Thanks, everyone. Good to know it's not just me. I did notice that these issues have only started appearing regularly since I installed Daz Central - I ripped that off today and now most files are OK, but a few are still problematic. I'm seeing a lot of network errors and 'file size mismatch' errors in the logfile. 

@fibyken: Keep us posted on your support results. I'm really interested to know what they tell you.

@outrider42: Yes, I've seen that too. I do the manual DL as a last resort, but some of these won't even download manually. 

I'll let you know, and you're right, I just attempted (again) to do a manual download and they're still failing.  They get to about 30 - 50% then fail.  :(

Possibly coming back to Daz after a long hiatus,and I'm having the same issues. Decided to try out Daz Central and noticed it so I tried with DIM and same thing. So far these are the products I've tried that are failing:

Borg for Genesis 8 Female(s) | 3D Models and 3D Software by Daz 3D
Project EYEray - Next Gen and Merchant Resource for Genesis 8 | 3D Models and 3D Software by Daz 3D
Naia HD for Genesis 8 Female | 3D Models and 3D Software by Daz 3D
 

Thanks, everyone. Good to know it's not just me. I did notice that these issues have only started appearing regularly since I installed Daz Central - I ripped that off today and now most files are OK, but a few are still problematic. I'm seeing a lot of network errors and 'file size mismatch' errors in the logfile. 

@fibyken: Keep us posted on your support results. I'm really interested to know what they tell you.

@outrider42: Yes, I've seen that too. I do the manual DL as a last resort, but some of these won't even download manually. 

Hamfast said:

It might still be supported (for products), but NOT for an update or download of DAZ Studio 1.14. D|S 1.14 appears in DIM and tried to download and update but the download fails every time and it cannot be installed. DAZ3D are trying to strongarm their users to use DAZ Central.There is no choice to update Studio except DC.I don't think many users will be happy about that. Just like Microsoft and Windows 10!

I saved a copy of 4.5 and as I was having so much trouble with 1.14 I uninstalled it. When I installed 4.5 however it opens as 1.14 and Im back where I started. They have this control thing where they have changed the rules and we are stuck with it. I cant go back to working as I used to at all.  This update is sticky,laggy and crashes a lot. I am very upset that Daz has taken all our money and given us a new crap version so they can keep tabs on whoever is using it. They should call it Daz Control instead of daz central. It only works in their favour,this way they can monitor all the different bridges and assets going out ,but we are left with something that doesnt even do what it used to do!

I beg your pardon, it shouldn't sound aggressive. But I've already had a lot of experience with developer redesigns that sometimes drive the users to despair.
e.g.:
-  iTunes:  renamed all my music files and also shot up my entire folder structure. It took me over 3 weeks to rename everything and move it around.
- Thunderbird: With every major update, almost always all add-ons become unusable and a "downgrade is not possible without data loss "(Mozillas support answer).
- I remember also some applications, where the update changed my full version to a 30 days trial version.

So why do I now have the feeling that one is forced to "DazCentral":
When I tried to download Daz Studio again - directly from the website - I ran into the obstacle of not having a direct download.
If you go to "Download Daz Studio" at the top of your page ( https://www.daz3d.com/get_studio/ ) you will be automatically redirected
to the "Daz Central" page and every "Download Now" is linked to the file DazCentral_1.5.0.19_Win64.exe and  it would be downloaded.
The installation manager is not mentioned anywhere on this page - oh .. only at the end as "DIM" with the info:
"DazCentral and DIM cannot currently run at the same time."
I feel literally bombarded with the term "Daz Central", also on "My Account" ( https://www.daz3d.com/customer/account )
... what's below? in large letters "Looking for DazCentral?".

Thank you for letting me know that the Daz Install Manager is still available ... and I hope also in the future.

To your information.
I have reinstalled Daz Studio 4.14. # and also some content successfully (HD of my choice)  with the Daz Install Manager,  
And my OS is fine ... had no problems.  To me it seemed as if my OS hadn't forgotten the path to the correct drive,
but rather as if the install manager had reset itself to a basic setting ... why ever. 

Now everything seems ok again ... 

Here we go again. New computer, and that link is now broken. Really don't want to use DAZ Central, arrrgh.

Upgraded computer.  Intalled DAZ using DAZ Central.  Successfuly intalled all my assets except for two:  "FW Rebekah HD for Vicotoria 8" and "Tidy Kitchen."  They fail to download.

What to do?  Just wait till tomorrow and see if they download?  

Hmmm.

For now, yes. If they are still the same then open a support ticket.

Upgraded computer.  Intalled DAZ using DAZ Central.  Successfuly intalled all my assets except for two:  "FW Rebekah HD for Vicotoria 8" and "Tidy Kitchen."  They fail to download.

What to do?  Just wait till tomorrow and see if they download?  

Hmmm.

It might still be supported (for products), but NOT for an update or download of DAZ Studio 1.14. D|S 1.14 appears in DIM and tried to download and update but the download fails every time and it cannot be installed. DAZ3D are trying to strongarm their users to use DAZ Central.There is no choice to update Studio except DC.I don't think many users will be happy about that. Just like Microsoft and Windows 10!

Since DIM and Daz Central download the same file from the same servers this isn't the case. I installed the last update to the Public Build through DIM a couple of days ago, and the previous updates to both before that.

...  I don't use Daz Central I worked to hard to customize my Content Database to use Renderosity content and Daz don't have any documents to use Renderosity in that program.

Oh yes, I agree with you. I get really annoyed when developers force users to make changes that are more harmful than helpful.
Just recently the Install Manager downloaded and installed the new Daz Studio version. BUT on the wrong hard drive and ignored the actually specified installation path as well as that of my library.

That should not happen, though the library path is not relevant for software installs.

Now I can reinstall everything and have to check everything three times to make sure that nothing has been lost. (Fortunately my old library still exists and everything seems to be in its place)

Why do you need to reinstall everything? Unless the content also moved - which would sound more like the OS losing track of the HD identifiers (drive letters on WIndows).

I don't want the DazCentral either - but I think we have to use it in the future whether we like it or not. -.-

Install Manager iss till avaialble, Daz Central is a different front-end for the same code with simplified options (just a base location).

...  I don't use Daz Central I worked to hard to customize my Content Database to use Renderosity content and Daz don't have any documents to use Renderosity in that program.

Oh yes, I agree with you. I get really annoyed when developers force users to make changes that are more harmful than helpful.
Just recently the Install Manager downloaded and installed the new Daz Studio version. BUT on the wrong hard drive and ignored the actually specified installation path as well as that of my library. 
Now I can reinstall everything and have to check everything three times to make sure that nothing has been lost. (Fortunately my old library still exists and everything seems to be in its place)

I don't want the DazCentral either - but I think we have to use it in the future whether we like it or not. -.-

It might still be supported (for products), but NOT for an update or download of DAZ Studio 1.14. D|S 1.14 appears in DIM and tried to download and update but the download fails every time and it cannot be installed. DAZ3D are trying to strongarm their users to use DAZ Central.There is no choice to update Studio except DC.I don't think many users will be happy about that. Just like Microsoft and Windows 10!

My Account/Product Library;

It might still be supported (for products), but NOT for an update or download of DAZ Studio 1.14. D|S 1.14 appears in DIM and tried to download and update but the download fails every time and it cannot be installed. DAZ3D are trying to strongarm their users to use DAZ Central.There is no choice to update Studio except DC.I don't think many users will be happy about that. Just like Microsoft and Windows 10!

I notice that the Content Database Base is in the system Library directory. This system directory is sometimes more fussy than regular user directories (applications sometimes treat it in a different way). Is it safe to move the Content Database Base files from this directory to an external drive?

 

I'm concerned that I might naively "break" something important.

 

I see the cms directory points to a small json file. Can I assume this can be left where it is?

The JSON file has settings, including the location of the ContentCluster folder which is the actual database. Changing the location and not moving the files across (with DS, DIM, Central, and any other applications that might use the database closed) will effectively do a reset, which you probably don't want.

I went back and found an older scene that I'd made using the environment, and that loaded without anything but placeholder blocks instead of objects, walls, etc. It's as if the files have been removed from my computer.

That's not a "files removed from your computer" error, it sounds more like a "content location settings" error. The files are most likely still where they've always been, but DAZ|Studio is being pointed to the wrong place. Have you ever used DAZ Central to install content? Recent versions are better behaved, but Central used to have a habit of messing with content settings.

It's also important to distinguish between "loading fails in Smart Content" and "loading fails from Content Library" — Smart Content is not a link to your content files, it's a link to a database of pointers to your content files. If this is where you're trying to load from, then the issue is with your content database, not the content files.

+1 I own every Parkside East West, you name it. They do show up in Smart Content and if not are always easily found under Content Tab, or should for you.

Edit: Maybe unistall and reinstall.

I went back and found an older scene that I'd made using the environment, and that loaded without anything but placeholder blocks instead of objects, walls, etc. It's as if the files have been removed from my computer.

That's not a "files removed from your computer" error, it sounds more like a "content location settings" error. The files are most likely still where they've always been, but DAZ|Studio is being pointed to the wrong place. Have you ever used DAZ Central to install content? Recent versions are better behaved, but Central used to have a habit of messing with content settings.

It's also important to distinguish between "loading fails in Smart Content" and "loading fails from Content Library" — Smart Content is not a link to your content files, it's a link to a database of pointers to your content files. If this is where you're trying to load from, then the issue is with your content database, not the content files.

What is people's problem with manual install at all?

I'm a busy man and my time has more value than my money, the reason I've decided to buy from daz exclusively was the promiss of easy installation.  [...]

hm, still don't understand then, what is difficult with an (almost) one click install using 7zip.

+1

Open file, navigate to "Content", select the folders, click "Extract", press "arrow down" on your keyboard to select the last used folder, click "Ok" = Done

Not to mention the fact that DIM is Awesome, Fast and Free!

Beyond being used as an installer, I find DIM to be my goto database for finding my way through my content libraries, since I have quite a few. It's easy to search and find stuff - as well as to browse content using various filter methods.

If I want to create a new library for select items, I can 

• Create the new Library using DIM
• Select everything I want in that library and uninstall
• Select everything that just shown up in the download list
• Install to new library

It also rocks for telling me where the Textures are installed, which I need to know quite often.

Broadly speaking, there are around five flavors of Daz content library management strategies out there right now (ordered by least to most advanced/capable):

1. Daz Central as manager of Daz store content.
2. DIM as content manager of Daz store content.
3. DIM as content manager of Daz store content and the user as manager of everything else via regular zip files.
4. The user as manager of everything via regular zip files.
5. DIM as content manager of everything (since if you've rtfm'ed, you know that any random collection of files can be made manageable by DIM.)

My installation of Daz Studio using Daz central is stuck at 86% and not proceeding further. Any help on how to proceed??? 

Personally I am using my own brain ... sorry. I am using DIM to download, but not to install. I unzip and place stuff in the correct folders ...

This one talks about Genesis, but just insert Horse 2 for Genesis: https://www.renderosity.com/rr/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2899155

DON'T USE DAZ CENTRAL! It is beta, wonky and has a tendency to screw up a lot of things ...

The Store Credit page enters Refunds as negative changes (minus -) on the balance. Accounting 101: Credits are the OPPOSITE of debits.

I only have a couple of refunds from before the change, and they show as positive values. All the manual adjustments for earlier gift cards also show as positive values. Recent gift cards show as positive values. After the change the whole list was bassackwards, and the signs were messed up, but the final balance was always good. I do remember some complaining that it wasn't, though. Seems inconsistent with some users.

I've been going through my orders to see if anything is missing after I found one older purchase that was newly available in the store, but not in my Product Library, despite the Order saying otherwise. It actually shows in DIM under another order, but not one I have in my order history. So far that's the only one, after about 40% complete, but I have found a few (maybe 3 or 4 more) with no download options.

I purchased hundreds of items during the sale. I'm now having to check on each one to see if it's still there since I found a difference between what I purchased and what is in my Product Library, which is hindered because the new store Product Library does not list items chronologically according to purchase date.

I didn't notice any recent purchases missing from DIM. Thing is, it might have an order, but it might not appear in the Product Library and/or it might not appear in DIM (can't speak as to DAZ Central or Connect, but Connect seems to be making a mess of things for some). Too many sources to cross-check.