Unable to import Sockets from Blender FBX

I am using Blender version 2.79 to export a skeletal mesh as an FBX file. The skeletal mesh has two “emptys” attached the “SOCKET_” prefix. When importing, Unreal should use these objects to create sockets automatically.

However, when I import this file into Unreal Engine 4.21, the engine interprets these objects as bones rather than sockets. After performing some tests with older versions of the engine and Blender, it would appear that the problem resides in a change to how Blender 2.79 exports FBX files.

Is there something I’m doing wrong or is this a problem with Blender 2.79? Is there a workaround or do I just have to manually add the sockets in engine after importing?

The above shows my test skeletal mesh in blender. The two-axis objects are “empty” objects (1.) that have the “SOCKET_” prefix and the emptys are parented to a bone on the skeleton.

The above shows the settings I use when exporting a SkeletalMesh from Blender.

The above shows the results after importing into Unreal.

I got this (kinda) working with Blender 2.8 and UE4.22.2 and the only real difference between what I did and what you posted was I have ‘Add Leaf Bones’ check for the armature export tab. I say kinda because the scale is totally out of whack and anything attached to one of the sockets is super large (as in you cannot even see the original object). Worse yet, you cannot really scale them.

I was able to add a socket manually and then drag it to be a child of my imported socket, and then re-scale the child socket by .01 on all axes. It is ugly as all, but it works. I did not want to just place the native sockets in UE4 because the placement needs to be very precise and UE4 just does not offer that kind of granularity. Making them children of the imported ones allowed the placement to be perfect while still allowing me to scale them correctly.