Missing Prefabs with freshly downloaded project. (Windows)

Hey there!

Checked through the forum and didn't see anything about this one.

This has happened twice now, on two new machines that have not had the project on it, when pulling down from the cloud, all the prefabs are broken throughout the project and a few other goofy things.

Seems to only happen on windows machines?

I have tried forcing Unity to reimport all the assets, I have tried copying the project over via USB from a computer with a working copy, I have tried deleting everything except the assets folder, and none of it seems to repair the missing prefab links.

If anyone has suggestions, please let me know!

 

Hi there,

Sorry to hear that you're running into these issues. Before we try to figure out what went wrong I was hoping I could get some more details from you.

Could you go into more detail on how exactly the prefabs are broken? Is it just that the objects in the scene are no longer linked to their prefabs? And what are the other "goofy" things that you're seeing? Lastly, could you submit a bug using the Unity bug reporter? All of that will help us to get you out of this jam.

 

Probably won't have time for the bug report since we are at a con demoing atm, but when we load any scene if there was a prefab present it would just say "Missing Prefab" in red. The other goofy things I would say are probably related to prefabs missing in our game, our generator will start building tracks and continue to delete them over and over again for no apparent reason. Hard to explain exactly what is going on, but it shouldn't be doing that for sure. Haha.

 

I understand. I hope the demo went well. Submit a bug whenever you're able.

I'm afraid that the only way to fix the broken prefab links is to reset them manually. There are a few reasons why broken prefabs can happen. It's difficult to narrow down the exact cause this time without looking at the project itself and trying to repro the bug. But since you said that you were still seeing the broken prefabs even after you copied the project over via a flash drive then it doesn't sound like this problem is related to Collab. Until you send in that bug report, all I can recommend is to review our video on prefabs here, along with the related documentation.

You mentioned earlier that the prefab links seemed to be broken only on Windows machines. Were you able to download the project from the cloud onto other Mac devices without any issues?

 

Yeah, so far all of our mac computer's haven't experienced this issue. It has happened twice now with Windows however. I've got a few other bugs to report, but it is difficult to create a small version of the project for some of these bugs because it does not happen reliably..

 

That's interesting. This definitely sounds like something worth looking into. Unreliable bugs are the worst so I know how you feel. Try to see if you can replicate the broken prefabs bug first with a small project and we'll go from there.

 

This is happening to me in Unity 5.4.3.f1 from a Windows 7 64-bit project going to a Mac (El Capitan 10.11.6), using git repositories for transfer. Several critical objects are "Missing Prefab" in the scene hierarchy.
I tried deleting the Library folder and re-opening the project, same result.
Solution in my case:
Came across this answer at http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/278326/missing-prefab.html
"For anyone getting this error after recreating a project from a git repository - make sure the repo has all its .meta files checked in or prefab references can be lost. Contact the creator of the project (or tap yourself on the shoulder if you did it) and tell them to check everything into the repo, then resync your project and watch the errors fade away! Otherwise see the other answers."
Sure enough, my .ignore file had a *.meta filter for some reason (it was auto generated by my git client).

 

I had the same problem and I found the solution !

One computer used blender for some files. The other computer doesn't have blender, then unity don't recognize theses files and can't make prefab who use them.

You have to install blender on the new computer, delete your project and reimport all.

 

This did it for me. Thank you so much.

 

+1, this also works for me. Thanks.

 

Same here! After installing Blender I just right-clicked and selected re-import all and after that it worked!

 

Great fix! Worked wonders!

 

I know it's already August but is this issue fixed already? Because in my case, we used a photo rendered from Blender and used it in a project as background.

 

I'm having the same problem, but I'm not using Blender nor Git repositories, so... I don't know what to do

 

We hit the same problem as well, did you find any solution for it?

 

Same here. It appears that collaborate breaks all prefabs. In the project window, every prefab shows "missing", so every reference to a prefab breaks. My only theory is that it's a problem with different unity versions? Because in my case, one of the computers uses unity 2018.1, and the other 2018.2.

 

i'm having the same problem. after i imported post process package then reopened project it show missing. Please fix it

 

Same issue ^. (Seeing a 'Missing' on the prefabs in the editor inspector and can't drag drop them into the scene)

Nothing to do with Blender though since I used 3DS Max to create my assets and imported as .fbx

I suspect mine happened after I transferred my project from one Mac to another. Both Macs use MacOs HighSierra. I believe Unity versions are also the same (not super sure though I'll check back home)

 

I and my team are facing the same issue as well in few windows machines, they are working properly and in some, they are missing. Were you guys able to solve the issue ?

 

Not yet. this is rather pathetic unity. I hope you can fix this soon.

 

I am having the same problem when importing to a new windows machine (windows 10).

I first tried to copy over the project by git. When this didn't work because of the missing prefabs I tried just copying over the entire unity folder via USB. Both methods have not worked.

The unity versions are different and I am prompted to upgrade everything to the latest version after transfer. The library is reimported (or seems to do some loading). When I open the scenes my prefabs are missing inside the scene. Many prefabs also can't be dragged into the scene or a new scene. This is rather frustrating. Keeping the meta files did not solve the problem for me.

I will try having both set ups have the same version of unity before moving things over to see if that makes a difference.

If I can't get this to work I will have to just keep working on the old computer since I am not able to transfer my project successfully.

------------ My Solution -------------------

I was able to fix this by updating the original Unity Client I was copying from, to the latest version, and the Unity version on the target computer to the latest version. Then copying over everything including libraries. It seems to be that reimporting the libraries is somehow breaking the prefabs. I was able to get my project working again by doing this.

 

Sorry for the lack of response on this issue. We're still trying to find a consistent repro for the missing prefabs. Are any of you able to repro the missing prefabs with a small sample project or with an asset from the Asset Store? Have any of you tried using the 2018.3 beta yet to see if the issue still repros for you?

 

I don't know the exact reproduction steps since it is happening to me no matter what I do between these 2 computer, but here is an image of what the missing prefab looks like in the inspector.

 

Having the same issue here. Just downloaded the project on a new computer and got the same problem

 

I'd just like to add I've got the same issue. I currently don't have access to my computer which I do all my dev on, so I can't test if I uploaded it improperly, however it does seem that many of the prefabs are missing from the prefabs folder. I can try and submit a bug report or something when I get back (a few weeks).

 

Why the thread is marked as solved?

I'm using git repository and sometimes an user edits a prefab, I don't know why Unity updates the GUID in the meta file, but the scenes that refereces this prefab are not updated. Then the user commits the file and this prefab's reference is missing in the scene files. Even in the machine of the person who changed the prefab, the references are missing, seems like Unity does not update the scene file when the GUID are changed.

I think GUID was not supossed to change. In my project I add a Temp folder so the artistis can add some artwork files before commiting to the repository. Meta files are created to those files, but they are no sent to the repository. Maybe it could provoked a GUID conflict.

What do you think?

All users are using Windows 10 and Unity 2018.2.8f1.

 

Will test to see if this problem persists with 2018.3.

 

I've been following this thread for a while and wanted to update anyone who might be in my situation.

I've been committing changes to a private GitHub repo on my primary computer (Windows machine). I wanted to build my game for Mac OS so I setup a new Mac and pulled the project files from the repo.

This all seemed to work fine, however when loading Unity it showed hundreds of errors, most of which were about missing metadata. I thought maybe I wasn't committing the right files when I pushed.

All of my prefabs contain Blender models. All of these connections were broken (missing model when viewing prefab). I took the advice on here and downloaded Blender also. After re-importing the solution and re-loading the game, it all works just fine.

If you're using Blender to generate the models and you've dragged them into the solution (instead of exporting them as FXB) then you also need Blender to run. There's no warning about this and without this thread I would have been stuffed.

Hopefully this helps someone.

 

So, for my case this happens whenever I am cloning a repo via git.


From what I understand the Unity Project needs

.meta

files to handle the prefabs correctly. So that should mean in the

.gitignore

file there should be no mention of

.meta

files. Is that correct? But the other software (e.g. Visual Studio) could also generate

.meta

files which should be not committed. So, how should a

.gitignore

file look like for Unity?

This is the

.gitignore

for Unity provided from Github itself which includes

.meta

files. What adjustments should we make here?

Thanks in advance.

 

I had a similar issue : missing prefabs in the scene (and prefabs themselves are broken)
Cause of issue : different versions of Unity (The new prefab system is not backwards compatible)

 

you just saved me a lot of time. Thank you

 

For my:
- Configure the .gitignore for unity with the .meta of the assets.
https://github.com/github/gitignore/blob/master/Unity.gitignore
- Push to git with the news elements.
- Clone or pull the latest commit.

 

super tips thank you, you saved my time.

 

Faced with this issue too. Transferred project by Git from Win to macOS. Unity 2019.2.0f1 (Win) and 2019.2.2f1 (macOS).

I have no idea what to do. The installation of the Blender doesn't help. The image shows an Editor's console logs.

UPD
Prefab marks with white font color and has an icon of a blank file (instead of a blue cube)

 

After a half of an hour, I found a solution which works for me:
1) Go to the machine where the project is working (in my case it is Windows).
1) Duplicate the prefab on the scene in the Hierarchy.
2) Unpack prefab completely by right-click on prefab and choose the needed option.
3) Rename the unpacked prefab and move to Prefabs folder
4) Commit and push changes in source controls tool to the repo
5) Go to the machine with the "broken" project
6) Discard old changes (if you have)
7) Pull new changes.
8) Delete broken prefab in the Prefabs folder and replace broken gameobjects in the scene with the new one.

Hope it will help someone.

 

My project was working fine yesterday, this morning some of my nested prefabs have this "Missing Prefab" issue.

I don't use blender and my git repo has all the .meta files.

I've tried restarting Unity (version 2019.1.10f1 Personal), reverting to a previous place with git and restarting Windows.

Now I guess I sit down and fix all my prefabs, and hope that this issue doesn't happen again.

 

We have been getting this on our project quite a bit. I'm on Unity 2019.2.17f1 Personal. Here's our ticket for it: https://github.com/unitystation/unitystation/issues/2551

Here's what my project looks like when it happens.

Here's one of our assets that says it has a missing reference to a prefab:


Here's the asset itself as it exists on my local - StandardSmallBoxPopulator.asset:

Code (JavaScript):

1. %YAML 1.1
2. %TAG !u! tag:unity3d.com,2011:
3. --- !u!114 &11400000
4. MonoBehaviour:
5.   m_ObjectHideFlags: 0
6.   m_CorrespondingSourceObject: {fileID: 0}
7.   m_PrefabInstance: {fileID: 0}
8.   m_PrefabAsset: {fileID: 0}
9.   m_GameObject: {fileID: 0}
10.   m_Enabled: 1
11.   m_EditorHideFlags: 0
12.   m_Script: {fileID: 11500000, guid: 4dcdd86e87cc447d94b99df8b1a383b3, type: 3}
13.   m_Name: StandardSmallBoxPopulator
14.   m_EditorClassIdentifier:
15.   Contents:
16.   - {fileID: 6404652678407139925, guid: dce8e376d2eca40eabe3f055b41a021c, type: 3}
17.   - {fileID: 1277678737481138, guid: f99902d04c3b1fe47b0e4e4ec36b7971, type: 3}
18.   SlotPopulators: []
19.   MergeMode: 0

Line 16 has the supposedly missing reference.

And here's the .meta file of the prefab it's referencing that it says is "missing" (BreathMask.prefab.meta)

Code (JavaScript):

1. fileFormatVersion: 2
2. guid: dce8e376d2eca40eabe3f055b41a021c
3. PrefabImporter:
4.   externalObjects: {}
5.   userData:
6.   assetBundleName:
7.   assetBundleVariant:
8.  

And here's the full BreathMask.prefab itself:

Code (csharp):

1. %YAML 1.1
2. %TAG !u! tag:unity3d.com,2011:
3. --- !u!1001 &3573969270142637268
4. PrefabInstance:
5.   m_ObjectHideFlags: 0
6.   serializedVersion: 2
7.   m_Modification:
8.     m_TransformParent: {fileID: 0}
9.     m_Modifications:
10.     - target: {fileID: 3532393564309681412, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0,
11.         type: 3}
12.       propertyPath: clothData
13.       value:
14.       objectReference: {fileID: 11400000, guid: 7396b9308d8284df280e4b2036e0a90d,
15.         type: 2}
16.     - target: {fileID: 7557917173024864117, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0,
17.         type: 3}
18.       propertyPath: Resistances.Flammable
19.       value: 1
20.       objectReference: {fileID: 0}
21.     - target: {fileID: 7560587375320734517, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0,
22.         type: 3}
23.       propertyPath: m_AssetId
24.       value:
25.       objectReference: {fileID: 0}
26.     - target: {fileID: 7596215297033493493, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0,
27.         type: 3}
28.       propertyPath: m_LocalPosition.x
29.       value: 0
30.       objectReference: {fileID: 0}
31.     - target: {fileID: 7596215297033493493, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0,
32.         type: 3}
33.       propertyPath: m_LocalPosition.y
34.       value: 0
35.       objectReference: {fileID: 0}
36.     - target: {fileID: 7596215297033493493, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0,
37.         type: 3}
38.       propertyPath: m_LocalPosition.z
39.       value: 0
40.       objectReference: {fileID: 0}
41.     - target: {fileID: 7596215297033493493, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0,
42.         type: 3}
43.       propertyPath: m_LocalRotation.x
44.       value: -0
45.       objectReference: {fileID: 0}
46.     - target: {fileID: 7596215297033493493, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0,
47.         type: 3}
48.       propertyPath: m_LocalRotation.y
49.       value: -0
50.       objectReference: {fileID: 0}
51.     - target: {fileID: 7596215297033493493, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0,
52.         type: 3}
53.       propertyPath: m_LocalRotation.z
54.       value: -0
55.       objectReference: {fileID: 0}
56.     - target: {fileID: 7596215297033493493, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0,
57.         type: 3}
58.       propertyPath: m_LocalRotation.w
59.       value: 1
60.       objectReference: {fileID: 0}
61.     - target: {fileID: 7596215297033493493, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0,
62.         type: 3}
63.       propertyPath: m_RootOrder
64.       value: 0
65.       objectReference: {fileID: 0}
66.     - target: {fileID: 7596215297033493493, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0,
67.         type: 3}
68.       propertyPath: m_LocalEulerAnglesHint.x
69.       value: 0
70.       objectReference: {fileID: 0}
71.     - target: {fileID: 7596215297033493493, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0,
72.         type: 3}
73.       propertyPath: m_LocalEulerAnglesHint.y
74.       value: 0
75.       objectReference: {fileID: 0}
76.     - target: {fileID: 7596215297033493493, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0,
77.         type: 3}
78.       propertyPath: m_LocalEulerAnglesHint.z
79.       value: 0
80.       objectReference: {fileID: 0}
81.     - target: {fileID: 7600017545650087553, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0,
82.         type: 3}
83.       propertyPath: m_Name
84.       value: BreathMask
85.       objectReference: {fileID: 0}
86.     - target: {fileID: 7600017545650087553, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0,
87.         type: 3}
88.       propertyPath: m_TagString
89.       value: Clothing
90.       objectReference: {fileID: 0}
91.     - target: {fileID: 7748823779942372829, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0,
92.         type: 3}
93.       propertyPath: m_Sprite
94.       value:
95.       objectReference: {fileID: 21300000, guid: 0a269903f7997d34497305b2b54fe2f0,
96.         type: 3}
97.     - target: {fileID: 8040391005062056419, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0,
98.         type: 3}
99.       propertyPath: initialName
100.       value: breath mask
101.       objectReference: {fileID: 0}
102.     - target: {fileID: 8040391005062056419, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0,
103.         type: 3}
104.       propertyPath: initialDescription
105.       value: A close-fitting mask that can be connected to an air supply.
106.       objectReference: {fileID: 0}
107.     m_RemovedComponents: []
108.   m_SourcePrefab: {fileID: 100100000, guid: 05a135eab68164d34bb02b82fff3cde0, type: 3}
109.  

So, the guid seems correct, why is Unity telling me it's missing? In the game it behaves as if that missing reference is just null.
This is fixed by doing a full reimport, but this is quite a time sink as it takes like 40 minutes.

EDIT: Added the prefab YML as well. Is it possibly the fileID reference that is wrong?
EDIT2:
So I closed unity, did a git reset --hard, reopened, then when I open the StandardSmallBoxPopulator asset in editor the reference is no longer shown as missing. I checked and saw that the file contents I pasted above were still all the same. Then I created a standalone build. After the build was done, I got the "importing..." progress bar, all of my prefab assets showed as modified by git, and this issue reappeared. It was only the prefabs that were showing as modified. This particular asset, BreathMask.prefab, only differs by line separators according to git.
EDIT3:
And the key difference I noticed between the assets that this happens to and the ones it doesn't happen to is, the ones it happens to are prefab variants. The ones it doesn't happen to are just normal prefabs.

 

Maybe you all solved it by now, but here is my take on this issue.
Before I start, please, take into account two things:
1. I literally just started using unity, exactly 3,5 weeks ago,
2. English is not my first language, so sorry of errors that might occur.

I imported project (Create with Code - Summer 2020; Week 3) and 3 of the "Obstacles" had "Missing Prefab (Dummy)" issue. I noticed that there are differences in "Inspector" of those objects. So:
1. I added "Mesh Filter" and in "Mesh" field I clicked on the little circle and selected corresponding mesh from the list,
2. I added "Mesh Renderer" and object appeared, but it was in magenta color, so,
3. I added material, and everything seems fine.

Hope this will help you all in your projects.

 

Still have this issue in 2021. Not using Blender. Just opened a template I bought on Asset Store and worked on it in Windows. Now moved to Mac, downloaded project from Unity Cloud and I got 10 missing prefabs. There is no way to debug this or get more information.

 

I am also having this issue - Unity Hub prompted me to download the version I last used, so I did so and launched it to see missing references, missing prefab errors. I didn't mind drag n dropping a few refences here and there but this would have been a huge problem had my project been larger.

Here is my repo for you to check, I was following a tutorial from GameDevHQ: https://github.com/catonice/UnityGameDevSpaceShooter

My prefabs that were missing were my laser prefabs inside of the triple shot. I used the gitignore provided above when I started my project. Now I'm worried about making prefabs in the future if I am going to rely on git to preserve my game files.

Example screenshot below:

 

thank you!

 

I have been experiencing this issue over the past week and my situation is a little different.

Unity version: 2019.4.9f1
Using Git
No blender
Meta files are not added to .gitignore

Missing prefab dummy shows up on instances of the prefab in my hierarchy, not the original prefab.

Now that the bases are covered!

The reason this is happening to me is because I keep switching branches with different states for these prefabs.

I've had to get out some hot fixes out, so I would switch to my master branch, create a hot fix branch, apply the changes, merge it all in then move back to my working branch.

All the "broken prefabs" were prefabs that I was modifying in my working branch and were unmodified on master.

When updating my branch with Master, after addressing the issues, I noticed some of these areas had missing prefabs as well. So I had to address similar issues when I switched branches back.

This issue is not consistently reproducible or I would submit a bug with steps.

I don't know if there is some cache that needs to be emptied when switching branches or some other thing that props it's head up. I also don't know if this has to do with the level of nested prefabs.

 

I fixed it for a friend we work together so the solution might help some people (and might help Unity resolve this for good).
You need access to the prefab working on another computer.

1. The files were identical (checked with git diff)
2. Re-importing those assets didn't help
3. Deleting them and re-importing them from a unitypackage made from the working copy did the trick.

So what we get from here is there is a slight difference in re-importing and deleting-and-importing-from-Unity-package.

 

Im having the same issue when using Collaborate and getting the project from someone, used the previous suggested fixes from this thread can't fix the issues, Unity 2020.3.18f

 

Hi to all
So I made a backup of my project and entire hdd using the windows 10 backup.
My project was made with unity 2019.4.0.f I installed the same version of 2019.4.0.f
When I imported the project everything was broken all prefabs scripts and my scenes are there but no scripts attached and all prefabs broken and missing
I noticed that my windows back has changed all the files by putting the date it was backed up next to each file of my unity backup
My project is huge so doing this over will cost me dearly
Please I need help
Is there anyone who knows a solution?

 

Tried to update my project from Unity 2018 to Unity 2020. Errors spamming the console and project broken, so I deleted the local project folder and redownloaded from cloud in Unity Hub. Then reopened with Unity 2018 and restored to a commit from the morning. Unfortunately, now many many objects with missing meshes, even though I can see the meshes in the project.