Has anyone come into a situation where you click on a thumbnail of whatever and then Poser will come back and say "Hey, I'm missing a file, lets go find it". Ok, you look for for the file and what poser is calling for is not in any of your folders. Now here's the kicker, usually this happens when it pertains to a zip file, freebees of course. So anyway, you go back through the zip and the file that poser needs is not there either. So you tell poser I don't want to look any more and then THATS WHEN IT HAPPENS, POSER FREEZES, LOCKS UP CAN'T DO A DARN THING an in task manager it says POSER 7 NOT RESPONDING(it does on me anyway). I'm stuck, I have to close out Poser 7 w/sr2 and any work i've done I've lost. Can anyone explain to me why this happens and if there is any way to fix this problem. I can't figure out why an individual would post anything without all the files being in the zip. I've only come across a couple times but it just buggs the heck out of me, it's very frustrating.

Actually, I think Poser just continues searching for the other files down the list , especially if the external runtime is not added to Poser's runtime libraries.

It will appear to hang for a very long time, by which time Pluto has orbited the Sun several times. After which, it will show you the usual working window and User Interface.

You could edit out the culprit reference to a non-existent file, by opening the uncompressed content file and removing the filename in a text editor.  For example, you have a prop which keeps telling Poser to look for XYZ,jpg. and you have confirmed that there is no XYZ.jpg anywhere in your hard disk.  OK.

If this example is a compressed prop file, ask poser to uncompress it ( from the drop down menu ).  If it isn't then just flip it open using a text editor - I use MetaPad.

Do a search for that XYZ.jpg string, and delete every reference to it.  re-save.

I have seen the same sort of thing, from time to time.    Poser prompts me to find a texture for one set I use, the texture being called "Metal7", or "Steel7", or something like that.   The first time it happened, I realised there were only six Metal/Steel textures, so I just clicked on number 6 and Poser was happy.   Since the result was OK, too, I suspect number 6 was the one that had been intended all along.   I think it's always best to apply some texture, since you can always replace it afterwards, rather than asking Poser to stop searching.   I seem to recall how stopping the search made Poser go off to sulk in his tent, as you have found, but I don't think that I ever found a way around that, so I haven't risked it in a while. 

Sometimes, when Poser hangs, it is because a new message window has popped up , but it is hidden behind the main one, or behind the preview.   That ought to be detectable as a separate entry in the task manager, however, so I assume it doesn't happen in this instance.

I'm pretty sure it's a full lockup in these cases, not just a long search.

I know how long it takes to search my whole C: disk for a file without
finding it ... about a minute in Norton Commander, which is a plain
and simple searcher.  

By contrast, I've seen Poser sit for five minutes with no action,
before I finally hit the three-finger salute.

Its a good idea sometimes to check the files in a figure or prop and make sure its correctly installed . Poser searching is a pit, and saying you dont want to keep looking actually just doesnt tell you but it does keep looking .

I've had it do that to me as well on P6, after I've selected CTRL-ALT-Delete and it opens up the window that shows me all my working files, and soon as I see Poser is Not Responding Poser will jump back alive before I select the End Task button. At least one good thing is, the item in question still loads, just 9 our of 10 times it's missing it's textures and sometimes that can be easily dealt with in the Materials room. But I've also had a few times when it completely chokes Poser and I've had many projects destroyed due to that. Would be nice if future Poser releases would auto save your project every so many minutes in a temp working folder that empties out when you open another file that's not in that temp folder.

Nosiferret - I've had that same experience with P6 as well.

Hi!

In P7, look under Edit/General preferences/Library, set "File Search"  to Shallow.

If someone mentioned this in earlier replies I apologize.

Regards / Jonny

I've experienced all of the mentioned scenarios, the long search, the full lock-ups, the hidden windows, the recovery of Poser when threatened with "End task". Don't we all love Poser?

Since Poser 7 it sometimes works to cancel Poser's search for textures, but not in all cases. So now I always apply any texture, if asked for a missing one. Mostly I just take the ground texture. When Poser is done with looking for missing files, I install the missing textures or make them or point the shaders to other textures.
Thanks for the tip, Johnny. I will try this.

I've noticed that Poser will start to load a scene, chug away for a while and then a message window appears saying "The file was not found, do you want to continue to search?" It won't tell me what file. I also get a window to locate an object but only the first 3 letters of what I'm looking for. Since I have all my original files tucked away on a disc, I load the problem item and save it back to the runtime with the same name after I get the thing correctly textured etc. I guess thats the same as manually editing the file?

I NEVER ask Poser to find a missing texture when it asks, I know what happens.
I just select ANY texture and let it load, which keeps Poser happy, then attempt to find it through the Material Room. I you can't find the original texture you can usually find something close (and sometimes better than the original).

xpac5896 said "in task manager it says POSER 7 NOT RESPONDING (it does on me anyway)"

You get this message from the OS even when Poser is busy but not hanging, but engaged in it's legitamate work,  when rendering, for example.

Yep!  Frequently!  And I've found that in the original CR2 or PP2 that the broker forgot to replace their working file location from their hard drive to the runtime (i.e., :runtime:libraries:character...).  I've had to fix a lot of these files myself.

Also, sometimes the CR2 or PP2 file points to a non-existent file such as a bump file (xyz.bum instead of xyz-bump.jpg).

Usually I do a search for part of the file name just to find the folder, then manually search and/or correct the problem.  In other cases I've had to create bump files when none were included.