UE5.3 Converting StaticMesh To SkeletalMesh Issue

Hello , I have a very strange issue and i think it is bug;

I am working on a marketplace SkeletalMesh asset. Its textures are baked, and i am working on make this a modular and saperate materials for potential customisation mechanic.

1- Material set up : I converted the skeletal mesh to static mesh and with modelling tools, I set new materials. From 1 material it is now 6 materials.
2- Converting SM to SK :
2.1 First I right clicked the static mesh and converted to a skeletal mesh. Then I chose the skeleton and rig is working. But The new materials are not working. there are 6 materials but converted SkeletalMesh is using only the first material. But in static mesh, they are working. Somehow unreal loses material data while converting the mesh. So i tried another way
2.2 I exported the static mesh which i set the materials. Then imported again . This time materials are working but there is another problem. The new skeletal mesh lost its data and i can never use my skeleton. I have to it again. Ofc i can do it but this time I have to follow this pipeline for 100 clothes maybe.

I am sorry i wrote it long but what i see on google, there are no one has this problem.
Thank you for help .

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Did you ever find a solution to this? I’m trying 2 ways to convert my static mesh to a skeletal mesh and neither way is working properly, basically just like you explained:

Method 1: Right click static mesh → Convert to Skeletal Mesh. Works fine except the material slots don’t work properly. They are listed but only the first one is used on the entire mesh.

Method 2: Export the static mesh as FBX and reimport, generating a skeletal mesh. The materials work fine here but the mesh itself doesn’t look the same, it almost looks smoothed. Oddly enough when I use the modelling tools on the new skeletal mesh, I can see the mesh in its original format like the static mesh itself is still intact but when I confirm the changes or go out of modelling mode, it returns to its smoothed appearance.

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I’m facing the same issue. Must be a bug.

You need to enable the skeletal mesh editing tools plugin

then you can right click and choose Convert to Skeletal Mesh