Question Why doesn't FBX automatically list new animations when re-importing?

Let's say I bring an FBX into my project, and it has some animations on it. If I later update the FBX, and include additional animations, these do not automatically show up on the FBX in Unity. Instead, I need to go to the model's Animation tab, scroll down to "Clips", and manually select the Source Takes that are new.

Why doesn't Unity do this automatically? Is there a setting to manage this? I can kind of understand why perhaps it's not automatic (maybe you've manually deleted an animation, you don't want it re-importing), but is there perhaps a way to force a proper reimport?

 

When you update an FBX file, Unity won't overwrite existing animations to prevent accidental data loss. To include new animations, you need to manually select the Source Takes in the Animation tab. While there isn't a specific setting to automate this, you can force a proper reimport by deleting the model from the project and then reimporting the updated FBX.

 

Yeah, though that's not great because anything referencing the existing animations will lose the reference to them.

I'll just list this among the "It's probably on a big deal if you don't understand how it works" list. I initially thought something was seriously broken, because my FBX wouldn't update to show new animations. It's a bit confusing until you stumble upon the answer.