diff --git a/interface/src/ui/PreferencesDialog.cpp b/interface/src/ui/PreferencesDialog.cpp
index 89c82a1c97..a25f868172 100644
--- a/interface/src/ui/PreferencesDialog.cpp
+++ b/interface/src/ui/PreferencesDialog.cpp
@@ -33,8 +33,8 @@
 const int PREFERENCES_HEIGHT_PADDING = 20;
 
 PreferencesDialog::PreferencesDialog(QWidget* parent) :
-    QDialog(parent) {
-        
+    QDialog(parent)
+{
     setAttribute(Qt::WA_DeleteOnClose);
 
     ui.setupUi(this);
@@ -48,10 +48,8 @@ PreferencesDialog::PreferencesDialog(QWidget* parent) :
     connect(ui.buttonReloadDefaultScripts, &QPushButton::clicked, qApp, &Application::loadDefaultScripts);
 
     connect(ui.buttonChangeAppearance, &QPushButton::clicked, this, &PreferencesDialog::openFullAvatarModelBrowser);
-    connect(ui.appearanceDescription, &QLineEdit::textChanged, this, [this](const QString& url) {
-        DependencyManager::get<AvatarManager>()->getMyAvatar()->useFullAvatarURL(url, "");
-        this->fullAvatarURLChanged(url, "");
-    });
+    connect(ui.appearanceDescription, &QLineEdit::editingFinished, this, &PreferencesDialog::changeFullAvatarURL);
+
     connect(qApp, &Application::fullAvatarURLChanged, this, &PreferencesDialog::fullAvatarURLChanged);
 
     // move dialog to left side
@@ -61,6 +59,11 @@ PreferencesDialog::PreferencesDialog(QWidget* parent) :
     UIUtil::scaleWidgetFontSizes(this);
 }
 
+void PreferencesDialog::changeFullAvatarURL() {
+    DependencyManager::get<AvatarManager>()->getMyAvatar()->useFullAvatarURL(ui.appearanceDescription->text(), "");
+    this->fullAvatarURLChanged(ui.appearanceDescription->text(), "");
+}
+
 void PreferencesDialog::fullAvatarURLChanged(const QString& newValue, const QString& modelName) {
     ui.appearanceDescription->setText(newValue);
     const QString APPEARANCE_LABEL_TEXT("Appearance: ");
@@ -69,9 +72,17 @@ void PreferencesDialog::fullAvatarURLChanged(const QString& newValue, const QStr
 
 void PreferencesDialog::accept() {
     MyAvatar* myAvatar = DependencyManager::get<AvatarManager>()->getMyAvatar();
+
+    // if there is an attempted change to the full avatar URL, apply it now
+    if (QUrl(ui.appearanceDescription->text()) != myAvatar->getFullAvatarURLFromPreferences()) {
+        changeFullAvatarURL();
+    }
+
     _lastGoodAvatarURL = myAvatar->getFullAvatarURLFromPreferences();
     _lastGoodAvatarName = myAvatar->getFullAvatarModelName();
+
     savePreferences();
+
     close();
     delete _marketplaceWindow;
     _marketplaceWindow = NULL;
diff --git a/interface/src/ui/PreferencesDialog.h b/interface/src/ui/PreferencesDialog.h
index 6d7a87b97c..1536eca3ee 100644
--- a/interface/src/ui/PreferencesDialog.h
+++ b/interface/src/ui/PreferencesDialog.h
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ private slots:
     void openFullAvatarModelBrowser();
     void openSnapshotLocationBrowser();
     void openScriptsLocationBrowser();
+    void changeFullAvatarURL();
     void fullAvatarURLChanged(const QString& newValue, const QString& modelName);
 };
 
diff --git a/libraries/entities/src/EntityScriptingInterface.cpp b/libraries/entities/src/EntityScriptingInterface.cpp
index f97e904423..a0a6719521 100644
--- a/libraries/entities/src/EntityScriptingInterface.cpp
+++ b/libraries/entities/src/EntityScriptingInterface.cpp
@@ -206,10 +206,13 @@ QUuid EntityScriptingInterface::editEntity(QUuid id, const EntityItemProperties&
             // All of parentID, parentJointIndex, position, rotation are needed to make sense of any of them.
             // If any of these changed, pull any missing properties from the entity.
             EntityItemPointer entity = _entityTree->findEntityByEntityItemID(entityID);
-            if (entity && !scriptSideProperties.parentIDChanged()) {
+            if (!entity) {
+                return;
+            }
+            if (!scriptSideProperties.parentIDChanged()) {
                 properties.setParentID(entity->getParentID());
             }
-            if (entity && !scriptSideProperties.parentJointIndexChanged()) {
+            if (!scriptSideProperties.parentJointIndexChanged()) {
                 properties.setParentJointIndex(entity->getParentJointIndex());
             }
             if (!scriptSideProperties.localPositionChanged() && !scriptSideProperties.positionChanged()) {
diff --git a/libraries/render-utils/src/Model.cpp b/libraries/render-utils/src/Model.cpp
index c6ca81dace..b367d299e5 100644
--- a/libraries/render-utils/src/Model.cpp
+++ b/libraries/render-utils/src/Model.cpp
@@ -544,6 +544,7 @@ void Model::removeFromScene(std::shared_ptr<render::Scene> scene, render::Pendin
         pendingChanges.removeItem(item);
     }
     _renderItems.clear();
+    _renderItemsSet.clear();
     _readyWhenAdded = false;
 }