Referenced rig's model and animation are fully gone

[lee00851]

Hello!

I was working on my school project and therefore I had to put the folders in different computers a couple of times - (I worked on maya 2025 at school, then maya 2024 at home)

When I was about to open up the scene today, I noticed that my last saved version was in mb. file when all the version before was ma. So I worked on my animation, saving as mb. file after then. 

It seemed just fine until I saved and closed, then opened the file again.

I can see the rig controllers of my character but the model is gone. I can't see my referenced png image as well, and the time slider is fully empty. Also, I had some polygons in my scene but now they appear in green texture with no transformation applied (default cube shape). I checked my reference editor but there is no rig I can select to see the list of reference. 

I think it happened because I:

- Opened the file in a different Maya version (maya 2025 to maya 2024)

- somehow switched my file from ma. to mb.

But I still cannot find the right cause of this issue and has no idea how to fix it. I tried to open the file in both '24 and '25, but it appears the same - empty rig, crooked T-pose controllers, no keys.  

What should I do?

Could anyone please help me?

Thank you! 

[stephenkmann]

When you open the file. are there any errors? 

also, I can't tell in your image if there are references or not

Generally speaking changing maya versions ( especially going backwards). is not a good idea. 

Changing paths can also have an affect on your references/textures/etc

Also. open up the file manager in  Window --> General Editors --> File Path editor

and look for broken links

and lastly, in the outliner. turn off  Show Dag Objects ( temporarily)

and scroll thru to see if there are still animation nodes in the outliner ( hopefully that is a yes !) 

There are ways to fix this .. but more information is needed  🙂 

hth

-=s

[lee00851]

Hello, thanks for your reply!
My character is a referenced rig, but i think maya is unable to find the reference folder anymore. (hope this answered your question!) When i checked my file path editor everything looks fine, and i have all my animation in the outliner when i turned off the show dag objects.

[stephenkmann]

it sounds like you lost your reference ( due to the files moving about) 

I'd expect an error on opening the file.  ( it should pop up  a window asking where the reference file is ) 

but.. if you've saved it.. since it broke.  its not going to report that issue

if the reference is still in tact. you can try turning on Selective pre-load in the "open" settings

and then tell it where the file should load from.

if .. you don't have reference in tact..  You'll either need to go back to  a file that still had the reference.. 

or have to reconnect the animation nodes.  *(which is far easier with a script ) 

if you can send me the file.. I can probably *( hopefully) fix it