Why Am I A Cloud

[Sally Hurricane]

I've went through all the options when you fail to bake. Relogged, uninstalled, cleared cache and now when my friend logs in as me, she doesnt load on my account either! I've tried logging into an alt and I load fine then so it isn't an Internet issue. What do I do?

[Rolig Loon]

Re-installing and clearing cache are more likely to create problems like this than solve them. Both are last-ditch emergency actions that you should not need unless you have had a serious inventory loss.  Your account is taking too long to log in, so it never completes the process before the system times out. The cause is often a flat inventory structure.  When you log in, the servers need to upload an image of your inventory to your viewer to refresh its cache. The more items you have in a single inventory folder, the longer that takes. So, the solution is to restructure your inventory to have many small subfolders instead of cramming a lot of things into a few large folders.  The reason your alt is not having trouble is that she doesn't own as much stuff yet.

[LittleMe Jewell]

You can open a support ticket with LL or use Live Chat if you are Premium.  Tell them that you think you have a flat inventory problem -- they have tools they can use to fix your inventory if that is the problem.

In the future, as Rolig says, be sure to have many levels in your inventory with no single folder having many hundreds of items in it.

Create a Support Ticket:  https://support.secondlife.com/create-case/

Start Live Chat:  https://support.secondlife.com/start-chat/
  Live Chat is available 5am to 3pm PST every day.

 

[Lindal Kidd]

Rolig's suggestion of restructuring your inventory is a good one.  If you cannot log in at all to do that, and you are a Premium member, filing a support ticket with Linden Lab will do the trick.

If you don't think it's your inventory, another problem could be that your avatar is wearing an item that is corrupted.  Change to one of the starter avatars in your inventory.  If that fixes the problem, then try putting on your regular things, one at a time.  If one of them causes you to be a cloud, then that's the problem.

Edited November 13, 2017 by Lindal Kidd

[Nalates Urriah]

When an avatar cannot render, the viewer displays them as a particle cloud. Failing to render can be an inventory or connection problem. In either case there is something in the avatar's appearance that the viewer cannot render because it does not have needed information.

The troubleshooting steps are simple enough. Teleport/walk to a an empty and deserted region (Furball) and once there relog coming back to Last Location. Then change to the Test Male/Female avatar, Roth/Ruth. Do that by clicking the top menu item Develop (top menu item - if not visible press Ctrl-Alt-D)->Avatar->Character Tests->[Test Male/Test Female].

This change will replace your outfit and switch to your viewer's built in default avatar and appearance settings. Anything that is preventing your avatar from rendering should be removed in this process. If you are not rendering, relog again. Next login (Last Location to empty region) you should see the default avatar. If not, you need support's help. Explain what you have done and how the problem remains.

When you do see the default avatar, you can go in search of the problem or put on one of your other Outfits. If you go in search, put the previous clothes back one one item at a time and wait for it to render. Continue until you have your original appearance restored. You should find the problem item in this process. However... the problem could be a system glitch that has cleared while you were doing all this. If so, move on.

But, if you find a problem item, I suggest you trash the problem item.