I debated filing this one as a bug but I’m going with suggestion instead. Currently when you drag and drop a usasset into the content browse window, it errors out saying that it doesn’t understand uassets.
Even if it’s just a pass through to copy them to disk, if I drag and drop a uasset it should import it. Similarly, the “import” dialog should support importing uassets, for the same reason - keeps everything simple.
I thought I was the only one who had received this issue.
I figured that it was such an obvious thing, that I assumed I was doing something wrong on my end.
This is a good suggestion and I’ve heard someone else ask about it the other day as well. 
This is now in our database for consideration.
So, is there any way to do this? I am on beta 5 and still getting the same error; is there a workaround or do we just have to wait?
Hey Mothership team,
Thanks for contacting us! This suggestion is still in our database for consideration and has not yet been implemented. As far as a workaround, have you tried copying/pasting the .uasset file from one folder to another within Windows Explorer and then re-opening your editor?
Thanks!
-Steve
That doesn’t really work at all, on account of all the other stuff that gets referenced. I tried importing your P_cloud.uasset from the “effects” content example in the ContentExamples folder, but that forced me to do it again for Materials/M_cloud_lit.uasset, and then it started complaining about a half a dozen other things again.
Another option you could use if you just want to copy from one project to another would be to use the Migrate tool. If you right-click on an asset that you want to copy into another project and select Migrate, you will be presented with a list of all the files that need to be moved for that asset. After clicking OK, you will be able to navigate to another project’s Content folder and select it as your destination by clicking OK once again. After copying, you should get a confirmation message that all of the files were moved.
-Steve
Yes – thank you. I tried migrating and it worked perfectly. That’s clearly the right way to do it.
Migrating is one solution, but what if the .uasset you need is on another machine? Is there a way to copy an .uasset and bring it into a project on another machine? copy/paste into content/material folder crashes UE4.
Migrating is for moving content from one project to another. Given you’ve also asked this under this question, I assume you’re dealing with content for the same project, but are moving it around without version control.
You should be able to just place the .uasset files in the appropriate location in the Content folder for your project via explorer/finder; these should then appear in the content browser correctly. This is what happens when the .uasset files are placed under source control.
I’d also like to request this feature.