I'm fairly sure that Poser always looks into known compressed files - I recall reading that somewhere. Where, I don't know.

All my Poser files (CR2, PP2, PZ2, OBJ, etc) are compressed (CRZ, PPZ, P2Z, OBZ, etc) and I never had this problem before, when I had search set to Shallow. 

I used to use Shallow because so many models, freebie and commercial, had incorrect paths, but I'm now going through the monumental task of trying to fix them. As I find them. If I can be bothered.

I gave up on Deep search ages ago when I realized it was quicker for me to manually locate misplaced files.

I think (but can't be 100% certain) that I've only ever had this happen with OBJ/OBZ files - it happened just now with pointlite.obj, opening up the Locate dialog with the folder containing pointlite.obz. I think I've also occasionally seen it with various other items from my Poser library - not certain whether they were OBJ/OBZs or other Poser files as I didn't make a note, Also those ones may have been simply incorrect paths.

Head.obj (when I open the Material room) and Pointlite.obj (when I change one of the Poser 11 default lights to be a point light) are the ones for which this is always happening. There may be others - I'll be keeping an eye out. 

Simple test would probably be to extract the OBJ as you suggest and see if that resolves it. I'll give that a try.

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The 3Dcheapskate* occasionally posts sensible stuff. Usually by accident.
And it usually uses Poser 11, with units set to inches. Except when it's using Poser 6 or PP2014, or when its units are set to PNU.

*also available in ShareCG, DAZ, and HiveWire3D flavours (the DeviantArt and CGBytes flavour have been discontinued).