I think this issue is related to unreal leaving files on the folder which seems to still reference content currently in use. Unreal seems to think its deleted these files, but its left in the file system.
I find that if I delete the entire folder manually via explorer then on some rare occasions I get content referencing errors on Unreal. I experienced these issues when cleaning up assets and moving folders.
I would recommended this:
- Delete the folder in Content Browser.
- If the deleted folder doesn’t disappear then right-click on the folder and give ‘show in explorer’
- Find the folder you are trying to delete. Right click and check properties. You’ll find that there are files in these -folders. Unreal thinks these files are gone, but its there in the file system.
- Find and delete these files (not folders)
- Delete the folder again in content browser and unreal should now correctly delete the folder from the content browser.
- Sometimes you’ll need to delete twice in the content browser for it work.
This way I don’t get any potential referencing errors.
I think the problem might be that Unreal seems to delete these files in the content browser but not from the file system due to it thinking that these files are being used?? not 100%.