Categories not removing references? [SOLVED]
EZ3DTV
Posts: 1,494
Categories not removing references?
I have a category that I have set up that has thousands of USER references in it.
When I go to Smart Content in v4.24 and multiple or single select the references and go to Categories and uncheck the box and click accept to remove those references, it does not work.
When I try the same thing in v6, same thing.
There is an option to "remove references" but I do not dare do that figuring I might end up with orphaned images in my Smart Content folder...
Anyone else notice this issue?
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Comments
Firstly, "Remove References" is to totally remove a user facing file as well as its metadata in Smart Content... If you do it, you won't see that file anymore in your Smart Content ~
Then as for removing Categories, if the Category you created is a user-define one, you'll see an U letter on the icon of Category, then such category can always be removed from a file.
But if the icon of Category is a purely white... it means it's a Vendor category, then you have no way to remove it from a file.
Pls check which case you have.
Thank you for your response Crosswind! These categories have a U on them.
When a custom folder gets too large Daz will no longer allow you to edit it.
I have isolated the problem as more likely a sharing problem in Windows and not Daz' inability to parse large customized databases.
Odd ~~ I want to confirm again: you removed categories by using right-click on thumbnails then Categorize... ?
This problem still persists. It does not happen on my other computer.
When I create a custom folder with user items it allows me to create the folder and populate it with my user created items. But Daz will not let me remove them by any means. The ony way to remove them is to delete the customize folder.
I don't understand what you mean by "a custom folder"... A root user-defined category or somthing ?
Have you ever done batches of re-import metadata before in this computer ?
I am still having this issue, I have reimported metadata and what I mean by custom folders is a folder that is created by the customize function.
Customise or Categorise?
I figured out the issue, Who here has not had to redo their Daz library even once?
Well if you have many "thousands" of user assets (like I do), when you delete your Daz library and Daz's program files, the connection to Daz gets lost for your user data. So how do you fix it? Well, you rebuild your library then you rescan for metadata.
Well the user metadata is meant for a different Daz install. They are like from different dimensions or even a different OS. Daz may detect the metadata fine but it is locked with incongruent product permissions (the only way I know how to explain this).
Thus, Daz will display it, but it will not let you delete or customize it because it does not belong to your current Daz library, it belongs to a different Daz or different OS and Daz.
So I went through many months trying to figure out what was wrong. Reinstalling many times just to have the problem over time resurface and not knowing why. After a fresh install of everything, all it would take was to reinstall my library or Daz, and the permissions problem was back. No amount of Windows ownerships and permissions changes would fix it other than a complete reinstall of the OS and a fresh install of the library and even that would not always fix it.
Let me detail how this problem manifests itself.
In the content tab at the bottom of the list of items is a folder called "categories".
You can right click on categories and create a sub-category folder(s).
Then you can find files that you like. You can choose from files that are part of the Daz Product library or you can choose files that are your own custom files.
Once these files appear in the categories you can ideally, either delete the whole sub folder or remove individual references.
You can also remove them by unchecking them in the original folder by selecting categorize in the rt click dropdown menu.
The point is you can add and remove these files in the categorize folder singly or multiply.
The issue I ran into is when you disconnect your user library from Daz and it needs to rebuild the library, often you will no longer be able to remove individual or multiple references in the category folder.
They are locked. Daz will allow them to be placed into the category folder but it will not let them be removed other than by deleting the whole folder.
It is like they are read only, locked or do not have correct native Daz product permissions. I spend months changing Windows permissions to no avail.
Daz would not let me edit my user contents in the folder.
It turned out to be one check box in Daz that was the issue. Just one, lol.
When you need to reconnect you user data back to Daz after a reinstall, (when it will not let you edit it in categories)
you go to Smart Content > Content DB Maintenance > Re-import Metadata
You will see, the box pictured below.
If you check the box, "User Data Overrides Product Data" it will import your user data with its own permissions and old disconnected Daz product associations. Or it imports no product data.
This can result in Daz not having the right permissions to fully connect with the user data.
Instead, uncheck the box and Daz will build brand new metadata product connections to the old user data and it will then work again in categories.
Problem "SOLVED".
Right ~ DO NOT export / re-import User Data.
Also refer to: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/738831/bug-studio-stops-remembering-categories
This issue I had is a slightly different thing than importing user data, but along a similar vein. Thanks all for your help! Much appreciated!
Vendor data (the metadaat that coems with a product) User data (changes you have made youself, though vendor data can end up as userData in error various ways) are distinct. Note that the metadata files in /Runtime/Support are nopt the database, there is no link to them - they just get read in (if needed) and added to the database which is then data in a set of files in the contentcluster folder, both Vendor data and user data, so setting file permissions is acting at the wrong level.
I agree with you about permissions being the wrong level, but Daz losing the ability to edit user data sure makes it appear like a permissions thing.
Windows permissions can block Daz from using "any data" on the system and they can also block installation. That is a pretty wide gamut of possible issues.
Daz does assign "connections" to data or the check box would not be necessary.
It is not simply a reading of the user data but it is a parsing of it and a recognition that the user data belongs in the current version of Daz.
I don't really know what is happening other than the negative effects if Daz is not permitted to reparse the user data and user data overrides the metadata process.
Fiddling with permissions on the PostgreSQL files can break the whole thing, or has in the past.
As I understand it the checkbox controls whether existing user data for a file is left alone or overwritten when importing metadata from the .dsx files on disc, it is controlling the import behaviour not setting a long-term access right (and if it was it would be a setting stored in the database, not a separate file permission). The database connects values to the relative path of the asset in question (e.g. a d?f or texture file) and other values that are, once set or imported, stored internally.