No Character Detected for Character Converter

I imported the metadata and this seemed to fix the problem, but this was all guesswork, there is nothing in the documentation.

Let's start witha disclaimer - I am no expert on metadata, I don't use it on a regular basis, I only imported it in this case to see if it was what was needed to make the converter work.

Click on the "Content Library" tab to make it the current tab then click on the menu drop-down (the four horizontal lines at the top right of the tab). Select Content DB Maintenance from the menu. A dialog comes up with check boxes. Check the "Process Metadata Queue" and "Reimport Metadata" options and hit "Accept". (I think stricty you only need one of the options, but I don't understand the difference, so let's play safe). Another dialog comes up with a long list of products, but just check "All Products", then hit "Accept" on this dialog. Daz then does its thing.

Now, you mention "I have ... moved around item and folders many times". If you have moved characters so the files are not in the location that the metadata file expects, thye will be ignored. If, for example, you have followed eelgoo's approach and put each vendor's products in a seperate folder, this would be enough to break the metadata. That said, you might get lucky and at least some of your characters might still be in the vendor-expected location.

If the import doesn't work (or only partially works), I expect the converter won't work (if my theory that metadata is needed to drive the converter). That said, even this is a step forward )in a prverse kind of way). At least you know you probably don't need to spend any more time trying to figure out how to make the converter work

I think your plan makes sense, and I think I have to agree with your "maybe" unfortunately. Let's hope it works, this tool could be so useful ...