Failed to load map issue after Last Update [UE 5.4.3] Umap appears to be an asset file

Hello everyone!

Unfortunately, after the latest update, the main map in the project got the error of: “Failed to load map! PATH.umap appears to be an asset file.” Moreover, the map itself disappeared from browser folder and not visible for Project Settings. It is still visible in the Windows Explorer.

I realize I’m not the only one facing this issue and for many people, it’s a fatal error for the projects, but it also seems that most people are unsure about the cause and how to recover the original file, so I’m pretty interested is there any way? In my case, I hadn’t touched the project for a week, so the problem was sadly unexpected, and I’m pretty sure the update was the problem.

Though I have autosaved enabled, so I do have a backup from 20 days ago. I tried to clone the project, deleted the “not-working” map and _BuiltData file, and exchanged it with autosave (with renaming to the original name, etc.). It worked but the issue that I see rn the backup map is double less the size of the original map, so I can’t say what exactly the engine decided to get rid of while making backup.

Also, I didn’t change the map in the original project to the autosave asset yet, because I’m afraid I’ll never be able to restore a damaged (invisible) map until I realize what exactly was not included in the autosave.

I would be grateful for your help or suggestions!

yes i have face same issue . can you know how to fix this

Has anyone found a solution to this? I face a similar problem and it has only ever happened to me in Unreal Engine 5.4