I seem to have a ‘bug’ where quite often the full list of materials in a model aren’t showing up in the ‘Colors in model’ window of the picker. I prefer to re-use material where possible within the model to keep it tidy, but it’s annoying to try and find the exact same material each time.
Here I have a pebbly material I want to reuse on the second shape, but it’s not there. Any ideas why?
hello, why don’t you simply use the picker directly on an existing material instead of looking for it in the list ?
+1
because it looks like this one to me, scaled up.
just take the paint bucket, press option to get the eyedrop, and click on the face. you’ll see what material is selected in the material panel.
It’s not the same material. The same thing has been happening with other, more distinct materials too.
I wonder if I’m missing a really obvious easy way of working!! Can you show me how that works please? I’m on a mac, so most of the tutorials about materials don’t apply as it’s a very different, much reduced interface.
Pierre explained how to quite clearly ! just try 
Figured it out. I press Command to get the eyedropper. 8 years of SKU and never knew that one! In my rather feeble defence, I’m 99% self taught from online tutorials!
But I’m still losing materials from the picker window. Happens a few times a day with different materials. They eventually reappear. I’ve screenshotted them, so I can check I’m not just missing them / losing my marbles!
any chance it happens after a copy / paste action ?
(and yeah, it’s command, not option, I almost said alt… I shouldn’t answer shortcuts while not on SU 
)
