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Recently I had to transfer my Unity game project to another computer and downloaded the same version of Unity I was using for my 3D project and checked that all the files and folders were in the same place and everything.

When I start up the game though my models have vanished and in the hierarchy it just says missing prefab instead of telling me what it was, like it used to if I'd move a model to another folder or something like that.

It shows all my files there and I was about to reimport them all but I got a warning that said:

"Rebuilding assets is only if your project has been corrupted due to an internal Unity bug. It can take several hours to complete, depending on the size of your project.

Please submit a bug report detailing the steps leading up to here."

I am sure that re-importing all my models will fix this but I want to ask if this will have any negative effects on my project or possibly damage anything?

This game is extremely important to me and I've been working on it for the past 3 years(being self taught which is why it's taken so long and I'm still learning)

Thank you guys in advanced! :D

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You need to transfer the asset metadata as well as the asset files themselves. The metadata files might be invisible depending on your settings.

On the old computer, go to Edit>Project Settings>Editor in Unity and set Version Control to Visible Meta Files. You should now see .meta files appear next to all the assets in your Assets folder. Copy those over and your project should work as normal.

I'd also recommend putting your code in a version control system, especially if you have 3 years of work. That way, you can try changes like this without worrying about destroying your project.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Or, at the very least, making a local copy first. So if things go pearshaped, you've still got the original and delete the screwed up version. \$\endgroup\$
    – Draco18s no longer trusts SE
    Dec 5, 2017 at 16:13
  • \$\begingroup\$ "That way, you can try changes like this without worrying about destroying your project." - Just a note: While VCSs will intrinsically backup your project due to the fact that they will contain these files, they should not be used with that (backup) intent. Except for maybe your first time pushing these changes to a remote VCS repository as part of the setup process, you shouldn't commit files unrelated to incremental changes you've made. \$\endgroup\$
    – XenoRo
    Dec 5, 2017 at 20:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ With the backup I made on an external hard drive, would it still be able to show the metadata or is that only for it being on the old computer? For example, let's say worse case scenario the old computer is busted or something like that and I just have the backup files, would this still be possible? \$\endgroup\$
    – CraftyMaelyss
    Dec 6, 2017 at 4:03
  • \$\begingroup\$ @vrostu I can't find it, where is the option for the code in the version control system? I'm using Unity 5.3.5 and screenshots would be a huge help :) And again thank you so much for that, it really helped out a lot! :D \$\endgroup\$
    – CraftyMaelyss
    Dec 6, 2017 at 7:39
  • \$\begingroup\$ @CraftyMaelyss I can add a screenshot to the answer, but can you clarify which part you're having trouble finding? The Editor settings screen? \$\endgroup\$
    – vrostu
    Dec 6, 2017 at 12:59

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