UE4 Build Error: Malformed Tag

When building my game for deployment (Windows), it fails with the following:

ProcessResult.StdOut:   LogInit: Display: Failure - 2 error(s), 1101 warning(s)
ProcessResult.StdOut:   LogInit: Display:
ProcessResult.StdOut:   
ProcessResult.StdOut:   Execution of commandlet took:  48.15 seconds
ProcessResult.StdOut:   LogShaderCompilers: Display: Shaders left to compile 0
ProcessResult.StdOut:   LogHttp: Display: cleaning up 0 outstanding Http requests.
ProcessResult.StdOut:   LogContentStreaming: Display: There are 1 unreleased StreamingManagers
CommandUtils.Run: Took 54.0126346s to run UE4Editor-Cmd.exe, ExitCode=1
InternalUtils.SafeDeleteFile: SafeDeleteFile C:\Users\Matt\AppData\Roaming\Unreal Engine\AutomationTool\Logs\D+Program+Files+Epic+Games+UE_4.26\Cook-2021.05.14-21.10.31.txt
InternalUtils.SafeCopyFile: SafeCopyFile D:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_4.26\Engine\Programs\AutomationTool\Saved\Cook-2021.05.14-21.09.37.txt C:\Users\Matt\AppData\Roaming\Unreal Engine\AutomationTool\Logs\D+Program+Files+Epic+Games+UE_4.26\Cook-2021.05.14-21.10.31.txt
InternalUtils.SafeDeleteFile: SafeDeleteFile D:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_4.26\Engine\Programs\AutomationTool\Saved\Cook-2021.05.14-21.09.37.txt
Log.WriteException: ==============================================================================
Log.WriteException: ERROR: Cook failed.
Log.WriteException:        (see C:\Users\Matt\AppData\Roaming\Unreal Engine\AutomationTool\Logs\D+Program+Files+Epic+Games+UE_4.26\Log.txt for full exception trace)
Log.WriteException: 
Log.WriteException: CommandletException: Editor terminated with exit code 1 while running Cook for D:\BEYONDTHEVOID\BEYONDTHEVOID.uproject; see log C:\Users\Matt\AppData\Roaming\Unreal Engine\AutomationTool\Logs\D+Program+Files+Epic+Games+UE_4.26\Cook-2021.05.14-21.10.31.txt
Log.WriteException:    at AutomationTool.CommandUtils.RunCommandlet(FileReference ProjectName, String UE4Exe, String Commandlet, String Parameters, String& DestLogFile, Int32 ErrorLevel) in D:\Build\++UE4\Sync\Engine\Source\Programs\AutomationTool\AutomationUtils\CommandletUtils.cs:line 426
Log.WriteException:    at AutomationTool.CommandUtils.RunCommandlet(FileReference ProjectName, String UE4Exe, String Commandlet, String Parameters, Int32 ErrorLevel) in D:\Build\++UE4\Sync\Engine\Source\Programs\AutomationTool\AutomationUtils\CommandletUtils.cs:line 238
Log.WriteException:    at AutomationTool.CommandUtils.CookCommandlet(FileReference ProjectName, String UE4Exe, String[] Maps, String[] Dirs, String InternationalizationPreset, String[] CulturesToCook, String TargetPlatform, String Parameters) in D:\Build\++UE4\Sync\Engine\Source\Programs\AutomationTool\AutomationUtils\CommandletUtils.cs:line 89
Log.WriteException:    at Project.Cook(ProjectParams Params) in D:\Build\++UE4\Sync\Engine\Source\Programs\AutomationTool\Scripts\CookCommand.Automation.cs:line 266Wrapped by AutomationException: Cook failed.
Log.WriteException:    at Project.Cook(ProjectParams Params) in D:\Build\++UE4\Sync\Engine\Source\Programs\AutomationTool\Scripts\CookCommand.Automation.cs:line 278
Log.WriteException:    at BuildCookRun.DoBuildCookRun(ProjectParams Params) in D:\Build\++UE4\Sync\Engine\Source\Programs\AutomationTool\Scripts\BuildCookRun.Automation.cs:line 206
Log.WriteException:    at BuildCookRun.ExecuteBuild() in D:\Build\++UE4\Sync\Engine\Source\Programs\AutomationTool\Scripts\BuildCookRun.Automation.cs:line 39
Log.WriteException:    at AutomationTool.BuildCommand.Execute() in D:\Build\++UE4\Sync\Engine\Source\Programs\AutomationTool\AutomationUtils\BuildCommand.cs:line 263
Log.WriteException:    at AutomationTool.Automation.Execute(List`1 CommandsToExecute, Dictionary`2 Commands) in D:\Build\++UE4\Sync\Engine\Source\Programs\AutomationTool\AutomationUtils\Automation.cs:line 547
Log.WriteException:    at AutomationTool.Automation.Process(String[] Arguments, StartupTraceListener StartupListener) in D:\Build\++UE4\Sync\Engine\Source\Programs\AutomationTool\AutomationUtils\Automation.cs:line 511
Log.WriteException:    at AutomationTool.Program.MainProc(String[] Arguments, StartupTraceListener StartupListener) in D:\Build\++UE4\Sync\Engine\Source\Programs\AutomationTool\Program.cs:line 175
Log.WriteException:    at AutomationTool.Program.<>c__DisplayClass1_0.<Main>b__2() in D:\Build\++UE4\Sync\Engine\Source\Programs\AutomationTool\Program.cs:line 87
Log.WriteException:    at AutomationTool.InternalUtils.RunSingleInstance(Func`1 Main) in D:\Build\++UE4\Sync\Engine\Source\Programs\AutomationTool\AutomationUtils\Utils.cs:line 737
Log.WriteException:    at AutomationTool.Program.Main(String[] Arguments) in D:\Build\++UE4\Sync\Engine\Source\Programs\AutomationTool\Program.cs:line 87
Log.WriteException: ==============================================================================
Program.Main: AutomationTool exiting with ExitCode=25 (Error_UnknownCookFailure)

I searched the full log for errors, two come up, referencing materials from Wasteland Rocks pack.
I deleted the materials completely from my project, but when building, I get the exact same errors – about those exact materials, who no longer exist and are not referenced. Nor are the textures any longer in existence.

ProcessResult.StdOut: LogAssetRegistry: Error: Package …/…/…/…/…/…/BEYONDTHEVOID/Content/WastelandRocks/Materials/MossySet/Rock_Material.uasset has malformed tag
ProcessResult.StdOut: LogAssetRegistry: Error: Package …/…/…/…/…/…/BEYONDTHEVOID/Content/WastelandRocks/Materials/MossySet/Rock_Mossy_01_Inst_Inst.uasset has malformed tag
ProcessResult.StdOut: LogCook: Display: CookSettings for Memory: MemoryMaxUsedVirtual 0MiB, MemoryMaxUsedPhysical 16384MiB, MemoryMinFreeVirtual 0MiB, MemoryMinFreePhysical 1024MiB

The answer to this is to delete the references from UE4.
Then go into the actual directory and remove them, because UE4 sometimes just doesn’t remove the files.

2 Likes

Can confirm in my case with a similar issue, that even after “fixing up references” in the UE editor, I still had to remove them in file explorer and then I could build properly.

1 Like