"A meta data file (.meta) exists but its asset can't be found."

The package manager started throwing these errors recently:

I get about 45 of them for the default package set in my project. They happen whenever the AssetDatabase refreshes (focusing the editor, entering playmode, compiling, etc.), so they’re really polluting the console window.

Also, Window > Package Manager is missing.

I tried:

  • Help > Reset package to defaults
  • Reimport all
  • Delete Library folder
  • Delete Packages folder

In various orders and combinations, to no avail.

What should I do now?

Running OSX and Unity 2018.4.2f1.

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Note: the path these warnings complain about seems to be wrong, like if the string parsing got confused.

For example:

Packages/com.unity.textmeshpro.1/package.json

Is not a valid package folder. It should be:

Packages/com.unity.textmeshpro@1.4.1/package.json

Hi @LazloBonin ,

You’re right, the path seems off. The message seems to say that Unity detected a “package.json.meta” file but it doesn’t find a “package.json” next to it.

The actual path should be “Packages/com.unity.textmeshpro/package.json”. The path you see seems to indicate that there is a package named “com.unity.textmeshpro.1” in the dependency graph. Can you please share your project manifest.json file?

Here! Looks pretty OK to me, as I said I used the reset to defaults menu entry.

4792247–457877–manifest.json.txt (1.56 KB)

@LazloBonin ,

Indeed, it’s pretty straight-forward and I see nothing wrong with it.

You could try deleting your global package cache, in case it contains corrupted packages. The cache will be rebuilt by the Unity Package Manager the next time it resolves your project dependencies and installs packages. It is located at $HOME/Library/Unity/cache on macOS. (See Unity - Manual: Global Cache for more info.)

Note: You may need to also delete your project’s cache, located at <project path>/Library/PackageCache, to force the Package Manager to rebuild the caches and re-install them in your project.

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Clearing the global package cache seems to have fixed it, thanks!

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Hi @maximeb_unity , seems I spoke too fast.

The error is back. I tried:

  • Updating to Unity 2018.4.9
  • Clearing the local package cache
  • Clearing the global package cache
  • Clearing the Library folder

To no avail.

The errors are similar, seemingly broken paths, like:

A meta data file (.meta) exists but its asset ‘Packages/com.unity.package-manager-ui.7/Third Party Notices.md’ can’t be found. When moving or deleting files outside of Unity, please ensure that the corresponding .meta file is moved or deleted along with it.

Package manager window is gone again.
It really seems like Unity has a bug reading the paths. Has this been reported anywhere, is it a known issue?

Hi @LazloBonin ,

Sorry to see you’re still having these issues! Would you mind opening a bug using “Help > Report a Bug” inside Unity? This will allow us to get all the necessary information to investigate what’s going on and ideally provide a fix ASAP.

I noticed that the package name com.unity.package-manager-ui.7 in the path is incorrect. This is reminiscent of a past issue where incorrect string operations would end up concatenate parts of the version number at the end of the package name. You can verify this hypothesis by checking if the "com.unity.package-manager-ui" entry in your manifest.json file is mapped to a version ending with “.7” (e.g. 2.0.7).

As a potential workaround, if there are non-Latin (“non-ASCII”) characters in the project path, you could try moving the project to a directory that does not contain such characters in any of the directory names, at least until we fix the issue. These characters were causing the similar issue I mentioned above, but I thought that was fixed - maybe it isn’t, or there’s a regression.

Out of curiosity, have you tried opening a copy of your project with Unity 2019.2, to verify whether this might have been fixed in the 2019 development cycle? (Make sure it’s a copy of the project and not the project directly, otherwise you could have problems going back to 2018.4 - downgrading Unity versions is not a supported flow.)

Hi Maxime, thanks for the quick reply.

It’s very likely because of the non-ASCII characters.

The project is called “été” and the folder has that name. Renaming the project folder to “ete” fixed the issue, so I can confirm it’s still a bug in 2018.4.9f1 at least!

Thanks for your help!

Thanks for the update! I’m glad this solved your problem for now but it’s a pretty nasty bug so I’ll make sure to report it to the appropriate team.

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@maximeb_unity
Excuse me. I also seem to have a problem with this. I recently downloaded a project from this link (Learn the Input System with updated tutorials and our sample project, Warriors)
[The Prototype Series: Controlling a Spaceship].

I extracted the Project and opened it in Unity Hub. I had to change the Unity version of the project.
However, when I opened the example scene and run it, it asked to fix compile errors before enterring play mode and the console showed:

A meta data file (.meta) exists but its asset ‘Packages/com.unity.terrain-tools/Shaders/NoiseLib/FBM’ can’t be found. When moving or deleting files outside of Unity, please ensure that the corresponding .meta file is moved or deleted along with it.
Couldn’t delete Packages/com.unity.terrain-tools/Shaders/NoiseLib/FBM.meta because it’s in an immutable folder.

I am quite new to unity and have had only two weeks experience. I wanted to learn the new input system and this project seemed a cool one to start. Any help will be appreciated. Thank you

What version of the editor are you opening the package in?

@UnityMaru ,
I am using Unity 2019.4.18 in Ubuntu 20.04 system.

Thanks a lot for reaching out by the way.

No worries. Apologies for the delay in reply for this one…

I spoke to the team for you who advise that your issue is not quite exactly the same as the original posters.

Could you please report this as a bug via the process outlined in the link below and provide me with the bug report number so I can chase this up internally?

https://unity3d.com/unity/qa/bug-reporting

//continues
“Could you please report this as a bug via the process outlined in the link below and provide me with the bug report number so I can chase this up internally?”

Спасибо, друг, в 22м году еще актуально.

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