OSX_BackUpThisFolder_ButDontShipItWithYourGame?

When I make a build, a folder named OSX_BackUpThisFolder_ButDontShipItWithYourGame is created with it. But what is it for? Why should I back it up?

1 Like

It is a folder containing data required to debug your game, including PDB (debug info) files and C++ code generated from your scripts. You should back up this folder for every build you ship, but don’t redistribute it.

Docs: Unity - Manual: Windows Player: IL2CPP Scripting Backend

1 Like

Thanks, but that doesn’t answer what to do with it. I don’t want to bother backing up files that I’ll never use anyway.

How exactly are they used for debugging the game? Is there documentation on this?

If you’re not releasing the game yet there is no point for keeping it then I guess.

Also, if you are, there is an argument for only keeping the latest version of this folder. Specially if you have a system that makes your old version of the game unplayable if there is an update out or something.

How this usually works is, if you release the game and one of your players experiences an issue (a crash most of the time), and you manage to get their crashlogs (some automatic system, or they just send it to you) they will be obfuscated, as in the crash stack will just say crash happened in Unity.lib or something, not much useful information.
But then you can use the stuff in your folder with (probably) any IDE to symbolicate that crash stack to get actual function calls and line numbers for the crash, making it much easier to debug the cause.

Some docs for Visual Studio: Symbol / PDB files in the Visual Studio debugger | Microsoft Learn

Thanks. I get the concept, but without additional information other than naming the folder that really long weird name, it’s useless. It would be much me helpful if Unity included a PDF or HTML file next to that folder that linked to complete documentation about that folder, and how to use it. Otherwise it’s just build junk.