when i click on the surfaces tab then presets and select iray, then select !Iray Uber Base, i get a pop up saying "would i like to save changes to the current scene before closing it?",i click no, as i don't want to close it, and another pop up appears with "could not open file :/Shader Presets/Iray/DAZ Uber/!Iray Uber Base.duf file does not exist, But the file does exist and in that location. i have no idea if this is a bug of a faulty meta data (hate the meta data system, its aweful if you want to upgrade), Anyone know of how to fix this? without reinstalling daz studio and 500gb's of content, which i'm unwilling to do.

Noticed that all the shaders in the uber base folder do the same, as well as all the files in the Iray folder, i have no idea why this has decided to do this, i really hate the "smart content" on ds, it makes upgrading to a new machine a complete pain (Btw i upgraded over a year ago, it was a pain to fix then, and it's a pain to fix now)

This does sound like an issue with the Content Management Service. How did you install the content?

I originally installed it over two years ago, then did an upgrade and did another install just over a year ago, but when i last loaded up ds it went through the meta data (can't remember exactly what it said) im guessing there might have been an update that kicked in the content management.

After a little testing i've noticed some odd behavior, if i try to load the shader via the presets in the surfaces tab or from the content menu i get the errors i have explained above, but if i copy the Daz Uber and place the copy at anywhere else in my content tree, the shaders in that folder work, even though the originals still don't, not only that i have noticed that the folder has changed it's name at some point and used to be called Iray Uber not Daz Uber, i have no idea when this changed, or if this is new and the cause of the issue? can anyone check this?

When you make the copy of the file you break its links to the Content Management System - it's just any DS native file, with no metadata. It isn't solving the issue - you may well find other problems that have the same underlying cause - just jumping over it for now.

im essentially avoiding the links that are in the content management system, and the links are broken, i don't know if this a fault in an update or something else, as nothing has changed otherwise with ds, unless its the hd going, which is a possibility considering its now 11 years old..... better start backing up stuff again,,,

Which HD went? The boot drive? Did you restore from as back up? That can cause folder permission issues.

None of my Hard drives are going as yet and none have gone, and i don't put anything on the boot drive except windows, i used 3 other hard drives for programs and content. im no closer to finding out why daz had a "burp" and decided to break all the links, im just going to have to live with it, as im not re-installing everything with the daz install manager, as i have moved everything to where i think its logical, so thats a big NO, lol. just wish they would dump this rubbish content system as putting daz on a new system, or if anything happens (as in my case), is just a Mega pain. just wish it looked at the folders like i do and sorted it self out, must admit posers content is damn site easier to sort out, even though daz is a better program. perhaps they might address this massive oversite and fix this.