After clicking “Add to Project” button in a FAB asset screen, Unreal Engine Editor may show a completed download notification and proceeds to show “Importing…” which takes forever. If you go to your project folder and browse for the actual files downloaded in your Windows file browser such as Windows Explorer, you will not find the actual files but they are visible in the UE Editor Content Browser with icons showing blank thumbnails of texture image files.
In Windows 10 or other versions, this problem might be caused by Unreal Engine FAB needing to have special permission to be able to write the downloaded files on your local drive. You will need to be logged in to Windows with an Administrator account in order to use the solution suggested here.
Run Zen Storage Server as Administrator
Close the FAB window.
At this point, you can not exit Unreal Engine Editor properly since it will ask you to cancel the importing process first and there is no button provided for that. You must open Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del or right-click on the desktop task bar > Task Manager. Left or right-click UnrealEditor under the Apps list and click “End task.”
You might also need to end task Unreal Zen Storage Service under the Background processes list if it is still running. It normally runs and closes along with the Unreal Engine Editor window.
The following executable files need to be run as Administrator:
- %userprofile%\AppData\Local\UnrealEngine\Common\Zen\Install\zenserver.exe
- [UE install path]\Epic Games\UE_5.4\Engine\Binaries\Win64\UnrealEditor.exe
Right-click each of the above files > Properties > Compatibility tab > tick “Run the program as an administrator” > OK or Apply button. Unreal Editor will crash if you run it normally while zenserver.exe runs as administrator so both programs have to run as administrator.
You should now be able to download FAB assets and successfully import them automatically in Unreal Engine Editor. If the “Importing” status keeps showing for a long time but the thumbnails of texture images are showing, just ignore it and start using the new asset that you have downloaded. The “Importing” notification should disappear and the actual files will be saved along with the project in the next save.