Hi guys I have a media heavy app for the iPad and my archive is ~370mb. For what I'm doing, that isn't unreasonable. If i view the xcarchive in finder it is ~391MB, the .ipa is ~388mb, which roughly corresponds to the size of all my assets uncompressed.
So I double-checked the actual usage on my test device and it is 755 megs! This is similar to the "estimated app store" size shown in organizer.
I checked usage on several other test devices and it is the same.
I read the other posts about the organizer estimate tending to be inaccurate, but does that translate to the usage indication on the iPad itself? Shouldn't the iPad just report how much actual space is being used?
370 mb (double) of extra usage can't be anything to do with the executable not compressing, and this shouldn't be a result of PNGs being somehow expanded, I use a ton of jpegs because they are so much smaller.
And the whole compressed/uncompressed discussion feels like a red herring because if I simply get info on the uncompressed assets folder in finder, it is ... 355 mb. So I can't understand how compressing and then uncompressing a bunch of images would double their size.
My only theories are:
- The usage on the development iPad is for some reason no indication of final app size
All my jpegs are somehow being converted to PNGs inside the ipad itself ... ??? really how is that possible??
I have two video files, they could somehow be automatically converted to another format .. ??again, really?? that sounds impossible
the app has in-app purchase capability, it could be somehow allocating disk space in anticipation of future purchases?
I hate all of those theories because none of them make sense. Any of you ever run in to this before?
So write some code in your app that after launch uses nsfilemanager to walk your complete app on the device (or simulator)and tally the totals and log it. This way you will know exactly. Also recall that the file system uses discrete disk blocks of fixed size so 1 byte files actually consume more, but this is probably not your problem.
Also zipping media rarely results in space savings.
This is similar to the "estimated app store" size shown in organizer.
You can check out why by examining the contents of your archive:
Open Organizer, select Archives, select your app, right click on your archive, Show in Finder, right click on the file, Show Package Contents, open Products, open Applications, right click on your app bundle, Show Package Contents.
Also, Xcode might combine retina and non-retina images into a single multipage TIFF file. Check out this answer for more details.
Related
My iPhone app has recently got a little larger than I'd like (nearing 100MB) and I'm not entirely sure what the cause of it is.
There are many apps for the Mac like DaisyDisk that let you see the make up of your Mac's storage, but is there something where I can see what's taking up so much space in, say, a .ipa file?
Bryan's answer is the way to go. Unzip your IPA (Rename it from .ipa to .zip), find the .app file in the unzipped folder, option click the .app file and view contents, press command J and check "calculate all file sizes", and then sort the results by file size. More than likely you have big media files in your app.
If you try this with iMovie, for example, you'll find the the largest folder in the app is called "Assets", and it's 261 MB.
we have implemented one universal application. It's a huge application and 6-8 SDKs are integrated, So the entire app is taking around 40MB size.
After all, we want to reduce the size of the application. So we started the investigation, where exactly it is taking more size. What I know is, I can check for useless view controllers, and I can remove 1x images. And these things we can do in Xcode. But what if we want to know the sizes it is taking in .ipa file itself. Is it possible ?
But is there any better way to know the .ipa size module/ SDK wise. Please let me know. Any optimisation tool are available ?
The following post has good advice on optimizations
https://medium.com/#mandrigin/ios-app-performance-instruments-beyond-48fe7b7cdf2#.btdp7bv5t
Also, you can try to access images in the IPA file using such tools like iBrowse and even better if you have a device with a firmware less than 9.3.3 to perform a jailbreak and investigate.
You can go even deeper by:
reducing image size using tools like imageAlpha & imageOptim which are both free
take a look at webP image format developed by google
https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/#webp_support_stylefont-weight_bold
I have a Unity3D project that I've already released for iOS via Xcode. Previously the archive size was about 30-40Mb which I'm happy with.
I've now changed a few things within the Unity project, and rebuilt it for Xcode. Now when I archive it, the size is around 110Mb, which is huge compared to the previous file size. I only changed the logo, and splash screen design.
Also, when I rebuild the older version, the size isn't 30-40Mb anymore, it's 110Mb too!
So I'm guessing this is something to do with the new Xcode for iOS8? Not 100% sure, hence why Im asking.
Thanks.
Try to turn off BitCode. Open XCode => Build Settings => search Enable BitCode. Set it to No.
Have you read this?
http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/iphone-playerSizeOptimization.html
Also it can be fault of stripping level, try to use micro mscorlib.
In addition you can take a look at Decrease Your App’s Code Size from Mac App Programming Guide.
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/General/Conceptual/MOSXAppProgrammingGuide/Performance/Performance.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40010543-CH9-SW2
I believe part of what is happening here is the additional overhead for the arm64 slice (unless you were already including the arm64 slice previously). I would not expect that much of an increase in size for the arm64, but it would still be roughly X2 on the app binary (minus the resources).
As of Feb 1, Apple requires arm64 support as well as the app being built with the iOS 8 SDK. The default Xcode build setting enables arm64.
What you can do is Show Package Contents on the xarchive and work your way to the app executable binary. You can then compare the size difference on the app executable binary from before and now. You can also run lipo -info on it to see all the slices from before and now. Note I am assuming you have an older xarchive to compare with.
I would then probably diff the rest of the resources (use something like Araxis merge) to see the differences in the files. This will let you see what resource files changed or got added. If your diff is only the executable, then you have isolated were the size difference has come from.
The 'Estimated App Store Size' reflects the installed app size, not the download size.
I'm basing this off the following test:
(Unity app build) Estimated App Store Size: 140.8 MB, size listed in store: 33.4 MB. The splash images alone inside the package add up to 30 megs uncompressed (all my jpegs were converted to pngs) so there's no way the installed size is 33.4 MB. After install, if I go to settings -> general -> usage -> Manage Storage I see the app is 141 MB installed.
I'm not sure how to estimate the download size, which is what matters if you have an app you want to be downloaded over cellular network and needs to be under 100 MB downloaded.
I added this as a comment to the question, but I wish I had read this as an answer, so here it is.
I am trying to submit an application in App Store, and I need to decrease its memory a little bit, if this is possible. I tried a method which I am gonna describe below to make my app lighter, but with not luck.
Details
I followed these steps to see what was causing this large size
Make an archive of the project
Distribute it
Save for Enterprise or Ad-Hoc Deployment
Select the .ipa file and changed the extension to .zip
Extract it, and open Payload
Show the Package Contents
Contents
I had .png files with 680 Kb (when I added those where 32 kb approximately), I deleted them and I reduced the size of application by 2 MB. There are other files that take space but not considerably, except one executable file that is taking about 90 % of the .ipa's size.
Question
Is it possible to decrease executable file's size? If not then can you give me a hint where I should look to make my app lighter in terms of size.
P.S I use third party libraries like Vuforia SDK and libraries on GitHUB
How can I reduce the size of this executable file
You cannot reduce the size of the executable inside your built app bundle. This is your code! The only ways to reduce its size are:
Cut code. Obviously you can't do that because you would exclude functionality that makes your app work.
Remove an architecture slice. You should not do that because you want to build for all possible architectures.
Having said that... I have never generated an executable inside the app bundle anywhere near this large. Maybe you are measuring / building wrong:
Make sure you are archiving. Nothing else except an archive is worth measuring.
Make sure that you are generating a Release build when you Archive.
Make sure that your Release build settings include the full compiler optimization (smallest, fastest).
Suggestion how to reduce binary size from Reducing the size of my App:
Compiler Options
Setting the Optimization Level build setting to Fastest, Smallest [-Os]; and the Strip Debug Symbols During Copy build setting to Yes (COPY_PHASE_STRIP = YES) can dramatically lower the size of your compiled binary. These settings are the default for the "Release" configuration in Xcode projects.
Assets are almost always the main culprit of large apps sizes.
If you archive your app and export the IPA you will be able to convert it so a .zip by changing the extension and then unzip and look at the contents of the package.
If you sort by file size you will see which files are the largest. Keep in mind images with transparency are larger.
Some more insight as well: http://bjango.com/articles/pngcompression/
If you're truly concerned about the internals of the executable, build with a link map. That shows sizes by segment and by symbol.
e.g.
# Sections:
# Address Size Segment Section
0x0000AB90 0x00711D30 __TEXT __text
0x0071C8C0 0x00028D34 __TEXT __symbol_stub4
0x007455F4 0x00001A58 __TEXT __stub_helper
0x0074704C 0x00057452 __TEXT __cstring
[…]
# Symbols:
# Address Size File Name
0x000122A0 0x00000020 [ 6] ___Block_byref_object_copy_
0x000122C0 0x0000001C [ 6] ___Block_byref_object_dispose_
0x00012320 0x00000028 [ 6] ___copy_helper_block_78
0x00012348 0x0000001C [ 6] ___destroy_helper_block_79
[…]
I came across an article in the web which explains the process in the following 9 points:
Ensure that you have reached the maximum level of iOS stripping, for
more info on iOS stripping, see this post.
Enabling bitcode DOES increase the size of your over-the-air download.
In our case, it was the difference between 130 and 70MB. If you wish
to turn bitcode off, you can do so in your xcode project, or using a
post build attribute such as this one.
The Launch image in your xcode project is NOT optimized. While running
something through a compression algorithm doesn’t work because Unity
decompresses and stores images without much compression in order to
decrease startup time, it does work for the launch images that are
generated by Untiy after project generation.Run all your images
through a lossless compression algorithm in order to save a few MBs
(10 in our case).
If this isn’t enough, it’s time to start looking at your asset logs.
Run your build in Unity and open the Editor log, it’s this
ridiculously small icon next to your console preferences. In our case,
they are already optimized. With a 111MB in uncompressed assets, we
were able to achieve an over-the-air size of 70MB. Go over each asset
and change the resolution to the lowest possible quality that your
users won’t notice. The best compression setting is PVRTC for iOS.
While you are at it, check out Resource Checker in order to see large
textures in-memory. Reducing the resolution on these will also
decrease build size, as well as memory consumption. Also, please use
sprite atlases – you will see the wonders this does!
Check for unused libraries in your project, or libraries that are
using far too much space for their functionality. Commands such as df
and ls -lh might come in useful here, run these in your project files
and see which files really stand out and need to be reduced in size.
Keep in mind that these individual libraries do not necessarily have
the same build effect as your textures – generally, these are compiled
for multiple architectures, and if a library is 20MB, it generally
only affects your build size by about 6MB, due to the fact that
libraries often include architecture support for i386, arm64, and arm7
in the same library
Check that the /Plugins/Android is not included in your iOS project.
See this post for more information.
Make sure you don’t have any unused scenes in your build settings.
Build your project, and check out the archive before you submit it to
iTunes Connect. You can do so by clicking “Product -> Archive”,
letting it archive, and when it’s done, “Window -> Organizer” to pop
up this interface and find the build location.
Under “Products/Applications/game.app” Run the mv command to turn your
.app into a browsable directory.In this directory you’ll be able to
see a lot of the stuff we did, and also find inspiration for more
things you can do.
Now, there are a lot more things that could result in a bigger than
expected build size, and I’m sure there are a lot more things you can
to do get below it also.
If you’d like to add to this list, or have further questions (I’m usually happy to answer questions), leave a comment below with your specific use case, and I’ll try to help!
All the best,
Pim
If you have already checked all your assets (images, audio, etc... ) just check if you need all the external libraries (3rd party libraries out of the iOS sdk) that you import in your app.
I am prepearing my first game for submission and reading the iTunes connect guide I don't understand the guide's section below.
From section currently titled "App file size limit" at page 237:
(iOS only) App Size iOS apps can be as large as 2 GB, but the
executable file cannot exceed 60MB. However, consider download times
when determining your app’s size. Minimize the file’s size as much as
possible, keeping in mind that there is a 50 MB limit for over-the-air
downloads. Abnormally large binary files are usually the result of
storing data, such as images, inside the compiled binary itself,
instead of as a resource inside your app bundle. If you are compiling
an image or large dataset into your binary, it would be best to split
this data out into a resource that is loaded dynamically by your app.
My Doubt: I estimated the size of the archive using XCode -> Archive and then XCode->Organizer->Estimate App Size and my App is 156 MB of size. This is way more than the 60 MB of limit. How can I make sure the assets are loaded dynamically?
I placed all my images (more than 30 files for a total of 100 MB and all my music (about 30 MB of music) in the Resources folder. I asked the same question on the Apple developer forum but someone just gave me an answer than lead me to think that the Apple guide actually refers to the estimated size (not sure if I interpreted the answer wrongly).
Looking at the AppStore there are examples of apps that have a file size higher than 50 MB (example) so I don't understand why the user just told me that I have to look at both executable and non execuatable parts of my app:
"The "executable file" in question is the entire application bundle
file, executable and non-executable parts combined."
Would anyone be able to clarify this?