The exclamation-mark-in-a-triangle-in-a-picture-frame icon for a non-existent zero byte file ? ! ?

3dcheapskate

[The exclamation-mark-in-a-triangle-in-a-picture-frame icon for a non-existent zero byte file ? ! ?] You know, the one that looks like this...

 

(1) Why does it appear,

and

(2) how can I prevent* it from appearing in the first place ?

 

*Note that I said prevent, so neither "Right-click > Remove Reference..." nor "Right-click > Remove Orphaned Reference..." are valid answers. I'm asking this because one of these icons appear as part of a freebie I created, and I'd like to know if it's because I did something wrong. For anybody who's interested here's some background information.

Edited for Please put your question in the post body and the title - Daz 3D Forums

3dcheapskate

(Edit Aug2021: Apparently I worked out the answers myself)

ANSWERS:

(1) Because DAZ Studio can't find the file (e.g. it's been deleted, it's on an external drive which isn't connected, etc)

(2) This can happen if the metadata includes a file that you don't actually include in the product package, so the answer is to make sure that only files you are including in the package are included in the metadata. My spurious metadata was for a script that I only needed when creating the product, and didn't include it in the package - more info in the second half of this post.