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Disable appname_symbols.zip generation in Android build
When building an Android app using "internal build system", "IL2CPP", ".NET Subset" Unity generates a zip file which contains symbols (eg: appname_3-1.0-v2.symbols.zip) next to the app .apk but we don't need it, there is a way to disable this step?
We are using a file share service (dropbox/other) and this delays upload time so we have to access the folder, delete the file or stop synchronization of this file.
This post is a few months old but I just run into it.
Actually you do need the symbols zip file in order to be able to create a call stack, if you get a crash report.
https://support.unity3d.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000292166-Symbolicate-Android-crash
Thank you Pako, the fact is to know how much it takes to generate these file and if the developer prefers to ignore how time during building will be saved skipping this step.
As far as I know, you can't skip the symbol file creation step. The whole build process in a large project takes about 10 $$anonymous$$utes for me, so it's not that much.
Agreed this really needs to be an option for iteration on mobile device builds where I don't need symbols 99% of the time. $$anonymous$$ills development time.
Answer by Neogene · Oct 31, 2019 at 05:11 PM
Update: Unity 2019.2.11 changelog: Android: Allow to disable symbols.zip generation when building apk or aab
Answer by Vivraan · Feb 17, 2019 at 03:51 AM
Switch to Git, and update the .gitignore file.
The purpose of the .gitignore
file is to, as the name implies, ignore those files in the resulting git repository. Versioning and file sharing are drastically different, so this would be an excessive change even if it were functional. As for Dropbox, similar functionality has been requested since 2014 with little progress (https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox/Ignore-folder-without-selective-sync/idi-p/5926)
Deploying doesn't implicit mean to store the file inside a VCS enabled folder.
Answer by YD_JMysior · Apr 08, 2019 at 09:03 AM
Would like to know that too. Can't seem to find any documentation on the usage of these symbol files (I think I get what they are for, but don't know how to use them). @Neogene before someone gives a proper answer (how to disable the generation of the symbols), a workaround would be to automatically remove that file in the post build process. Place a script in the Editor folder and use something like:
using UnityEditor.Callbacks;
public class SymbolsFileRemover : MonoBehaviour {
[PostProcessBuild]
public static void OnPostProcessBuild(BuildTarget target, string pathToBuiltProject)
{
//find and remove the zip file here using System.IO
}
}
Yeah I've done postprocessbuild scripts from 2011 but it's normal to think that probably the symbols file isn't always required, eg: doing "quick" deploy and tests. uff.
Exactly - I too think there should be an opt-out option to not generate the symbols.