ok, I think I know what’s up. When you load the character, you’re just opening the file through Maya’s menus? Have you tried using the Epic Games–> Edit Existing Character menu? Your character will only show up there though if you’ve run it through the rig build process. Otherwise, to get the UI back up, you can actually just hit the Create Character option in the Epic Games menu and it will actually load the UI back up in the correct phase. So if you were painting weights with the UI, it should load with that step active. If you were still placing joints with the joint mover, it should load with that step, etc.
Let me know if that’s what’s going on. If not, you may need to post a screenshot so I can better understand what’s up.
Thanks!