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Arghhh... Lost Category Structure

LeatherGryphonLeatherGryphon Posts: 12,168
in The Commons

OK, I'm freaking out here! crying  I finally bit the bullet and upgraded from DazStudio4.7 to 4.8.0.59 so that I could try the Gen3 characters. 

The good news is that it installed OK and I now have Gen3 male and female characters in the content structure.

The bad news is that my carefully crafted "Categories" with 10 years of models in all the proper categories that I expect to find their bits & pieces has been reduced to a simple list of folders under the "Categories/Defaults" branch.   This does not make me happy. angry  And when I try to select items from the list, some work and others don't and just do nothing at all.   I'm freaking out here folks!

I still have all my content paths intact and I can find the items by navigating down through the Studio browser to the actual location in the file system structure but my carefully indexed "Categories" is gone.  broken heart  <help>

Comments

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 108,799

    Did you export user data before upgrading? Were you using Valentina before? If no and yes, try uninstalling PostgreSQL, make sure that Valnetina is installed, and - assuming your categories are back when you restart DS  - open the Content Library option menu (lined button in the top corner, or right-click the tab), select Content DB Maintenance, check export User Data, and hit Accept. Reinstall PostgreSQL, restart DS and open the Content DB Maintenance dialogue again this tiem checking Reimport Metadata and then Accept in that dialogue and the next.

  • nDelphinDelphi Posts: 1,929
    LeatherGryphon said:

    OK, I'm freaking out here! crying 

    I feel for you. I know what it is like to lose data. If you try Richard's process and it helps make sure you back it up. Do you back up your computer? If so, depending on how often you backup, some of your data should be there.

    I was forced to do a Windows 10 refresh and it did away with all my installed applications. In addition to Windows 10 stuff most of my data files in windows.old and I had backed-up my stuff not too long before the refresh.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,902

    I live in absolute terror of losing my category structure.  It took me WEEKS to get it set up on two computers. 

  • LeatherGryphonLeatherGryphon Posts: 12,168
    edited November 2015

    I do back up my computer and actually did so just a couple days ago so I may be in luck to recover the old database files.

    I looked at Richard's suggestions and I'm confused.  I found the "PostgreSQL" folder but no process.  Do I just copy & save the folder, or is there some executable that has to be poked?  Also what is "Valentina"?  If it's some third-party app then I don't use it.  I've given up on 3rd party apps for Studio.  Too much trouble and confusion and too many got'chas over the years.  Is having Valentina necessary for the described recovery method to work?  If so, I guess I'm screwed.

    I am a bit concerned that Studio upgrades do this.  Can't the saving of user's precious information be automated?  Or at least a descriptive archival warning and procedure be issued at install time?  Is this archival procedure documented anywhere official?

     

     

    Post edited by LeatherGryphon on
  • nDelphinDelphi Posts: 1,929

    https://helpdaz.zendesk.com/entries/45231914-PostgreSQL-FAQ

    Q: What's the difference between Valentina CMS and PostgreSQL CMS?
    A: Valentina is the database server used by the original CMS. PostgreSQL is a different database server which was introduced in DAZ Studio 4.6.3.50.

    Sounds to me like Richard is hoping that your old Valentina database is still around and to use that to repopulate your DAZ content database with. If you have a recent backup you might be able to get your DAZ SQL database from there and it would be more up-to-date, as you might have changed and added stuff to the database since before the Valentina database conversion. (I am assuming that you had converted to PostgreSQL.)

  • nDelphinDelphi Posts: 1,929

    The location of the CMS database is set in DAZ Studio and can be seen under:

    Edit/Preferences/CMS Settings

    Or hit the F2 key.

    The location should look like: C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Roaming\DAZ 3D\cms

  • nDelphinDelphi Posts: 1,929

    After giving you the location of the database, I wonder how you backup your computer? If you do simple folder and some data backups, you may have missed that AppData folder.

    I always do mirror image backups of my HDD partitions with Macrium Reflect Free Edition. This is a great tool and you can mount the mirror images and browse them just to look for a file or two you may need to restore. It is very handy that way, as well.

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