I play on xbox one.

I wanted people to know this because I searched online quite a bit and half of the people said one thing and the other half said another about this. It might be platform specific (PS4, xbox, PC) but on xbox, if you don't drop an item and scrap it manually, you will lose any extra items that the junk could have been scrapped for if you only use part of it during a mod.

For example:

A roll of duct tape will scrap into 1 adhesive and 1 cloth. Now lets say you want to mod a pistol and the mod takes 1 adhesive along with other stuff. You could just leave the duct tape in your inventory and make the mod, but you will lose that 1 cloth that you could have got if you had dropped the duct tape on the ground and opened the workshop and scrapped the item.

I have tested this extensively on xb1 and can verify you definitely LOSE the extra items.

Kinda wish I had known this at first... I think the game should give you the spare items; the 1 cloth from the duct tape in my example. It is very time consuming to drop everything and continually scrap so many items because I don't want to lose so much useful scrap. Especially on console. With keyboard and mouse it might be easier, but I bet its still a pain in the rear.

I play on PS4 and can confirm exactly what Slippin84 has found. Like Slippin, I wish I'd known about this earlier (I just figured it out last night). I can only imagine how many components I've lost by allowing the game to auto-select. It's a shame that the game doesn't properly update the component counts. At the very least, there should have been some sort of warning (was there? Perhaps I missed it...).

I'm thinking I may take a bit of time each play-session and break down every item that has multiple components. Time consuming, mindless activity, yes, but I'd hate to lose a rare or hard-to-come-by component because it was auto-consumed.

Actually, I thought this was just confirmed as a display bug? If you travel away from the settlement and wait an hour, the "missing" materials should appear in the workbench. It is just taking them a little while to show up.

Yeah I have people who have confirmed that it's simply a display error with the excess material. Exiting crafting and reentering has been reported to resolve the display issue.

This isn't the case on PC. My excess materials from scrapping go into the workbench storage as normal. HOWEVER, as the above poster mentioned there is a small delay before the items show up.

Maybe test it again but this time try to wait 1 hour of in game time and see if the items show up then.

Wow, I didn't realize that. Thanks, I will definitely try it again and wait a bit and see if they do eventually show up. THANKS! That would be so awesome.

Question, if this is just a display bug. Can we just store our junk items in the workshop storage and everything will be done automatically as needed? Or do I need to pull it out of there and scrap it manually?

You can store all your junk in the workbench. The game will automatically scrap something as the compenents are required. The only things I scrap myself are guns and armor.

Perfect, I am finally starting to figure this settlement thing out. And now I know how to keep my weight on my character down by dropping all this bs off at different workbenches!
Thanks!

Wow this helps, thank you.

It is just a display bug. Only a few items I scrap by placing on the ground and that are some clothing that I do not need and need the leather/cloth, but that is more earlier in the game. Then I am always in the early game since I love to start new characters.

I believe this has been tested, but if you take a few items to a unlinked workstation and craft a object that would use the adhesive, then craft something that would use the extra component that is not showing up (without having extra stuff on you) you'll find that you can use that extra cloth, even though it doesn't show. And as people said, fast travel to another location, sleep for a few hours then go back to that workstation and the stuff should show up.

I just wish you could scrap the junk item in the menu at the work stations. only way to scrap a junk item is to drop it on the floor in the workspace, and scrap that way through the workshop menu. I'm sure this will get fixed with mods. Just hope it doesn't take forever on xbox one.

Yes, I guess one very useful mod would be an trash compactor to break down stuff.

Very practical then you want to build stuff at unlined settlements.

Yeah, when I built the scavenging station I thought I could just deposit all junk items and the game would then bulk scrap all items then deposit the components into settlement storage. What a let down, I have waaaay too many junk items to manually breakdown.

What's the purpose to the scavenging station? I can assign a Settler to it, but they don't seem to do anything.

edited for spelling.

if you watch for a while youll see your assigned settler use a torch on the side of the scavenging station. it adds free junk to your workshop inventory.

Bumping this back up.

Experimented a little bit more last night and I still do not receive any of the extra components if you use a piece of junk that isn't scrapped first.

I am hearing people say its a display bug, and that the extra items are there, they just don't show up. I fast traveled out of the location and back, still no items. I walked around for a good while, no items, slept, no items. I though maybe they were totally invisible, and would show up if I tried to mod an item that required on of these missing pieces, but no, they weren't there.

Sadly, I will still recommend to everyone to drop their items and scrap them manually so you don't lose anything. That svcks for two reasons: one, its time consuming and tedius, two, you need some of the orginal items for certain crafting. Like you need a coolant bottle for some explosives, and it would be so much nicer to leave junk intact in your workshop in case you need the original item.

Yeah, someone mentioned this to me at work and I've manually scrapped items since. Take a little time, but I have a dedicated spot for it and I just drop all of it when I fast travel back to Sanctuary at the end of a run.

I just tested this. Brought just a handful of stuff to a settlement I had completely cleared, the workshop was empty. I crafted a scavenging station I believe it was and when I checked the workshop the excess was there, straight away, no display lag. Maybe the lag depends on how much junk you have in your settlement or something. Or maybe it had something to do with my keeping the items in my inventory and not the workshop. I dont know, but now I am just too lazy to manually scrap everything so I don't, junk is just too cheap and common to really worry about it that much.