So I finally installed the 11.2 update and now ALL MY PURCHASED CONTENT IS GONE!!!

Try adding the runtimes back into your libraries .

I have many HUNDREDS of V4 and M4 morphs, skins, hair, clothing, accessories, and settings/backgrounds. It took me YEARS to manually install these one at a time. I am NOT going to do that again! Poser wouldn't even work with the DAZ characters until I used the DAZ installer. I suppose in another few weeks Bondware will decide to cram something else down our arses to make the app stop working. No way to run a business...

It will take me less time to learn DS than to fix this mess and there is no guarantee BW won't pull this crap again in the future.

after clicking there, navigate to your old runtime and add it to the library

It doesn't work that way on my system. All my content is on a separate HDD (except the DAZ characters, Morph++, etc.) and only shows up in the Library after manually installing them one at a time. My only runtime is within the Poser installation in Windows Programs.

Psych2 posted at 12:24AM Thu, 03 October 2019 - #4365532

It doesn't work that way on my system. All my content is on a separate HDD (except the DAZ characters, Morph++, etc.) and only shows up in the Library after manually installing them one at a time. My only runtime is within the Poser installation in Windows Programs.

Even so, they still have to be in a Runtime. On your separate HD, go to where your previously installed content is and when you see a folder called "Runtime", add it using the icon pointed out to you above by structure. Everything that's in it will be added back to where you can see it again inside Poser.

Laurie

But I have a separate Runtime for each of the hundreds of items in my content folder.

My issue is this update should not have overwritten my original Library.

It seems like I moved my old preferences/settings folder back to the updated folder and the library had my other runtime in it again. The installer made a backup folder with my original settings, so this was easy to do. It sits in the same folder as the Poser 11 folder but has a longer (date hashed?) folder name.

A couple of things:

1. I might not be remembering this correctly. I've already done the update, so I can't tell if doing the above will work.

2. I'm using Macs. This may or may not matter.

I hope you can get this sorted out with minimum difficulty, Psych2.

Lee

Also, V4 and M4 have this batch file which has to be run so that Poser can recognise where the morphs are located.

After the update, it'll use all new settings... that's the problem. The good news is it will backup your original setting. You'll find these settings somewhere along the lines of the following.

Win C:UsersYourUserNameAppDataRoamingPoser

Mac /Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/Poser/

There should be a folder called 11 at this location and one that will look like this 11_201910011146. Your numbers following the _ may differ but this is the backup, copy and paste all the files from it over the files in the 11 folder and everything should be how it was before the update.

Also, feel free to back up both of these folders before making any changes if you're not feeling confident.

That's C:/Users/YourUserName/AppData/Roaming/Poser/

The forum ate my slashes then wouldn't let me edit the post.

The update at one point asks you if you want to backup your preferences or USE your preferences. It backs up by default - If you had paid attention to that and asked it to use your preferences, nothing would have changed. Previous Poser updaters were like this, too, since as far back as I can remember.

Psych2 posted at 8:00AM Thu, 03 October 2019 - #4365555

But I have a separate Runtime for each of the hundreds of items in my content folder.

My issue is this update should not have overwritten my original Library.

Has it definitely been over written or is it just not showing up in Poser? What was it overwritten with? And a screenshot of your open Library pane in Poser would be helpful. It gives us some idea of what you're looking at. We might see something you don't.

it is not showing up in poser because you did elect to use your existing preferences. did you check the backup folder?

or maybe this will work

You could edit your library in a text editor LibraryPrefs.xml C:Usersyour user name hereAppDataRoamingPoser Pro11. Use a text editor, not a word processor, and make a backup copy of the file before you start just in case something goes wrong. You can also check there to see if there was a back up already made at some point in time that you can restore it from. Or if you're backing up your computer, look into restoring it from that backup.

Psych2

could you tell us how precisely you installed your content please? There seems to be some contradiction between saying you installed in poser, but your content is only on a separate hdd. Did you simply point poser to each product on your hdd, or have copied the runtimes from the products to another folder? Or did you use the poser installer?

@Afrodite-Ohki This is not the case for Mac users.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I really do appreciate that.

The main focus of my original and followup rants was to warn others and let Bondware -- if they even listen or care -- that the forced update is very irritating, very capable of screwing up a previously functional installation, and if their goal is to build on customer relations for future sales they are doing a crappy job.

To address other posts/suggestions: The update wiped out my Library, not the content itself. I did choose for the update to use my existing preferences, which I thought meant it wouldn't delete my Library. I also elected for it to make a backup folder, although it never stated where that folder was or how to use it.

Regarding using a non-word processor text editor for editing my Library, I don't have such an editor or the knowledge how to use one. I'm in my mid 60s and not at the leading edge of computer technology.

When I buy software I expect it to function in a fairly logical, practical and intuitive fashion. Poser Debut, 10 and 11 Pro, as delivered by SM when I bought each over the past 8 years or so, worked as advertised and was easy enough for even an old fart like me to install, load content and use. But now Bondware comes in, violates the terms of the original license, forces an update for anyone who wants to continue using Poser 11, and then overwrites the Library! If they continue doing business this way they will lose many loyal Poser users.

Rant mode is OFF now.

Psych2 posted at 10:47AM Thu, 03 October 2019 - #4365613

To address other posts/suggestions: The update wiped out my Library, not the content itself. I did choose for the update to use my existing preferences, which I thought meant it wouldn't delete my Library. I also elected for it to make a backup folder, although it never stated where that folder was or how to use it.

I'm sorry you had such a hard time with the installation, but your comment here is somehow in error.

Use existing preferences and Backup existing preferences is either/or. You cannot choose both.

Here's hoping you get your libraries back easily.

Psych2 posted at 4:13PM Thu, 03 October 2019 - #4365613

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I really do appreciate that.

The main focus of my original and followup rants was to warn others and let Bondware -- if they even listen or care -- that the forced update is very irritating, very capable of screwing up a previously functional installation, and if their goal is to build on customer relations for future sales they are doing a crappy job.

To address other posts/suggestions: The update wiped out my Library, not the content itself. I did choose for the update to use my existing preferences, which I thought meant it wouldn't delete my Library. I also elected for it to make a backup folder, although it never stated where that folder was or how to use it.

Regarding using a non-word processor text editor for editing my Library, I don't have such an editor or the knowledge how to use one. I'm in my mid 60s and not at the leading edge of computer technology.

When I buy software I expect it to function in a fairly logical, practical and intuitive fashion. Poser Debut, 10 and 11 Pro, as delivered by SM when I bought each over the past 8 years or so, worked as advertised and was easy enough for even an old fart like me to install, load content and use. But now Bondware comes in, violates the terms of the original license, forces an update for anyone who wants to continue using Poser 11, and then overwrites the Library! If they continue doing business this way they will lose many loyal Poser users.

Rant mode is OFF now.

your library was not deleted, it is still on your system. You need to re-add it. As for the forced update, it was necessary because the Smith Micro licence server was going to be closed, which would have left your product COMPLETELY useless.

Seriously, you cannot expect a new company to Follow the licence terms the old company set because they were not the new companies terms., Bondware have been doing their absolute best to minimize the loss of functionality for ALL users, which I am sure you can appreciate, given the thousands of different setups, preferences etc. Is not entirely possible.

During installation, You are asked if you wish to keep your existing preferences, if you elect not to, then poser will back them up ( unless you choose to delete them ) and as Glitterati said, you cannot choose both to back up your preferences AND use them, you can choose one or the other.

It might of been a good solution that Renderosity took over Poser but there are quiet a few questionable things about the way it has been done. one I already mentioned here @4365589 In case that SM would of shut down the activation servers they would of had to dis-activate the Internet activation for sure there would not of been any way around. They done it already on Previous Poser versions .... so it is rather an excuse that Poser would not of worked any Longer.

there is also a high risc to Push customers to much around or give to much pressure for a 100$ worth Program and it is clear it is not up to a user to fix issues in a sold program unless it would be a Open source and declared as such.

The 3D market is very large and if a Customer turns the back on a Program it is very hard to get em back . It would not be enough to just say we fixed the Issue "buy it now" ! I make 3D content for Poser and at the moment it is a nightmare .... the request for Poser models dropped almost to zero the past weeks. This shows that customers start to be uncomfortable with the situation. Most will not even say a word they just jump off the ship !

Renderosity Depends on Poser as most Products are Poser Products No Poser No Renderosity unless it would then make a partnership with Daz " RDNA did" and where is it now ?

so if that control Idea fails and to many customers would turn the back on you allot of artists will suffer or have to jump to Daz studio in such a case it would not be enough to give a little candy to get Poser users back the only way would be to make Poser free remove the activation just like Daz has done it, to get the users interest back.

Give Bondware a break, Gate. They've owned Poser for all of three months, and they've worked as hard as they can to remedy the problems users are having. Any user worth having as a customer should realize that.

I'm sorry, but the update IS free. Not only to Poser 11 users, but to PP2014GD users.

Everyone who owned Poser 11 (standard AND Pro) got upgraded for FREE to Poser Pro 11.

Everyone who owned Poser 2014 Game Developer got upgraded to Poser Pro 11 for FREE.

People can be unhappy, but they have no complaint about paying for a FREE upgrade.

EClark1894 posted at 7:52PM Thu, 03 October 2019 - #4365658

Give Bondware a break, Gate. They've owned Poser for all of three months, and they've worked as hard as they can to remedy the problems users are having. Any user worth having as a customer should realize that.

Guess I should LOL .... I am a long term user and from what I see I am Just getting worried .... I made years ago a decision to support Poser and make exclusive stuff for it as I beleive in this Application " It is a great Program " so would be sad if it fails . Actually I started off with True Space and it brought me to Poser as they built in a Plugin for it at the time.

So I sure wish that they get is Handled as many Artists depend on it. For me it is not Income related as I do not depend on it , but might be for other great Artists ! The statistics of the past weeks show a downgrade and I hope it is not a Permanent thing LOL

I guess I will support Poser all the way as long as it exists no matter who is in charge and no matter how many are left because I believe in this Program so I hope that the new developers think the same way and make the best out of it ....

Ill keep my self out for now Do not wanna make it more of a Drama as it already is so will give it a little more time and hope that there will be allot new People that can find out how great it can be to use Poser for there art and dreams

Psych2 posted at 9:16PM Thu, 03 October 2019 - #4365613

Regarding using a non-word processor text editor for editing my Library, I don't have such an editor or the knowledge how to use one. I'm in my mid 60s and not at the leading edge of computer technology.

Day-by-day I sent a prayer for having started on PC's with good old DOS. So I'm able to work with directories, filenames and paths and much more of this "outdated" stuff. In my opinion great lots of trouble in threads like this are based on people thinking that PC's have to operate like paper and pen but forget that they all even had to learn work with paper and pen ... long ago around 5-7 year of age. Not you only or especially. And you are right the trouble like this is coming from software industry but not Bondware. It's Microsoft or Apple or else who made the customers think all will work alone and no learning necessary any more (Think back to that God-damned MS-Advertizement spot about the lonely guy who promised his customer via phone to set up a complete team for working but only did some clicks with Excel ... I really was rolling on the floor but not laughing. I was crying cause knowing what crazy dreams of customers would ruin for example my days developing software.

But to your above problem: A word-processor is something like MS Word, text programs which write their own structured contens into a file. That can Poser or other software not read. What is needed is a plain ascii-text file and therefor a simple text editor. There are some very nice and helpful in even freeware but for your purpose to write your library PATHS back into the file Poser is looking into the most simple windows notepad will do that job and I guess you know that small program. It's installed by windows by standard incl. help hints. No big learning curve believe me ... cause also my 60s are vanishing in the history part by part ...

Psych2 posted at 1:16PM Thu, 03 October 2019 - #4365555

But I have a separate Runtime for each of the hundreds of items in my content folder.

Not to be rude, and dude - you do you, but I really have to know...

...why hundreds of Runtime folders, one for each product?

(...am I reading that correctly?)

That's how I'm reading it as well. I suspect Psych2 just took the Runtime folder as a whole from each of the zip files, and that's what he's using, rather than moving the contents of each Runtime folder in the zip files, and distributing it into the main Runtime in Poser, or at least only one Runtime on another drive. That would've made all that content easily accessible by adding THAT Runtime in the Poser Library.

I have maybe 90 runtimes, and I thought that was a lot.

It dates from the days when Poser couldn't show everything if you had too many items on one folder. Plus I just find it convenient. I have stuff sorted by figure (V3, V4, Dawn, LaFemme, etc.), and by genre (SF, horror, toon, contemporary). I also have some runtimes devoted to particular themes - either stuff I do a lot, or stuff I needed for a particular project (Star Trek, politics, sports, for example).

I usually have less than 20 loaded at a time, though. That's kind of the point of multiple runtimes: I don't have to look through everything when I want something.

A different runtime for each item seems excessive.

I totally get sorting by figure... I do that nowadays on the Poser side. I do have an ancient catch-all runtime that predates V4 though, a 3rd-Party runtime for stuff that isn't a specific DAZ figure (mostly a megaton of Japanese bits), one for V4, one for the Aikos (2, 3), and then there's one tucked into my DAZ3D directory structure for props-only.

Weird part is, I have one gigantor DS directory structure, mostly because it's way easier to organize.

I have 3 Runtimes, but that's because each belongs to a different piece of software. One for PP11, one for my old P9, and one for my even old DS3A, which is where all my legacy generation 4 characters and such are located.

As far as sorting stuff by figure, yes I do that too, but I don't see the benefit of having separate Runtimes for each character.

Then again, I've been using the External Library in my browser, which is a huge improvement in several ways, including being able to see at least 6 nice sized thumbnails across each line. I remember back in the days of P5, it was awful trying to find something in a folder full of items.

I have 2 Runtimes on my laptop, and that's because one of them belongs to Poser 2014, which is still running, btw. Not Game Dev, 2014.The other belongs to Poser 11.

I have four runtimes. One runtime is made specifically for a crowd generator and has 2 items in it so really it's like 3.2. I also have an empty runtime called downloads. I should remove it but it's legacy and I'm sentimental.

I have several runtimes - clothes, morphs, poses, robots etc all on an external drive; this way I can use them either with my laptop or with my iMac. I prefer this to having everything on both machines taking up room; and the external drive fits in my hand.

I use textEdit (Mac) for editing and for writing html.

structure posted at 1:46AM Fri, 04 October 2019 - #4365634

Seriously, you cannot expect a new company to Follow the licence terms the old company set because they were not the new companies terms., Bondware have been doing their absolute best to minimize the loss of functionality for ALL users, which I am sure you can appreciate, given the thousands of different setups, preferences etc. Is not entirely possible.

Actually, you can expect the new company to follow the old company's license terms. There's an implied contract to do so when they bought the product. Regardless of that, it would have been a good business move to do so. This transition is not going very smoothly for a lot of people and as more people discover that they can't use the software that they bought from Smith Micro, that number is going to grow, unless Bondware is willing to make people whole in some fashion satisfactory to those people. If they can get their act together quickly and deliver a superior product without piling on additional problems, these people probably won't cause a lot of trouble, but as the current owner of the intellectual property of Poser, Bondware won't be able to stay out of court even if people sue Smith Micro over this. I hope Bondware can do this, but I think they've made quite a few unforced errors already.

HKHan99 posted at 5:15AM Fri, 04 October 2019 - #4365801

structure posted at 1:46AM Fri, 04 October 2019 - #4365634

Seriously, you cannot expect a new company to Follow the licence terms the old company set because they were not the new companies terms., Bondware have been doing their absolute best to minimize the loss of functionality for ALL users, which I am sure you can appreciate, given the thousands of different setups, preferences etc. Is not entirely possible.

Actually, you can expect the new company to follow the old company's license terms. There's an implied contract to do so when they bought the product. Regardless of that, it would have been a good business move to do so. This transition is not going very smoothly for a lot of people and as more people discover that they can't use the software that they bought from Smith Micro, that number is going to grow, unless Bondware is willing to make people whole in some fashion satisfactory to those people. If they can get their act together quickly and deliver a superior product without piling on additional problems, these people probably won't cause a lot of trouble, but as the current owner of the intellectual property of Poser, Bondware won't be able to stay out of court even if people sue Smith Micro over this. I hope Bondware can do this, but I think they've made quite a few unforced errors already.

Actually, Bondware's best business move would have been to extend all the licenses to lifetime as previous versions are. Hopefully, they return to past practice going forward, or I probably won't be going forward with them. I was unemployed for almost a couple of years with no internet access for Poser. As it was, I bought Poser 2014 through my local library. Still, I didn't have internet for almost two years on my home machine. If their phone home license had been in place then, all my previous versions of Poser would probably be dead.

EClark1894 posted at 6:50AM Fri, 04 October 2019 - #4365808

Actually, Bondware's best business move would have been to extend all the licenses to lifetime as previous versions are. Hopefully, they return to past practice going forward, or I probably won't be going forward with them. I was unemployed for almost a couple of years with no internet access for Poser. As it was, I bought Poser 2014 through my local library. Still, I didn't have internet for almost two years on my home machine. If their phone home license had been in place then, all my previous versions of Poser would probably be dead.

I agree with this. I don't think it really does much to stop piracy, and it's a pain for a lot of legit customers.

Bondware have offered a solution for extended licences. I am sure they will take into account the circumstances of anyone applying for one.

structure posted at 1:30PM Fri, 04 October 2019 - #4365819

Bondware have offered a solution for extended licences. I am sure they will take into account the circumstances of anyone applying for one.

There's a very real chance, I'll be losing my internet connection within the next week or two. I've contacted Bondware and told them my circumstances. They were gracious enough to give me a license extension since I can't say when I'll get my internet back. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful that they were willing to work with me, but I still feel as if I shouldn't HAVE to ask them. I f I lose my internet for any significant length of time, I can't create anything in Poser.

EClark1894 posted at 1:13PM Fri, 04 October 2019 - #4365862

There's a very real chance, I'll be losing my internet connection within the next week or two. I've contacted Bondware and told them my circumstances. They were gracious enough to give me a license extension since I can't say when I'll get my internet back. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful that they were willing to work with me, but I still feel as if I shouldn't HAVE to ask them. I f I lose my internet for any significant length of time, I can't create anything in Poser.

Agreed, big-time. I get it - piracy sucks. But seriously, this is actually dumber than the C-DILLA/dongle garbage I dealt with years ago for other app suites - and they all get cracked within a week anyway, so, well... what's the point again?

(I figure that the whole Darwinian trusting-random-pirated-software-on-your-box thing would be enough to keep idiots away from pirating the thing. I mean, if you ever wanted an easy way to install malware/ransomware on a lot of machines...)

randym77 posted at 3:57PM Fri, 04 October 2019 - #4365816

EClark1894 posted at 6:50AM Fri, 04 October 2019 - #4365808

Actually, Bondware's best business move would have been to extend all the licenses to lifetime as previous versions are. Hopefully, they return to past practice going forward, or I probably won't be going forward with them. I was unemployed for almost a couple of years with no internet access for Poser. As it was, I bought Poser 2014 through my local library. Still, I didn't have internet for almost two years on my home machine. If their phone home license had been in place then, all my previous versions of Poser would probably be dead.

I agree with this. I don't think it really does much to stop piracy, and it's a pain for a lot of legit customers.

I agree also. That would have been best, but a MINIMUM would be respecting the existing license structure and supporting it.

I expect that to continue using the existing license structure would have involved Bondware paying a fee to SM. (I seem to remember that the first time it was explained that the SM system was going to be ended it referred to SM's 3rd party licence system, so perhaps SM pays for this as well, but that might be completely wrong) On that basis you can see why BW would want to change to their own system. Yes, it's been a bit annoying for some but additional costs are always eventually passed on to the users, so perhaps it for the best.

I havent read through this mess so mostly just responding to the title of the thread.

Bondware did not ruin your poser installation.
Your poser installation ceased to function because Smith micro ceased supporting it.

Bondware has attempted to fix this broken installation with varying degrees of success. In addition they have given many many users a free upgrade to a significantly more capable app not to mention some very very nice free content.

It would be decent of the children that keep filling the forum to with their silly tantrums to remember this. Maybe even act with just a touch of common sense and decorum as they try to resolve the issues that pop up... Just a thought..

Also regarding the 'phone home' aspect. I feel that if people havent already set their smith micro install to permanent then they were fine with it before so i dont really get the beef now. If they had already done so then they had no need to upgrade in the first place.

Penguinisto posted at 8:26PM Fri, 04 October 2019 - #4365901

Agreed, big-time. I get it - piracy sucks. But seriously, this is actually dumber than the C-DILLA/dongle garbage I dealt with years ago for other app suites - and they all get cracked within a week anyway, so, well... what's the point again?

(I figure that the whole Darwinian trusting-random-pirated-software-on-your-box thing would be enough to keep idiots away from pirating the thing. I mean, if you ever wanted an easy way to install malware/ransomware on a lot of machines...)

I am learning to speak Penguin

Definition Notebook : The C-Dilla License Management System is the Stand-alone License Manager (SLM): a 3ds max 4 and 3ds max 5 system component used to validate your license.

Some people don't know by pirating they are hurting themselves. I think a lot of them see the light and buy their software and add-ons legitimately after that.
By the way. I can understand people installing ransomware. After all, some people are just dirt. But a virus that wipes out someone's machine? The a-h*le who installed the virus will never know; so why?

I now return you to your thread.

EClark1894 posted at 9:29AM Sun, 06 October 2019 - #4365658

Give Bondware a break, Gate. They've owned Poser for all of three months, and they've worked as hard as they can to remedy the problems users are having. Any user worth having as a customer should realize that.

This is the only reason I'm not upset. Do I wish things could be better? Of course, but I understand that this is a transitional phase. It's only normal to have some unpleasant issues pop up. It's not like they want to hear everyone complain lol. I'm also sure they didn't take over for the purpose of failing. I'm actually looking forward to the change. Poser has changed many hands during it's existence and each hand over made Poser better.

Given the preceding explanations of LibraryPrefs.xml backups and restoration, I will not reiterate that. Having a preserved version of ones preferences is always important, but can get lost in the excitement of a software update.

On the subject of how many is too many runtimes, I can only state that it would be hugely painful to have to manually reattach 100 runtimes, let alone the file I was recently shown containing >4000 runtimes!!!!! Copying LibraryPrefs.xml from its backup location to the current prefs location is certainly the way to go in that case.