Materials get lost when I copy the model to another folder

Hello,

I am using these assets City Kit (Roads) · Kenney
I am trying to separate external packages from the actual models used in the game. When I import the model from the package folder, it works fine. But when I copy it to another folder, the materials get lost, and instead I get only 1 empty material. Video attached.

How can I duplicate the model and keep the original materials?

Thank you.

What happens if you double-click one of the original materials, say “pavement”? This should select the actual material in the project view.
I noticed you have materials of the same name both inside the model asset and next to it. The behaviour you observe may depend on whether the reference is to an external or embedded material.

I can’t recall an issue of this kind but I have a hunch it may have to do with the “extract materials” setting.

Knowing Kenney assets I remember they come with different kinds of file formats. Are these FBX or OBJ or some other format? If available try importing the other kind, FBX is preferable.

The provided assets are .obj

I click the materials in the video and they can be selected.

I tested different combinations using multiple extraction/embedding methods …etc It is the same result.

I imported the .obj into Blender and exported it as .fbx. Now I can duplicate it elsewhere and the material is there.

But when I click the model, I can’t see the material objects in the inspector as before, I see their names and None next to each one. Yet, the model itself looks fine. (Same for original model and for duplicated one)

So I think I know the issue. Kenny provided an object inside an object. Converting it to .fbx kept only the inner object.
I recall when I tried to duplicate the inner object in Unity it logged an Error to “use the external editor instead”. So I think the whole object inside object thing is confusing Unity somehow.