How to check a Blender asset before you delete it
Asset folders fill up with textures and models from old shots. The risky part of cleanup is not finding a large file. It is deleting a file that a .blend project still references.
What people usually try
Sorting a folder by date, moving “old” maps into an archive, or searching the disk for a filename all tell you about the file on disk. None of them open every Blender project and look at the Image Texture node, the linked library, or the material slot that points at it.
Orphan data inside one open .blend file is a different cleanup. Blender’s Outliner can show data-blocks with no users in that file. That view does not know about the other projects on the drive.
What LinkedFiles can check
LinkedFiles takes one file you choose and searches saved .blend projects in a folder. If a project references that file, the result names the project and can include the object, material, and node. That is the list to read before you move or delete the file.
It does not walk a library and return every file that nothing uses. You still decide which candidate to test. The scan stays on your computer.
A careful cleanup pass
- Pick one file you are considering deleting or moving.
- In LinkedFiles, select that file and the folder of .blend projects that might use it.
- Run Find Usage and read every project hit before you change the file.
- If there are no hits, check packed images, unsaved projects, folders you did not scan, and uses outside Blender before you delete the file.
If the result lists projects, those projects need the file or an updated path. See how to find which projects use an asset for what each hit contains. LinkedFiles does not delete files and does not rewrite project paths.
Why “no results” is not a delete button
- Packed data. File → External Data → Pack Resources stores image data inside the .blend file. The loose texture on disk may have zero external references and still be the source you unpacked last month.
- Unsaved work. An open Blender session can use a file that is not in the saved .blend yet.
- The wrong folder. A shot on another disk, or a project you excluded, will not appear.
- Other software. The same PNG may be used by a paint tool, a video edit, or an engine project. LinkedFiles reads Blender projects.
- A stale index. After you add projects, refresh the index. Searches use the local index until you do.
Move a candidate to a holding folder and reopen the projects you care about before you empty the trash. Missing pink textures are easier to undo from a holding folder than from a deleted file.
FAQ
- Does LinkedFiles list every unused file in a folder?
- No. You select one file, and LinkedFiles reports .blend projects that reference it. It does not build a library-wide unused-file report.
- If nothing references a texture, can I delete it?
- Not from that result alone. The image may be packed, the project may be unsaved, the scan folder may be incomplete, or another application may use the file.
- What if several projects use the file?
- Keep it, or update those projects first. LinkedFiles lists the .blend files and, when available, the object, material, and node path. It does not remove the references for you.