I encountered a problem when I went to 4.18 (VR project), I created a primitive (cube & Sphere) in my scene to do position tests. Then by wanting them removed from the level, I confronted a window telling me “Updating Asset References” the project remaining blocked on that, I must close it by deleting the process UE4EDITOR.
The concern remains unresolved for me at the moment. However, an archaic solution for removing the objects of the level is to transform the primitive into a blueprint, and to put in the construction script “Destroy Actor” by targeting “Self”; At runtime, formerly the buggy primitive, the new blueprint is removed from the hierarchy, and it just has deleted the reference blueprint in content.