Windows GMS 2.3 Corrupted File? "Blank IdReference found - could be that the project is corrupt."

[ragingdemonz]

When i opend up my game i get the "Blank IdReference found - could be that the project is corrupt." in the output window. I look back into my folders and my objects sprites etc are all there. When i try adding existing or even just dragging the .yy or the folder into the ide it gives me that error when loading the assets... Any idea on how to fix or what i should do, Or is the project gone forever? Kinda weird that i can't import the .yy files either since they should only contain json data about that object correct?

 

[GarrulusJay]

Hi, I got this message and my file subsequently corrupted. I reported the bug, YoYo confirmed it and have added it to their bug database. I'm on a mac and my issue may be slightly different to yours - this warning has popped up in a couple of other posts, with different symptoms - but I'm afraid I think in my case the project is gone. I'm certainly not going to proceed with it until the problem has been understood and fixed.

 

[harambe1]

I narrowed down the problem. It happens when you edit the layers of existing sprites. If this problem is new to you the culprit is the latest sprites that you made / changed / duplicate. Look at their files in your GMS2 folder. Under layer you will see that the old layers that were supposed to be deleted are still there, together with some random sprites with "x" marks. This is really stupid and it almost makes GMS2.3 unusable. I wont bother posting a bug report either. cause whenever I did they just never cared

 

[Dinar8777]

This has happened to me as well. Not sure what to do since I imported many sprites. I might have to use an old backup'd version of my project I source controlled when I got 2.3.

EDIT: I seem to of fixed the errors by deleting my new sprites I imported today in gms2.

 

[harambe1]

This has happened to me as well. Not sure what to do since I imported many sprites. I might have to use an old backup'd version of my project I source controlled when I got 2.3.

EDIT: I seem to of fixed the errors by deleting my new sprites I imported today in gms2.

Yes like I said the culprits are the new sprites you make or recently edited most likely. So far the only solution I found is to delete them. Messing with their source files crashes GMS2. Another thing I found is "Add Existing" sprites dont work at all for me.. YoyoGames really set the bar high on this one

 

[Bumbum]

I narrowed down the problem. It happens when you edit the layers of existing sprites. If this problem is new to you the culprit is the latest sprites that you made / changed / duplicate. Look at their files in your GMS2 folder. Under layer you will see that the old layers that were supposed to be deleted are still there, together with some random sprites with "x" marks. This is really stupid and it almost makes GMS2.3 unusable. I wont bother posting a bug report either. cause whenever I did they just never cared

I also have the problem of GM saying my project may be corrupt, but I don't edit my sprites inside GM, let alone edit individual layers. I import all of my sprites as PNG files from photoshop.

 

[Turkish Coffee]

I have the same problem but haven't encountered any issue with it. %99 of the time, I edit my sprites in the GM editor.
Although I had a problem where somehow my sprites suddenly get deleted without me pressing delete or accepting to delete (I've checked the settings on preferences for that). That issue is fixed nowadays..

 

[IJsandwich]

I've had this issue on mac. Here's what got rid of these messages for me.

Copy the project folder and delete a bunch of sprites in this backup, then run gamemaker and see if any messages disappear. Repeat this to narrow down which sprites are causing the errors. Once you find them, make a new copy of your project (just to be safe), and in this copy make a new empty sprite for your corrupted sprites. Copy and paste the frames of the old sprite into this new one, then delete the old sprite and give its name to the new one. Remaking the sprite wholesale like this seems to clear the corruption, but keep a copy of the folder for new sprites that you make, because new sprites in particular love to suddenly become corrupt, and you'll have to remake them in the same way. Keeping a folder with all the frames on hand makes this easier.

This happened to me despite not editing any layers (I don't even know how layers work, so maybe I should look into it to see if that's why).

This was just my own solution, so be careful when applying it to your case, especially since we have different OS

 

[harambe1]

I've had this issue on mac. Here's what got rid of these messages for me.

Copy the project folder and delete a bunch of sprites in this backup, then run gamemaker and see if any messages disappear. Repeat this to narrow down which sprites are causing the errors. Once you find them, make a new copy of your project (just to be safe), and in this copy make a new empty sprite for your corrupted sprites. Copy and paste the frames of the old sprite into this new one, then delete the old sprite and give its name to the new one. Remaking the sprite wholesale like this seems to clear the corruption, but keep a copy of the folder for new sprites that you make, because new sprites in particular love to suddenly become corrupt, and you'll have to remake them in the same way. Keeping a folder with all the frames on hand makes this easier.

This happened to me despite not editing any layers (I don't even know how layers work, so maybe I should look into it to see if that's why).

This was just my own solution, so be careful when applying it to your case, especially since we have different OS

yep! the solution was the same for me and i am on PC. but imagine having a large project and having to narrow down which sprite is acting up everytime it happens for no reason. this makes 2.3 unusable for large projects in my opinion

 

[Dinar8777]

I still can't work on my project currently as I can no longer add any new sprites without corrupting my project file. Not sure what to do now.

 

[YupYup]

Sprites must be read only by GM2 and have no influence on project files status.
Others 2D applications sprites files can't corrupt the project when adding new ones or importing.

Could this be related to files format, or some conversion failing when running behind the scene ?

I would encourage to post your project and ask support to check the real problem as such issue should never happen.

 

[Dinar8777]

I think this might work.

Dinar'sMetroidvaniaSOURCECONTROL.2.3.zip

drive.google.com

 

[Chaser]

Ive had this, and my project still says it 'may' have corrupt file. however nothings broken, everything works as intended(i do have a back up just in case).
This only seems to happen (to me) when 'add existing' when pulling something from a GMS 2 project into a 2.3 project. Says it needs to convert which it does, sometimes crashes, but a just restart and i'm away again as normal just with the' maybe' corrupted' message.
i would say if you are planning on using assets from a GMS 2 project inside your GMS 2.3 project then convert the whole project first(after backing up of coarse) before adding existing assets just to be on the safe side.

 

[Dinar8777]

By the way if anyone needs some screenshots of what's going on here...btw project becomes un-corrupted as soon as I delete these sprites as the "blank id reference found" messages go away.

 

[Bumbum]

I managed to make it go away by deleting all my sprites and re-importing them. Took a while. I'll have to restart after each new import to make sure it hasn't added any new corrupt project messages.

 

[Dinar8777]

Yoyogames messed up big time since apparently lots of people are having this same issue we've all been having. So much for the "revolutionary" 2.3 update lmao

 

[harambe1]

Yeah... you'd think they'd at least test these basic things before putting out the revolutionary update..

 

[TheDaywalkr]

Anyone have any further luck on this? Anything from YYG?

 

[Rob]

I just had this error for the first time and I noticed the sprites I imported did not have a Group set for texture, so I set them to default and the error has gone:

[Note - I only had this message appear in the output, not as a pop up so I doubt it's a fix for everybody, especially seeing as in screenshots above, you can see the group is set to "default"]

 

[IIIAJIYH135]

Same issue.
For me worked simple sprite renaming, from <axeHitbox_spr> to <axeHitbox_spr2>. Then save. And change name back to <axeHitbox_spr>.
After that all composite image links fixed and do not broke again on IDE reload)

 

[Turkish Coffee]

To update people who still follow that post,
The current beta version shows you which files are causing this:

I used this tool by YAL to delete those files and it worked.

 

[BlackberryKin]

To update people who still follow that post,
The current beta version shows you which files are causing this:
View attachment 35575
I used this tool by YAL to delete those files and it worked.

I recently received this error on my project after moving it to an external drive. I reimported all of the sprites and even the sounds and fonts as well, but that method didn't seem to fix it. I also used that tool but it ended up corrupting the project even more so I just reverted back on GitHub. I don't want to go through reimporting every single sprite again, but the error doesn't seem to be doing anything. The project runs and builds fine, but I just want to make sure there aren't any long-term effects. Has anyone else had any issues with this?

 

[incomingjeff]

I recently received this error on my project after moving it to an external drive. I reimported all of the sprites and even the sounds and fonts as well, but that method didn't seem to fix it. I also used that tool but it ended up corrupting the project even more so I just reverted back on GitHub. I don't want to go through reimporting every single sprite again, but the error doesn't seem to be doing anything. The project runs and builds fine, but I just want to make sure there aren't any long-term effects. Has anyone else had any issues with this?

I've found that Blank IdReference can also be caused by corrupted properties inside an object or room file. One thing you can do to check for this is use a text editor that can search all files in a directory to scan your project for "name":"" or "path":"" (json values of name or path set to empty strings). Since you're using Git, if this turns out to be the issue you should be able to check the history of those files and recover the lost data.

 

[Gavolot]

It's okay, gms23 is still in development. I also ran into this, I had to redo all the rooms again)

 

[confused fish]

same here i can't do anything or my project gets corrupted, hope they fix this soon

 

[Gavolot]

I learned how to clean the project from these warnings. But you need to first read a couple of articles on the topic of search.

However, it is not even always possible to find it quickly.

But in 95% of cases, this does not interfere with development in any way, except for very rare ones. Beware of importing gms1 projects.


P.s.: https://help.yoyogames.com/hc/en-us...Reference-found-warnings-in-your-compiler-log



I also found a similar one and solved it, sometimes the texture group gets confused.


There is also a case with objects, but I still did not understand the reason, but decided to copy the object, delete the old one, rename it back.

But again, this usually does not cause problems. in 1% of cases, I had a problem in a customer's project, because it was once done on gms1, look for a problem in tilemaps and sprites if your sprite indices are confused.

 

[BoB3k]

So as far as I can tell, any time your duplicate a sprite, you get crap in your new sprite. sigh. I've cleaned up all the sprites I could and I still have a whole list of "Core Resources : Info - Blank IdReference found" that print on compile.


I don't suppose this is fixed in the new 2.3.1 IDE that's out???...


UPDATE - for FYI - the idrefs that didn't have name were from layers in sprites that had been deleted but left in the folders. As someone above said, the only real way to find them is to go into your sprites layers and look for extra images that shouldn't be there any more.

 

[jobjorgos]

i also had the "Core Resources : Info - Blank IdReference found" bug
first i checked with grepWin all empty "name": "" paths through all objects as suggested by yoyogames guide but didnot solve the problem for me.
also i exported all assets to a fresh project but the bug was still there.
then i deleted all objects/sprites/tilesets/scripts/timelines but no influence aswell
then i found out that the Blank Id was caused by 1 room (rm_Parent_Zone)
then i opened rm_Parent_Zone and deleted all layers, still nothingfixed.
solution here:
then i checked all views, and saw Object Following was blank (i deleted
the following object, but it seems game maker 2.3 doesnt automatilly
delete that in the rooms aswell.