How to Fix Missing Object References When Switching Scenes in Unity

How to Fix Missing Object References When Switching Scenes in Unity

When working in Unity, you might manually drag and assign an object to a public field in the Inspector. However, after switching scenes and returning, that reference may appear as Missing. This might seem like a bug at first, but it's actually expected behavior in Unity.

Why does the reference break?

Objects assigned in the Inspector only exist within the current scene. When you load another scene, all objects in the previous scene are destroyed, and Unity replaces them with new objects from the next scene.

So, if you had a reference to an object in the previous scene, that field becomes Missing because the object no longer exists.

ojbect missing

Will the reference come back when I return to the original scene?

Unfortunately, no. Unity does not remember or restore Inspector-based references across scene changes. So even if you return to the original scene, the reference remains broken.

The solution: reassign it through code

A reliable solution is to use the SceneManager.sceneLoaded event.

This is a global event built into Unity’s SceneManager class, and it is automatically invoked every time a scene is loaded.

Since sceneLoaded is based on an Action delegate, you can register your own callback function using +=.

Example


void Awake()
{
    SceneManager.sceneLoaded += OnSceneLoaded;
}

void OnSceneLoaded(Scene scene, LoadSceneMode mode)
{
    GameObject scoreObj = GameObject.Find("Score");
    if (scoreObj != null)
    {
        score = scoreObj.GetComponent<TextMeshProUGUI>();
    }
}

With this structure, when you return to a scene that contains the Score object, the code will use GameObject.Find() to reconnect it.

Even if the reference breaks during a scene switch, you can restore it at the right time using code — and that’s a big win.

Summary

  • Inspector-assigned object references are lost during scene transitions. This is expected.
  • Use SceneManager.sceneLoaded to reconnect objects after a scene loads.
  • This is especially helpful when working with DontDestroyOnLoad() singletons and scene-local objects.

Don’t be surprised by missing references anymore — write a simple reconnect script and handle it like a pro. 😄

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