Button Where the heck is my Content?

IceScribe

I received a new laptop with Windows 10. Pristine. I began the downloads of DAZ products with the DIM. It has worked well for me in past computers. You know the many inquiries into installing 3rd party content into DAZ 3D Studio? Many many. Well, Windows 10 on this machine has something I was unaware of, since my hubby's new puter doesn't do this:  "One Cloud" the default place for my DAZ files, all my files, sucking up anything on my Desktop and then has the gall to send me a notice that I didn't have enough room on my piece of the cloud, would I like to rent space there? Would not let me access any of the "succesfully sucked up files". Ok, "now" only $1.99 per mo, I go for it. I presumed Desktop is a fixed object in my computer space, but no it floated away with my folders I was working on. I didn't know that they went to the sky so I wasted a lot of time searching for them, after spending several hours loading content. Consider Genesis 1 Essentials is completely confused, I get error messages, even though I used the DIm, install/uninstall repeatedly). I had finally learned that I had "username Documents" and "Public Documents". That really irked me, as I have no use for this separation, and again couldnt find anything. It's naught to do with Smart Content. It's using the explorer and search, but where do I search? Which "Documents"? User, Public, Cloud? I still haven't been able to Genesis 1 to work which model I like, but also the shaders don't work now, I get error messages, to look at the log, but when I look at the log, it only says, look at the log. 

Now, I am trying to install 3rd party products I would sincerely like to use. I watched 8 video tutorials. Interesting point: What is My DAZ Library" compared to "My Library"? The DIM seems to load in either place. But what do I use for third party? I get the data-to-data, people-to-people, etc. And now I have My Daz Libary on a cloud path, even though I did not set it up, allow, or otherwise direct this. Needless to say, the labyrhinthine mess on a brand new puter is quite souring. Yes, did the recover, yes, carefully looked at the path DIM chose, but that cloud clown got activated somehow and is seriously messing with my brain. Need I say I don't do computer graphics on my telephone? The irony that my products download from a cloud is not lost on me. I like to have stuff local on my machine, because our internet service goes out about once a month without warning, any time of day or night, sometimes for hours.

Ok after struggling in that maze, I decided to choose a very simple 3rd party character, with only data/people/runtime. However, there is no DAZ Icon among the "manually installed" files I then searched for the icon file to open DAZ studio (in My Daz Librar). I don't see a Welcome Panel for instant metadata acceptance. There is simply no way to do that step. So I just dragged from folder and dropped into Studio. That worked. (As long as dsf files get inside the library (whichever) the rest of the files can be applied manually thus avoiding the dread grey robot figure.  

So it doesn't show up in Smart Content. I don't really care, but it would be handy. The Smart Content to me is a giant card catalogue. I use my own categories to find those incredibly annoying files, like another 3rd party that didn't work probably because the file names were not consistent. Let's say I had character Joan. 'Error loading see log" I go to log, it says "Error loading, see log" Wha? Ok I'll just find it to drag and drop. Only, It was "Joan" by Abstract, but.......the folder has a cryptic name like S14. But it's not in the Genesis 8 Female folder. Nope, it has it's own folder called data. (Do I have to look in every 'data' or 'people' in the list? ) Anyway, turns out It's in the darn cloud "documents" I do not seriously know how it got there, when I dragged and dropped to the Public/Documents, not the Cloud. And, WHY is the folder now S14 instead of Joan or the vendor? Big sigh. I think that is a problem.

I think this "My DAZ Library" and "My Library" on either User or Public, and either or both, AND/OR the Desktop sailing up to the cloud sneakily overnight,  is perhaps why so many users are confused as to how precisely does one install 3rd party products into DAZ 3D Studio, and have them magically show up in the Smart Panel like 3 of the videos with the same flash screen as DAZ 4.10xxxx. But no. I have to look in both places, and frankly I do not understand why the DIM did that with DAZ products like Genesis1 Essentials. The 3 later Essentials installed and work.  I have spent hours trying to round up my content in a new machine with an uptodate soft ware. I thought it would be easier to start fresh, but now I've got spaghetti-soup in my content paths.  I used to put a zip file on Desktop, extract to new folder on desktop, then just drag data to data, and then drag the character file to Viewport and get crackin'. I put the zip and the open file in Documents (see, the one on my computer) in a folder with the Store Source. But oh no, tisn't that easy anymore. 

Simplest question: Manually install to "My Library" or to "My DAZ Library"? ON my pc: The User one or the Public One? (forgedda'bout the cloud, it's gone rogue, and I wish it were dead). 

vwrangler

OK, so the only parts I can advise on are fairly limited. Also, my system is set up very differently, so YMMV and all that.

First, given everything, I suggest you may want to turn off OneDrive Sync, which I suspect is what hoovered your stuff into the cloud. This may help: https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/windows/remove-onedrive-3664769/

The distinction between User Documents and Public Documents has actually existed since Windows 7. Not sure why you didn't run into that before.

"My Library" = where Daz wanted everyone to put Genesis and I think some Genesis 2 era products.

"My Daz3D Library" = where Daz wanted everyone to put Genesis 2 and Genesis 3 era (and later) products.

As long as DIM knows both directories exist, it will use them accordingly.

The Daz directories in the user My Documents directory on my system seems to be mostly system/program-related, not generally content. Unless you're actually seeing content there, I would leave those files alone.

Honestly, at this point, I think it might be easiest for you to disable OneCloud and then start over. Otherwise, you're never going to be able to untangle all this.

As for where to install your third party content, as long as it's in a mapped directory that Studio knows about, technically, it doesn't matter. Whatever works best for you.

For what little it may be worth, I use DIM primarily as an unpacker. It installs things to wherever it thinks it's going to install them in Public Documents, and then I move them to my old Studio 3 era "content" directory. DIM doesn't know that directory exists. Similarly, Studio doesn't know the Public Documents directories exist. Somehow, it mostly works.

IceScribe

vwrangler, 

I could not get to that webpage fast enough. I've unlinked both "This PC" and "Account". I realize I may have to start again, but I'm hoping I can do some file reorg and cleanup, as I had deleted my "cloud files" only to find I had deleted many files the 2nd time. 3rd time's the charm. Thank you so much for the information about the earlier to later My Library and My DAZ Library.  At the time, they were in Documents or Pictures in Libraries. I used Libraries to save my work in, so I didn't notice the path changes until I had to look for something and discovered the User/Public paths. I upgraded from 4.6 to 4.9 last year, and last month to 4.10. I keep my 3rd party files in the Documents. I use the drag and drop or when the message "locate xxx", and I have to find the .bmp, spec, etc. Again, thank you for you explanations. I am sure others who have been confused by the new Windows 10 and the tutorial videos will be helped, too.

IceScribe

Hey, finally got Genesis Starter Essentials (for Genesis 1 generation) into a working path.  Now, the icons don't work when clicked, they ask if I want to open a new DAZ session. But, I can drag wardrobe, materials etc to the Viewport, I can do that. It may be the Content service hasn't updated. Meanwhile, I have the basic shaders again, with 2 most important: Iray Uber Base and Emissive! They must be dragged and dropped, but at least I have them operational. 

Fun fact: I could see the picture icon but not load Aldora hair icon from Smart Content pane, but no other Genesis (1) Starter Essentials. I couldn't even open "file location" with the others, however to my good luck, Aldora did show me the file location:

C:\Users\computername\OneDrive\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Daz Connect Library\data\cloud\1_14812\people\genesis\hair\aldora

since I disabled the OneDrive obviously, I cannot get to the item. But I couldn't through My Daz Connect either...cause it was not "there" it was on another cloud.

[Old Rolling Stones song: "Hey! You! Get offa my cloud. Don't hang around 'cause you're bringing me down." ]

Anyway, having uninstalled the product yesterday, and let it 'ripen' where ever it was, I carefully examined the DIM path, and tried again, this time, relatively succesfully, as explained above. I clicked the the Content Database Maintenance, and Process Metadata Queue, so maybe that needs to 'ripen' as well, in order for the icons to work again (its this product package, others installed to right path work fine).

So, if you are tearing out your hair, because others misunderstand as they have not upgraded to this June 2019 monster, and keep saying "My Library" instead of "My DAZ Library", thanks to vwrangler, it's being sorted and working. My content has come home.