SyncList<T> not initialized

Unity Engine
1

I’m trying to setup syncable byte arrays for serialized classes of mine. I’m running into some behaviour I don’t fully understand, maybe someone can help explain?

I have an InteractableLoot script on my dropped item that stores the item, say a sword or whatever, for example. The SyncListByte which is a SyncList (why that isn’t a default SyncList type is beyond me…). If I have the SyncListByte declared on the InteractableLoot script, and as long as I keep it there everything works fine. If however I try to edit the List anywhere else, I get the error “SyncList not initialized”. For example:

    public static SyncListByte ByteArrayToSyncListByte (byte[] bytes) {
        SyncListByte list = new SyncListByte();
        for (int i = 0; i < bytes.Length; i++) {
            list.Add(bytes[i]);
        }
        return list;
    }

I added the above to my GlobalMethods helper singleton to convert between an actual byte[ ] and a SyncListByte, but this will always error. I also had:

public class SyncListByte : SyncList<byte> {

    public SyncListByte() { }

    public SyncListByte (byte[] bytes) {
        for (int i = 0; i < bytes.Length; i++) {
            this.Add(bytes[i]);
        }
    }

this to populate a new SyncListByte with ease, but it throws errors as well. Only when I Add() and Clear() within the script that is declaring the variable does it work.

Note that this is all on the server.

2

I’m also noticing that for example

    //errors "not initialized"
    public Item item {
        set {
            _item = new SyncListByte();
            _item.Add(0);
        }
    }

    //works
    public Item item {
        set {
            _item.Clear();
            _item.Add(0);
        }
    }

Maybe my OP and this problem are one and the same…
Do I need to let a frame pass after initialization before I can do some things?
Instantiating a dropped item then immediately setting the item doesn’t seem throw the same error… I suppose Awake() has been called by then though…?