Android 6.0 and up: Build crashes from Google Play until Storage is Cleared

Unity Engine
,
4

I’ve found something interesting about the Android 9 x64 force exit upon first launch from Google Play with fresh install (which means many users are affected):

  • The game is Install Location doesn’t seem to help (tried all)

However, it seems like it’s due to the new feature from Android 8 that backs up user data in Google Drive, even after uninstall.

By adding both the android:allowBackup="false" tools:replace="android:allowBackup AND the following steps prevents the user data backup, fixing the crash at start I mentioned:

  1. Create the file:
    Plugins/Android/res/xml/backup_rules.xml

  2. With the content:
    backup_rules.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<full-backup-content>
    <include domain="sharedpref" path="."/>
</full-backup-content>
  1. Add to your AndroidManifest.xml file:
android:fullBackupContent="@xml/backup_rules"

inside the <application > tag

Here’s the example of my manifest after this change with highlighted addition inside the brackets [ADD THIS] [/ADD THIS]:
Example AndroidManifest.xml file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    package="com.company.game"
    android:versionName="1.0"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:allowBackup="false" tools:replace="android:allowBackup">
  <application
        android:icon="@drawable/app_icon"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:hardwareAccelerated="true"
        android:isGame="true"
        [ADD THIS]android:fullBackupContent="@xml/backup_rules"[/ADD THIS]>
    <activity android:name="com.unity3d.player.UnityPlayerActivity"
            android:label="@string/app_name"
            android:clearTaskOnLaunch="false"
            android:screenOrientation="sensorLandscape"
            android:configChanges="fontScale|keyboard|keyboardHidden|locale|mnc|mcc|navigation|orientation|screenLayout|screenSize|smallestScreenSize|uiMode|touchscreen">
      <meta-data android:name="android.app.lib_name" android:value="unity" />
      <meta-data android:name="unityplayer.ForwardNativeEventsToDalvik" android:value="true" />
      <meta-data android:name="unityplayer.SkipPermissionsDialog" android:value="true" /> <!-- Important! Without this all the permissions are asked at app startup on Android 6.0 devices. -->
      <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LEANBACK_LAUNCHER" />
      </intent-filter>
    </activity>
  </application>
  <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="16" android:targetSdkVersion="28" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WAKE_LOCK" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
  <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />
  <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.touchscreen" android:required="false" />
  <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera" android:required="false" />
  <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.gamepad" android:required="false"/>
  <uses-feature android:name="android.software.leanback" android:required="false"/>
</manifest>

Thanks to ** @TextusGames ** for this idea of fix that I found on this page: Unity 2019.x IL2CPP crash on Android 8 page-2

It seems to fix it for me right now, but I’ll come back to you tomorrow when the production build is fully live so I can test in final conditions as this crash only happens from Production build from Google Play.

I’m now going to check if I can reproduce the other crash I mentioned. Will come back soon!