UE 5.7: Changelist Validation Failed - Engine Content & External Plugin References

Development Pipeline & Plugins
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1

Environment

  • Unreal Engine Version: 5.7.1

  • Source Control: Perforce

  • Issue: Changelist validation failing when submitting through UE Editor

Problem Description

When attempting to submit a changelist through the Unreal Editor’s source control integration, I’m encountering validation errors for:

  1. Plugin assets from a plugin that is intentionally managed outside of Perforce (via Git)

Error Examples

Plugin Reference Error:

Changelist validation failed!
/ArchInteraction/Public/Res/Models/Pano/Arin_PanoSphere.Arin_PanoSphere is referenced and must also be added to revision control

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Configuration Details

  • The plugin is in .p4ignore and deliberately excluded from Perforce

  • The project’s .uproject has the plugin marked as external:

json

  "Plugins": [
      {
          "Name": "ArchInteraction",
          "Enabled": true,
          "External": true
      }
  ]

What I’ve Tried

  1. Config settings in DefaultEditor.ini:

ini

   [/Script/UnrealEd.SourceControlPreferences]
   bEnableValidationOnSubmit=False
   bValidateReferencesBeforeSubmit=False
   
   [/Script/UnrealEd.EditorEngine]
   +DirectoriesToExcludeFromContentReferenceValidation=/Plugins/ArchInteraction

→ No effect

  1. Marked plugin as "External": true in .uproject → Still validates

  2. Verified .p4ignore configuration → Correctly excludes the plugin

  3. Check and tried to enable or disable any Validation, Revision Control, Source Control or any other settings in Editor or Project settings.

Workaround

Submitting the changelist directly through P4V works without issues, which confirms this is an Editor validation problem, not an actual Perforce workspace issue.

Questions

  1. Is this a known bug in UE 5.7’s Perforce integration?

  2. Are there additional settings to disable changelist validation that I’m missing?

  3. Is there a proper way to exclude external plugin content from Editor validation?

  4. Will this be addressed in an upcoming 5.7.x hotfix?

Related Forum Thread

I found a similar issue reported here regarding Switchboard and Perforce integration in 5.7: https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/5-7-perforce-integration-issue-in-engine-and-switchboard/2682584/15

However, CL 47860724 (which fixes Switchboard issues) doesn’t appear to address the Editor’s changelist validation problem.

Use Case

Our team uses a hybrid workflow:

  • Main project tracked in Perforce

  • Shared plugin managed via GitLab (each developer builds locally)

This workflow was functioning correctly in previous UE 5.5.4 version.

Any guidance would be appreciated!

2

For what it’s worth, my team is also seeing this issue with Git, and this forum is the first page on Google.

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We recently started a new project and decided to upgrade to 5.7 for some extra features. Previously we were on 5.5 and didn’t get these errors. Most of these assets aren’t even modified, so I have no idea why they keep getting added as an invalid changelist item.

So far, these errors seem superficial. My team hasn’t had any trouble pushing via Engine UI and pulling updates via Git. I’m hoping this isn’t just wishful thinking.

3

Strange behavior. I’ve been experiencing the same after updating to 5.7 (working with git entirely).

This seems to be some kind of checkin-sanity-check, which should throw a Warning, but not an Error IMO - As long as my own changes get into git correctly, that is.

Don’t know if this is related, but I had to “Submit Content” three times in a row in order to get “everything” into GIT. Maybe it would be wise to check multiple times when committing stuff.

Also when closing UE and checking with a CMD, there were fab assets that weren’t added to git by UE - which is also quirky, since they’re in the game folder. Would be a different thing for external dependencies (managed in some kind of project file), but for content assets? Hm….. To be honest, I’m losing faith in this integration.

It would be great if there were some kind of docs that listed

  • message
  • severity
  • explanation
  • potential fix

Example: Everything checked in three times via UE, used CLI to add what was missing. Next I get:

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4

I’m experiencing the exact same issue in UE 5.7.3 using Git as source control.

Every asset placed in the level is being flagged with a “Validation Error” during the commit process, claiming they must be added to revision control even if they haven’t been modified.

Observations:

  • Temporary Fix: If I manually “Resave” all the flagged assets, the validation passes, and I can proceed with the commit.

  • The Loop: However, as soon as I make any further changes to the project and try to commit again, the same validation errors reappear for all related assets.

  • Over-sensitive Validation: It seems the validation logic is flagging every single asset that has even a minor reference connection.

It’s very frustrating that this hasn’t been addressed yet in 5.7.3. I’ve had to disable the internal source control entirely and rely on external Git clients to avoid this “Validation Error” loop.

5

This seems related/duplicate Changelist Validation throws error when referencing engine content

In UE, not UEFN, one can set the RevisionControl.FilesValidation.Enable CVar to false as a workaround to disable the validation errors from appearing in the Submit Filesdialog.

6

Thank you for the suggestion, this only works temporary but we added “[ConsoleVariables]

RevisionControl.FilesValidation.Enable=0” to the DefaultEngine.ini which seems to have solved the issue. Thank you

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