When and how things download?

Unity Engine
1

I’ve read the docs about 20 times now and don’t see anything. It SEEMS intuitive that when you instantiate or load an assetReference it downloads, caches, and loads/instantiates just that Asset. This does not appear to be the case in my app (using Addressables 1.7.5).

When I first install my APK the app is 30mb total on the device. When I start the app it downloads everything in group “Menu items” and dynamically generates all the menus based on those items (using labels to sort some things). The app is then slightly larger in size (34mb). If I then enter a menu and select an item to load (It’s an AR app) and load it two things happen. 1) It takes AGES to load (All items are remote assets/bundles). Even small models with very low poly take 3-5 minutes on cellular data and 1-3 on wifi. Every subsequent model I load does not have a load time. 2) my app jumps up to 222mb on the device. This tells me its not just loading the single item I have requested - Its loading everything in that group.

More info:
I am using remote assetbundles in Azure Blob.
The way I have my app setup I have scriptable objects marked as addressable for in different groups with different labels - (Brand > Product families > Individual Products).
The Individual Product scriptableobjects have an AssetReference to the associated prefab.
User selects product and taps screen and it loads and instantiates the prefab using this line of code:

 AsyncOperationHandle<GameObject> handle = GameManager.Instance.fixtureToSpawn.InstantiateAsync(placementPose.position, placementPose.rotation);

My Addressable Groups are setup in this way -
Items (non static, build remote catalog, Pack together)
Brands (non static, build remote catalog, Pack together)
Product Families(non static, build remote catalog, Pack together)
Products (non static, build remote catalog, Pack together)

Items refers to the prefabs themselves.
Products is basically the ScriptableObject menu item that references the Item.

So why is it when I instantiate a single item I appear to download the entire addressable group? Will this change if I change the Items group to be packed separately?

Thanks,
Craig

2

bump - Anyone have an idea on how and when non static assets are downloaded?