Unity Issue Tracker - Prefabs are instantiated in the wrong position when dragging and dropping from Project window to Hierarchy

Fixed

Fixed in 6000.2.9f1, 6000.3.0b7, 6000.4.0a2

Votes

4

Found in

6000.1.2f1

6000.2.0a10

6000.3.0a1

6000.4.0a1

Issue ID

UUM-104560

Regression

Yes

Prefabs are instantiated in the wrong position when dragging and dropping from Project window to Hierarchy

May 02, 2025

How to reproduce:
1. Create and open a new project
2. In the Hierarchy, right-click and select “3D GameObject → Cube”
3. Drag and drop the cube from the Hierarchy into the Project window to create a Prefab
4. In the Inspector, take note of the Prefab’s position
5. Move or rotate the Scene view camera slightly
6. Drag and drop the Prefab from the Project window to the Hierarchy window
7. In the Inspector and Scene view, observe the instantiated Prefab’s position

Expected result: The position of the instantiated Prefab is equal to the position shown in the Project window
Actual result: The position of the instantiated Prefab differs from the position shown in the Project window

Reproducible with: 6000.1.0b3, 6000.1.2f1, 6000.2.0a10
Not reproducible with: 2021.3.51f1, 2022.3.61f1 (e6a1f07378cd), 6000.0.48f1, 6000.1.0b2

Reproducible on: Windows 10 (by user), Windows 11
Not reproducible on: No other environments tested

Note: The Prefab is instantiated relative to the Scene view camera’s position/rotation, hence the need for step 5

Resolution Note:

Placement of objects in the scene has now been unified under the 3D Placement Rules preference. The expected behaviour described in this ticket was an unexpected side effect of the previous implementation.

To restore previous behaviour, we have added the "Use prefab asset position when dropping on the Hierarchy window" preference to allow prefabs to be placed at the position saved in the assets root transform when they're placed in the scene via the Hierarchy window

Comments (3)

HRDev

Nov 07, 2025 10:12

Unity, please make "Use prefab asset position when dropping on the Hierarchy window" ON by default. This restores the behavior that has always been the standard in Unity, and makes the most sense when dragging in the Hierarchy Window. It also allows us to have both behaviors available based on whether we drop in the Scene view or the Hierarchy window.
martin_noble

Oct 28, 2025 09:28

Note for others who might stumble upon this:
In the versions 6000.2.9f1 and 6000.3.0b7, which are claimed "Fixed" at time of this writing, this behaviour still occurs, but It seems there is a setting in the "Preferences -> Scene View" tab, called "Use prefab asset position when dropping on the Hierarchy window". It is turned OFF by default but when being turned on, the behaviour seems to be as it was in previous versions.
Gillissie

Sep 03, 2025 17:47

I am continually astounded at the bad UX decisions being made by Unity every day. Congratulations, you made Unity worse by design. Again.
If there is a preference setting for this dumb behaviour, please tell us how to find it, rather than just saying "3D Placement Rules preference".

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