Why is it so hard to build an apk with Unity?

News & General Discussion
1

Every single time, I have problems building a single empty APK with nothing on my project.
I have been struggling for years!
Every time it is a different error that doesn’t let me work.
I stick with one JDK, I am upgrading my SDK based on the highest API level and still facing troubles.

Seriously, any tips to avoid that?

2

I once had problems building to the device which turned out to be a crap USB cable.

3

Here a few tips from me (valid for Unity 2021 LTS):

  • You should just use the SDK that comes with Unity automatically
  • Make sure you select SDK+NDK in the Unity Hub Installer (not selected by default)
  • When changing to a different SDK version in unity it will automatically install the new sdk required.
  • The android device must have developer mode active and the computer must be allowed (check developer settings regularly as the device sometime revoke authorizations)
  • For Build&Run to work on newer Android phones you need to use wait for the USB popup and select “Android Auto” before starting the build
  • If you change any build settings such as Debug mode usually a Unity Editor restart is required (otherwise it can get confused)
  • Remove any apk still in the target folder and related files, otherwise the build will likely fail
  • If you use any Google Packages (i.e. External Dependency Manager) - make sure you have only one version of the dependency manager in the project (I recommend the one from the package manager)
  • If you import any third party packages you need to manually ensure you don’t import any conflicting dlls (such as external dependency manager)
  • If you update any third party assets make sure you manually delete all relevant files (mainly the Plugins folder)
  • Check the Plugins/* folders if there are any duplicate plugins (i.e. 2 versions of any plugin)
  • Check your AndroidManifest.xml for duplicates (you can do this easily by exporting the Gradle project)
  • If you use addressables and switch profiles you should also restart Unity - otherwise the build won’t properly work
  • If you see an error during device startup and it’s not related to addressables make sure to delete the Library folder related to builds (IL2CPP output)
  • For upload in Google Play you most likely need to build *.aab files now - for this you need the correct version of the Google Play Games Plugin to avoid conflicts (the app will crash with a wrong version)

So yes you are correct, the list of necessary workarounds grows, because the Unity Editor becomes more and more buggy.

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