How to save blender project without the original files [Unable to pack file Warning]

Question

I'm really new to blender here, and I was looking for an environment for import so I can render a picture of a room from a very specific POV to use in an After Effects project.

So I downloaded a free room environment from this website: https://free3d.com/3d-model/chambre--24937.html

And it only provides one .blend file, now the problem is that I made some changes to the scene and I need to save this .blend file, and upon saving I receive this error:

Unable to pack file source path: /path/

Well, I understand what it means, it can't find the original images used in the project to pack the new .blend file, so how do I use the already packed images in the original .blend file to save the new .blend file?

Why doesn't blender automatically extract the images from the opened .blend file and save them to a location and then use them to pack a new .blend file?

I tried manually extracting some of the images, and saved them to where the original .blend file is saved and opened, and I went to File -> External Data -> Find Missing Files but it doesn't work.

Answer 1

The .blend in your link comes with a file missing (Fields_wallpapers_488.jpg). It was not packed properly by the creator of the file.

Packed files do not need to be unpacked for them to work in Blender. If files are unpacked they are usually used from the location they are unpacked to and automatic packing is turned off. If it's enabled again then the files are packed from the location they were unpacked. As you can see asset packing and unpacking functionality is quite complete in Blender and it usually works as intended. In this specific case the file comes with a missing asset - that's why it's not possible to find. The creator of the file must have received the same warning and chose to ignore it.