sorry, i thought that was clear. it is in the short description of the error. i cannot perform any actions on an object that is not local, as any armature modifiers would not function. library groups with armature proxies may be my only option now, but have proved problematic in the past, which is why i link the scene file, and link objects directly. it may be that i am using a deprecated process, but it used to work.

i get a LIB ERROR: Particle Settings: 'settings.name' missing from '/Path/To/Scene/File.blend', parent '<direct>'

that description appears to be correct. i think the language of linked libraries is causing some confusion, so i will describe the use scenario. i have created a character in a file, with particle settings for multiple hair systems. i then create another file for an environment, and import the character as a linked scene file. from that scene file, i link the character to the environment scene. when i reload the environment file, the particle settings on the linked character object are lost.

tried latest build, still getting the same result. i did not see any other reports of this issue, so i saw no reason to assume it had been fixed. it does work under 2.74, but i am concerned about regression issues in re-saving new files with old versions.