How do you manually move contents from one computer to another
unknownmystery445
Posts: 414
I know that it's just a simple copy pasting the My Daz 3d Library to the new computer, if I'm right? But I'm just wondering what if there's already a new version of Daz in the future and I have contents that are from renderosity and therefore can't use DIM? Is it still just the same? By the way can you guys also tell me how you manually move and install your contents from computer to another having the same version of Daz in both computers, just wanted to know and How do you think you can manually move and install contents from a computer with older version of Daz to a new computer with newer version of Daz?
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It can get a bit more complicated than that actually.
With the advent of daz connect, there are now three seperate content directories in daz studio, by default.
My daz3d library
My library
and
Daz connect.
All three of these will be under your Documents, on windows based systems, i have no clue on macs.
If you don't use daz connect, it's not really much more than moving the files over from one system to another.
If you do use daz connect, you'll have to re-authorize your system and let it do it's connect thing.
You will loose any customization, unless you also copy certain files, such as custom actions.dsx from the users>[name]>appdata>roaming>DAZ 3D>Studio 4 folder. You'll probably have to turn on "show hidden files and folders" in the folder options(control panel) to even see this folder.
You probably won't have to remap the folders if you are using defaults.
Just install the program, reinstall plugins, copy over the folders, and done.
As far as renderosity products, unless you are reinstalling the item, it won't really matter where it came from.
Because i don't personally use the default installtion directories for anything, other than for plug ins and stuff that doesn't like being placed elsewhere, i usually just swap drives from one computer to another and remap in daz studio.
The one thing to ask though is what version are you coming from?
Unless you're coming from 3 or 4.0, you should be ok on most things working, but coming from 3.x or 4.0-4.5 stuff may or may not work correctly. AOA's advanced lights ganked the last time i updated, think when 4.9 came out, haven't used em in so long i don't know if they got fixed or not.
For the most part content doesn't really care what version you're running, genesis and related content excluded of course.
So for example, I'll just copy the "My Daz 3D Library" with all of the contents that I have then paste and merge it on the new computer with the new "My Daz 3D Library"? If yes, won't it get affected let's say if the new computer already has a newer version of Daz installed?
My main niggle with a new computer is that no matter what I try a new computer sets all the other disks to Read Only so say I have all my content on the D drive. Once I get the new computer set up (which i'm working on getting things backed up right now) and then reconnect the drives I will have access to all my files but they are all set to Read Only so if I want to make a change to an older scene file I'll get an error message telling me I don't have permissions to do that.
If anyone knows of a really fast system admin way to get files back to Read and Write please post!
Thanks!
Well, what you have to do is change the permissions in the folder you want to access. It's pretty straightforward, do it under the properties tab.
I run 2 identical daz installations on 2 computers, my workstation where I render and my laptop where I can make scenes if I want to. Pretty simple. I don't use daz connect, I use DIM. So:
1. If you have a runtime folder, in my case C:\programs(86)\curious labs\poser ...copy that, and put it in an identical place on the new computer. You will have to change the permissions in the programs folder to do it, but if you're the administrator it's not hard. path has to be identical.
2. Copy the daz folder in documents, put it in the same place in the new computer. That one doesn't typically need you to change permissions. That's usually where renderosity products end up.
3. Do the same thing with the install manager folder.
4. If you have anything else you use outside of the above, put it in the same exact place on the new computer.
5. Download install manager in the new computer and run it. Because it came from a computer where it was installed, it will think all of the products are installed. Uninstall everything.
6. At this point, you might opt to just download a fresh Daz3d studio. Alternatively, you can go to install manager and install the version you were using, the CMS and genesis starter essentials.
7. Now reinstall everything in install manager. It will take a while, just like uninstalling everything did.
8. So now in the new computer, everything is reinstalled and Daz is installed, and the folder names are identical to your old computer. Open Daz. Go to preferences. Make sure the under directories, for your daz and non-daz content, the proper dierctories are chosen. If they aren't add them. Now most importantly, make sure they are in the exact same order as they were in your old computer. If they're not, you won't be able to open scenes made in the old computer in the new one.
9. Now, if if some of your Daz products predated install manager, you may need the originals. Although the files are in there, you might not properly see them in smart content. If you open an old scene made with one of those products, it will open and you can use it, but doing things like changing textures might not work in smart content. You'd have to do it under the old content tab.
Anyway, that's what I do and it works great for me,
Depending on how your content was installed, you may need to copy all three directories.
My Daz3d library, My library, and Daz connect.
In answer to your question, not really, just don't overwrite any existing files, in the new install, and don't use the "keep both" option(windows only of course) it'll cause problems.
The one thing i did forget in my previous post is getting updated versions of the Genesis, g2, g3, and Default content(i think that's what it's called now), as well as any other products that may have been updated since you last installed.
DIM can make it a bit easier to get those updates, depending on which version you're coming from and how long it's been since you updated the content.
Just overwrite the copied version with the new version.
Edit:
If you had been using DIM for the previous installation, copy over the install manager folder as well, i keep nothing but the manifest files in there, so if there's an update to a product i have downloaded previously it'll tell me, regardless if it's installed or not.
Default is C:\Users\Public\Documents\DAZ 3D\InstallManager\Downloads
What if I'll install it manually?
Seems labor intensive and unnecessary. DIM will do it for you. I just copy the entire DIM from one computer to another, as I posted above. Uninstall everything and reinstall everything.
Can you kindly make a video of how to install contents that aren't downloaded form daz by using dim?
That's all well and good for those who have unlimited fast internet access, and small libraries. If I were to un- and re-install everything, it would literally take months to finish.
I moved to a new machine last month. I just copied all my content directories, pointed the new computer's Studio at them, and reimported metadata. Then I copied DIM's manifest files over. Everything's now working as it should.
Same here Murgatroyd!