Bug 2021.2.16 Removed Assets reappear from nowhere

Hello fellow unity devs !

I have a really strange issue and i can't find a solution.

I updated an older Project to Unity 2021.2.16 and wanted to remove the Oculus Integration Package (from the Asset Store) which is not a real package, and is not registered in the manifest.json. So i delete the Folder in Unity Project Window and after some time, it just reimports all those files i just deleted.

I also tried to delete certain files from the Substance Plugin because they prevent me from building and i don't need runtime support anyway, and the same thing happens here.

I removed FMOD as well (which was an absolute horror show to completely remove) and it's files and folders also reappear without obvious reason.

Other Files and Folders i could remove without any issues.

I tried removing the files in unity project window, in windows explorer and via source tree but they always come back to haunt me.

Is there a new feature in place with Unity 2021.2.16 that treats Asset Store Imports like packages, so they are always reimported if they are deleted?

I am pretty much out of ideas and don't know where to look anymore.
Any help is highly appreciated !

 

That seems unlikely. What if you copy ONLY the files you want to a brand-new project? Do the other random files also come back?

Also, are you properly using source control?

 

I currently need to get other stuff done today, so testing with a brand new project i will have to try tomorrow.

Though i noticed something strange with the version control:
When i deleted the files directly in source tree, they would instantly reimport.
When i deleted them in unity or file explorer, i would be fine for a while.

Now the first time i deleted them, i also commited their deletion successfully.

Then when they reappeared and i deleted them via Unity Project Window, they were again shown in source tree as deleted files, which makes no sense if they weren't commited to the repo before or if i commited their deletion before.

I am not really sure if i am doing something wrong with source control here. The repo has been used by a team of about 8 people for a whole year without issues like that. I simply made a new branch to do the upgrade and after that this issue started popping up, though there were no configuration changes i can think of regarding the repo.

In Project Settings -> Version Control i have enable "Visible Meta Files" and we use the same (working) gitignore like in all our previous projects. Is there something else i have missed ?

 

I haven't looked at VR in a while but there was two things you needed:

- the asset store package thing that you report re-appearing

- an additional thing you set up in PlayerSettings (IIRC)

I wonder if the second thing being set is causing the first to reload?

Specifically, I see this under my old OculusGo PlayerSettigs (under OtherSettings panel):



But that's from years ago so I don't know what the state of things are in your setup.

 

Yeah that has changed a lot (been there since the Gear VR Days / Oculus Dev Kit).

There is now an XR Plugin Management System and Oculus now offers a real package (Oculus XR Plugin) that you CAN use in combination with the Integration Package from the Asset Store for more functionality but don't need to. Though even that Oculus XR Package is going to be deprecated in the near future because Oculus stated that they want to move that functionality as a feature for the Open XR Package (though it's far from production ready in its current state). I don't see that there's any link between the Oculus XR Package and the Oculus Integration Asset, also it wouldn't explain the same thing happening with other Assets.

But i think your really onto something with Version Control doing freaky things - the fact that i could commit the deletion of the same files twice, without adding them with a commit in between those two deletions is something i can't explain. The good thing is that we'll remake the project in a new repo eventually, but it would still be cool to find out what made that weird behaviour happen.

Really appreciating that you're taking the time to help me

 

What about a service like OneDrive or DropBox restoring those files?

All of those file sync services are definitely NOT OKAY to use in Unity land!

 

Nope i don't use any cloud storage in my unity projects