Hey Sky,
Thanks so much for logging the bug report. I'm not sure if this related, but there was a similar issue with plant's size / growth resetting on every file open - could you log a bug report for this as well? From the other discussions here it seems like it's still happening.
But thanks again for the workaround - that should help for right now. And the UI you just made changes to Preview 2 are great! Love being able to get to all material's texturemaps at once, or rendersettings etc. without as much menu diving.
John