Reproduction steps:
1. Open the attached project “AssetReferanceBug”
2. Find the “Assets/Prefabs/checker_red_texture” texture, open right-click menu, and click on “Reveal In Finder” or “Show in Explorer”
3. In the opened window open the “checker_red_texture.jpeg.meta” file with any text editor and copy the GUID field
4. Find the “Cube2.mat” file in the same folder, open it with any text editor, and search for the GUID from the “checker_red_texture.jpeg.meta” file
5. In the Unity Editor window find “Assets/Prefabs/Cube2” material and change its texture to any other texture
6. Repeat step 4.
Expected result: The GUID reference in the material file is changed
Actual result: The GUID reference doesn’t get updated and stays the same
Reproducible with: 2020.3.47f1, 2021.3.22f1, 2022.2.15f1, 2023.1.0b12, 2023.2.0a10
Reproducible on: macOS 13.3 (Intel)