How To Remove Unused Materials In Blender | Two Techniques & A Quick Tip To Retain Your Undo History

In this tutorial, we have discussed how to remove unused duplicate materials in Blender. We have talked about two different methods and their pros & cons. Also, we have shown how to keep some unused materials for R&D purpose while clearing the others. Please watch the video for the complete tutorial. If you have any question on this tutorial, please leave your comment below.

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We have many more tutorials that can help you learn Blender like a professional. You can go through the following playlists for the relevant topics:

👇 𝐁𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐓𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬:
If you are absolutely new to Blender, take this foundation course.

👇 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝟏𝟐 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐧 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐫:

👇 𝐁𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐢𝐩𝐬 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐬 (𝐓𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬):

👇 𝐄𝐚𝐬𝐲 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐁𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬 (𝐓𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬):

👇 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐈𝐧 𝐁𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 (𝐓𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬):

👇 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐓𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐈𝐧 𝐁𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 (𝐓𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬):

👇 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐚 𝐌𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 & 𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐈𝐧 𝐁𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫:

👇 𝐔𝐬𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐈𝐧 𝐁𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 (𝐓𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬):

👇 𝐑𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐝 𝐁𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐏𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐬 & 𝐑𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐝 𝐁𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬:

👇 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐞 & 𝐒𝐦𝐨𝐤𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐈𝐧 𝐁𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 (𝐓𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬):

👇 𝐅𝐥𝐮𝐢𝐝 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐈𝐧 𝐁𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 (𝐓𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬):

👇 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 (𝐓𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬):

If you want to watch our own creations in Blender, you can also check out the following channel where we regularly upload videos on Animation, Space Exploration and AI.

#Blender #Animation #Materials

Timestamp
00:00 Method 1 Explained
01:32 Limitations of Method 1
01:53 Method 2 Explained
02:36 How To Assign A Fake User

[MinutesBlender]

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[blendabrar]

One more easiest method.
1) Choose the material you want to get rid of.
2) Click on the cross which is present on right side of Material tab while pressing shift.
3) Save file and re-open and materials have been removed.

[htfxdx]

I have seen two of your tutorials. Really great stuff. Unfortunately I find the synthesized speech really annoying so I won't be subscribing or watching more.

[dadamager]

This is like dealing with cockroaches, you think you got em but they just never fucking go away

[hunterfivestars]

A yo u got a sub thx for the help y did this look like manic now time to go back to making a intro for my vids yes I sound ded i been working on this for a month

[floralpoboop]

How does one do this in 2.79? Absolutely none of them work in 2.79.

[boobo]

Well that was useful and complete. I hate long videos showing nothing but this was actually all relevant and covered some questions I had. Nice

[sowigacid]

I imported a model and seperated loose parts. Now each mesh has 10 different materials assigned. I can select a single mesh go its materials and in a drop down menu select "delete unused materials" so this mesh now only has its active material. How can I perform this for all meshes in my scene at once ? If I select all meshes in my scene and click "delete unused materials" it only does it for one single mesh at a time. This is super frustrating as my model consists out of 200 pieces or more. How do I "delete unused materials" for all meshes in my scene at once ?

[MuffinMachine]

Holy Bajeezus this shouldn't be so hard. Thanks!

[manideep]

I am watching you're tutorials from past few months and they are so good for a beginner to understand. I am waiting for video on geometry nodes

[rangeslider]

Thanks for the video! One more- Material Utilities built-in addon. I use the 'Merge Base Names' option quite often.

[philosophyfrog]

Only blender has a complicated process for something as stupid as removing unused materials. What's wrong with the good ol' delete button?

[Visuwyg]

Hey its the russian guy who builds the Cyberpunk Quadra

[adri.progression]

Wow! Thank you, this is very helpful because I'm importing assets used in Cycles but I'm using Blender-Octane. Thank you!!!

[ottobyte]

Excellent advice! Thank you so much 😊 this has been really offending my OCD! Why is it so difficult though? I mean there should be a material manager or something. Oh well at least I know now 👍

[kattuner]

Thank you so much! I was having trouble renaming materials because a material with the same name existed in that list. The first solution helped me.

[lightningmcqueen]

ayo my man god job i just knew the the first one thx for the info appreciated
one more thing i was trying to create slime like object like something dripping out but having issues (not animation just 3d model) if you give us a video on that would be great by the way i am new here i will look out your other videos too
god bless you may this year brings you happiness bye thanks in advance

[farisiskndr]

Thank you so much... This video is so helpful

[Scarlov]

thanks a lot! this is the most useful tutorial ever! :D thanks again! :D

[TheLoveMiku]

Thank you so much for this! It saves so much time!