same thing happened with the modifiers. nothing new here 
I’m also in favor of using this as a chance of rethinking data-blocks.
Deleting a data-block shouldn’t unlink it and keeping it still there under the hood for some weird reason: it should just delete it. I shouldn’t exit from Blender or go to purge to “officially” delete something. If I want to keep a material, I’ll just keep it in the material slots, instead of remembering to make it a fake user so that next time I open Blender didn’t mysteriously disappear.
Still regarding materials, I don’t understand why now we have 3 different ways of making a new material: there’s add new material slot, add new material button next to the empty material slot, and now also add new material in the data-block menu… just make one button that adds a new material point-blank, letting go this odd difference between new material and new material slot.
Now that we’re also having the asset browser, we’ll finally have clearer way to keep assets and materials, both in the file and in a shared directory, I think it’s the best moment right now for getting rid of many data-block behaviors, making them simpler and easier to use.
I didn’t even think about this until you said it, this is a huge throwback.
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If you don’t understand the purpose of the fake user system doesn’t mean it should be removed.
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you gotta be kidding 
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Well, there is no evidence that you know how to use them, nor are you suggesting any replacement for its functionality, so technically he’s right.
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Now, when Fake user hidden, it is much harder to make local management. Also there is no global management of fake users. Orphan data shows only blocks without real users. But at current session datablock may have user with deleted user. So I will loose block after 2 reloads.
Blender outliner do not show fake user info too
So I suggest to bring back shield button + implement such buttons for blender-file outliner for global management.
p.s. I understand motivation and dropdown is okay. But not for fake user button.
There should be visible status of protection. It is important part for work with libraries.
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Well, global management indeed does have huge issues.
Especially for explicit / implicit data blocks, like linked/unlinked collections.
Using these changes today I’m really missing the ability to quickly make a single user copy of shared object data like you could do easily in 2.91 by clicking on the number of users button. It doesn’t even appear to be possible without using search or digging through the object relations (why there?) menu.
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The same reason for missing U - make a single user hotkey while working with lots of instances (linked data objects)
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Fake users/Datablocks are probably too integral to Blenders structure to be removed, I assume. Actuall I don’t think we should remove them. The system has come too far to be simply removed. There are probably quite a few workflows and plugins depending on it, not mentioning the (I assume) technical necessity for Blender to keep them. They just can’t remain as error and dataloss prone as they are right now (and hiding them deeper makes them even more error prone).
I’d condense my earlier post to the following two suggestions, for now.
- Invert the beaviour of Fake User Datablocks. Have them enabled and saved by default and have the user take explicit action to remove them.
- Have a datablock browser that can list, structure and organize datablocks for the whole scene. Similar to the outliner but for all datablocks with a fast icon to toggle for deletion or if it’s currently referenced in the scene by an object.
Those are just initial thoughts though. Maybe they are both off or the devs already have a better system that is being worked on. Or maybe they prove not so good in practice.
Still, maybe it’s a good idea to talk about this now.
And maybe not only in this small forum?
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Simplier words. This system handy. No reason to get rid of it.
- Silent saving by default will make huge trashdumps inside project files.
But(!) there may be system, that will not allow to loose data.
For example noob mode, that will ask «after saving/closing you will loose N images, M meshes… Are you sure? Yes, purge> Details> Save all>»
Also, perhaps, blocks used before can take Fake user after deleting
For me «not used» is «created and deleted in 1-2 minutes» or «duplicated and deleted right after that» or «material, that was never rendered in eevee/cycles». If I want to keep it for later, I press shield and delete.
And pro-mode as now: silent delete, manual cleanup, manual fake-user management.
Fake user is part of the automatic garbage collector mechanism.
Garbage collector is an integral part, since blender can pack external data.
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Great. Thank you for enlightening me. I’m so stupid.
Do we really need this thread up in flames, already?
Fake user is what should go to the garbage 
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No, it works in opposite - fake users datablocks do not go to the garbage.
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I agree, they need to be exposed. The new trend of hiding important icons is not reallly convenient. Such as in the modifiers, apply icon is unexposed. Applying was the most common thing we do :((
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Apply and Duplicate for modifiers have shortcuts, so you don’t need to go to menu OR aim for the button. Simply hover over the modifier and hit the key combo. I guess it could be annoying if you don’t have keyboard handy under the off hand though.
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Until you are told that you need to hover over the modifier during learning software.
ok. i believe you only use blender, so you’re not aware of whats available out there, therefore you might think that is impossible to live without this archaic fake user system. and for that i forgive you
and just so you know, even the devs at some point not so long ago considered to remove this fake user trap-system entirely from blender. too bad i cant find the thread, it was fun
it’s a shame they didn’t killed it when they had a chance
No need to speak for everyone.
A fake user is a very handy thing. Don’t delete it without thinking a replacement.
Allows you to keep the necessary information in the library file without duplicating geometry and a lot of unnecessary.
Why does new blender change so often make it worse? We’ve broken a great wireframe, now we got to the user’s flick.
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