[Fixed] Unity UI Text Code Reference magically dissapears

Hey People!

We're busy trying to show product information in an UI. For testing purposes we started with trying to just show the title.

So we have a UIController.cs that handles UI. You can find the source code below for reference.

---

What happens:

• A new UI is loaded in the Scene at runtime

• A UIController script is placed in the scene

• The UIController uses GameObject.FindObjectWithTag to find the correct Text element

• The UIController's method PopulateUI(Product p) is called

• Textfield should be filled (Which doesn't happen).

  ---

The Analysis we've done:

• The UI Text Component reference is private: Can't be set outside of class

• Is the Text Component actually read from the scene? Using Debug.Log("[Start] TitleLabel is null: " + titleLabel == null); -- Yes

• Is the Text Component still referenced right before setting the text? Using Debug.Log("[PopulateUI] TitleLabel is null: " + titleLabel == null); -- No (This is wierd)

• So we check if the moment that the Text component is read from the scene is actually triggered before the PopulateUI call using Debug.Log -- Yes

• Is the Text component correctly linked? Using [SerializeComponent] -- Seems to be, but when the reference is set to null in code the link in the editor stays, so this is unreliable output.

• Maybe there are multiple UIControllers in the scene? Check using Debug.Log in the Awake method. -- No, prints only once.

  ---

Then how come the Reference to the Text component is gone? There is no way externally to set the variable since it's private and the only time it gets set is at the Start method. I've included the entire script with output below.

I'm hoping that someone is fimiliar with this problem and can help me out.

---

Output:

---

Source:

 public class UIController : MonoBehaviour {
     [SerializeField]
     private Text titleLabel;
 
     private string titleTag = "ProductTitleField";
 
     /// <summary>
     /// Populates the Environment UI with the product info
     /// </summary>
     /// <param name="p">The Product which contains the data of everything that needs to be populated</param>
     public void PopulateUI(Product p) {
         Debug.Log("[PopulateUI] TitleLabel is null: " + titleLabel == null);
         FillLabelIfPossible(titleLabel, p.Title);
     }
 
     private void Awake() {
         Debug.Log("An Instance of UIController Exists");
     }
 
     private void Start() {
         titleLabel = GetLabelByTag(titleTag);
 
         Debug.Log("[Start] TitleLabel is null: " + titleLabel == null);
     }
 
     private Text GetLabelByTag(string tag) {
         GameObject go = GameObject.FindGameObjectWithTag(tag);
 
         if (go == null) {
             Debug.LogWarning("Could not find a GameObject tagged with " + tag + ".");
             return null;
         }
 
         Text t = go.GetComponent<Text>();
 
         if (t == null) {
             Debug.LogWarning("Could not find a Text Component on the GameObject tagged with " + tag + ".");
             return null;
         }
 
         return t;
     }
 
     private void FillLabelIfPossible(Text label, string text) {
         if (label != null) {
             label.text = text;
         }
     }
 }

 public class Test:$$anonymous$$onoBehaviour{
     void OnDestroy(){
         Debug.Log("Destroy object");
     }
 }

  GameObject go = GameObject.FindGameObjectWithTag(tag);
  go.AddComponent<Test>();