Bug Crash in PBXProjectData.WriteToString()

With 2022.3.5f1 our build pipeline is crashing on PBXProjectData.WriteToString() on a Win11 build agent:

simple 19-Jul-2023 16:13:51 NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
simple 19-Jul-2023 16:13:51 at UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.PBXProjectObjectData.UpdateProps () [0x001e9] in <fde5c1e3700a463186cce16f247b09e3>:0
simple 19-Jul-2023 16:13:51 at UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.KnownSectionBase`1[T].WriteSection (System.Text.StringBuilder sb, UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.GUIDToCommentMap comments) [0x0006b] in <fde5c1e3700a463186cce16f247b09e3>:0
simple 19-Jul-2023 16:13:51 at UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBXProjectData.WriteToString () [0x00081] in <fde5c1e3700a463186cce16f247b09e3>:0
simple 19-Jul-2023 16:13:51 at UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBXProject.WriteToString () [0x00001] in <fde5c1e3700a463186cce16f247b09e3>:0
simple 19-Jul-2023 16:13:51 at Assets.Scripts.Editor.iOS.XcodeProjBuilderAgent.OnPostBuild (TM.Unity.Build.BuildParameters prms) [0x0006c]

Anyone else facing this issue? Any workarounds?

 

Hi @tmars happened to me as well. It turned out I was adding singing capabilities twice which caused error for me. Try to go through your PostProcessBuildAttribute and verify any duplicities

Edit: On duplicate through standard API you will get

Code (CSharp):

1. WarningException: This capability has already been added. Method ignored
2. UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBXProject.AddCapability (System.String targetGuid, UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBXCapabilityType capability, System.String entitlementsFilePath, System.Boolean addOptionalFramework) (at <fde5c1e3700a463186cce16f247b09e3>:0)
3. UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.ProjectCapabilityManager.AddAssociatedDomains (System.String[] domains) (at <fde5c1e3700a463186cce16f247b09e3>:0)
4. EntitlementsPostprocessor.OnPostProcessEntitlements2 (UnityEditor.BuildTarget target, System.String pathToBuiltProject) (at Assets/Editor/EntitlementsPostprocessor.cs:37)
5. System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke (System.Object obj, System.Reflection.BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at <eef08f56e2e042f1b3027eca477293d9>:0)
6. UnityEngine.GUIUtility:ProcessEvent(Int32, IntPtr, Boolean&)

On duplicate with "nonofficial API" you will get

Code (CSharp):

1. NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
2. UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.PBXProjectObjectData.UpdateProps () (at <fde5c1e3700a463186cce16f247b09e3>:0)
3. UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.KnownSectionBase`1[T].WriteSection (System.Text.StringBuilder sb, UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.GUIDToCommentMap comments) (at <fde5c1e3700a463186cce16f247b09e3>:0)
4. UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBXProjectData.WriteToString () (at <fde5c1e3700a463186cce16f247b09e3>:0)
5. UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBXProject.WriteToString () (at <fde5c1e3700a463186cce16f247b09e3>:0)
6. UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.ProjectCapabilityManager.WriteToFile () (at <fde5c1e3700a463186cce16f247b09e3>:0)
7. EntitlementsPostprocessor.OnPostProcessEntitlements4 (UnityEditor.BuildTarget target, System.String pathToBuiltProject) (at Assets/Editor/EntitlementsPostprocessor.cs:66)
8. System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke (System.Object obj, System.Reflection.BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at <eef08f56e2e042f1b3027eca477293d9>:0)
9. UnityEngine.GUIUtility:ProcessEvent(Int32, IntPtr, Boolean&)
10.  

Like in our case where we have used AddSignInWithAppleWithCompatibility from plugin

 

I can provide repro project if you feel it should be handled by Unity. But it's code using reflection, and thus unpredictable from API point of view. Just in case you would see a possibility to improve logging somehow

 

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.PBXProjectObjectData.UpdateProps () (at <ca5baea5210f43dba4e79596749d3a36>:0)
UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.KnownSectionBase`1[T].WriteSection (System.Text.StringBuilder sb, UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.GUIDToCommentMap comments) (at <ca5baea5210f43dba4e79596749d3a36>:0)
UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBXProjectData.WriteToString () (at <ca5baea5210f43dba4e79596749d3a36>:0)
UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBXProject.WriteToString () (at <ca5baea5210f43dba4e79596749d3a36>:0)
UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBXProject.WriteToFile (System.String path) (at <ca5baea5210f43dba4e79596749d3a36>:0)
Facebook.Unity.PostProcess.DisableBitcode.OnPostProcessBuild (UnityEditor.BuildTarget buildTarget, System.String pathToBuildProject) (at Assets/Editor/DisableBitcode.cs:34)
System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke (System.Object obj, System.Reflection.BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at <eaa95166e74c4ae1a419b6aa5baf90b9>:0)
UnityEngine.GUIUtilityrocessEvent(Int32, IntPtr, Boolean&) (at /Users/bokken/build/output/unity/unity/Modules/IMGUI/GUIUtility.cs:190)

Code (CSharp):

1. using System.IO;
2. using UnityEngine;
3. using UnityEditor;
4. using UnityEditor.Build.Reporting;
5. using UnityEditor.Callbacks;
6. using UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode;
7.  
8. namespace Facebook.Unity.PostProcess
9. {
10.     /// <summary>
11.     /// Automatically disables Bitcode on iOS builds
12.     /// </summary>
13. public static class DisableBitcode
14. {
15. [PostProcessBuildAttribute(999)]
16. public static void OnPostProcessBuild(BuildTarget buildTarget, string pathToBuildProject)
17. {
18. if (buildTarget != BuildTarget.iOS) return;
19. string projectPath = pathToBuildProject + "/Unity-iPhone.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj";
20. PBXProject pbxProject = new PBXProject();
21. pbxProject.ReadFromFile(projectPath);
22.  
23. //Disabling Bitcode on all targets
24. //Main
25. string target = pbxProject.GetUnityMainTargetGuid();
26. pbxProject.SetBuildProperty(target, "ENABLE_BITCODE", "NO");
27. //Unity Tests
28. target = pbxProject.TargetGuidByName(PBXProject.GetUnityTestTargetName());
29. pbxProject.SetBuildProperty(target, "ENABLE_BITCODE", "NO");
30. //Unity Framework
31. target = pbxProject.GetUnityFrameworkTargetGuid();
32. pbxProject.SetBuildProperty(target, "ENABLE_BITCODE", "NO");
33.  
34. pbxProject.WriteToFile(projectPath);
35. }
36. }
37. }
38.  

 

2022.3.6f1 has same issue when building on Mac

Code (CSharp):

1. NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
2. UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.PBXProjectObjectData.UpdateProps () (at <ca5baea5210f43dba4e79596749d3a36>:0)
3. UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.KnownSectionBase`1[T].WriteSection (System.Text.StringBuilder sb, UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.GUIDToCommentMap comments) (at <ca5baea5210f43dba4e79596749d3a36>:0)
4. UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBXProjectData.WriteToString () (at <ca5baea5210f43dba4e79596749d3a36>:0)
5. UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBXProject.WriteToString () (at <ca5baea5210f43dba4e79596749d3a36>:0)

 

Same issue here. Started failing after upgrading from .3 to .6

 

Made a workaround by parsing the

Unity-iPhone.xcodepro/project.pbxproj

file line by line, replacing

ENABLE_BITCODE = YES;

with

ENABLE_BITCODE = NO;

for the time being.

Sad to see another thing breaking in LTS version and not getting fixed in the next release. Also, I don't recall seeing anything in the changelog which might be related to the issue, both in .5 and 0.6 releases. Could be something around the lines of this changelog entry:

• macOS: PBXProject.GetUnityMainTargetGuid now returns correct target. (UUM-39664)

But this doesn't make sense as a getter should not affect serialization. Is this a silent change then?

As a Pro-licensed user (to point out, a mandatory one), I find this completely unacceptable that literally anything can break outside of the scope of the changelog.

 

the same here.

 

Getting this as well on 2022.3.6f1, it did not happen in .3f1. We are not adding the same capability twice.. the call stack doesn't give much info

Code (CSharp):

1. Internal build system error. BuildProgram exited with code 1.
2. warning: Unknown file extension: lib
3. warning: Unknown file extension: lib
4. warning: Unknown file extension: lib
5. warning: Unknown file extension: lib
6. warning: Unknown file extension: lib
7. warning: Unknown file extension: lib
8. warning: Unknown file extension: lib
9. warning: Unknown file extension: lib
10. warning: Unknown file extension: lib
11. warning: Unknown file extension: lib
12. warning: Unknown file extension: lib
13. warning: Unknown file extension: lib
14. warning: Unknown file extension: lib
15. warning: Unknown file extension: lib
16. warning: Unknown file extension: lib
17. warning: Unknown file extension: lib
18. System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
19.    at UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.PBXProjectObjectData.UpdateProps()
20.    at UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.PBXObjectData.GetPropertiesRaw()
21.    at UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBXProject.SetTargetAttributes(String key, String value)
22.    at iOSXcodeProject.SetupWriteProject(NPath targetFile, iOSFeatureValidator featureValidator, ObjectsFromDisk inputData)+MoveNext()
23.    at System.Linq.Enumerable.ConcatIterator`1.MoveNext()
24.    at System.Linq.Enumerable.WhereEnumerableIterator`1.ToArray()
25.    at System.Linq.Enumerable.ToArray[TSource](IEnumerable`1 source)
26.    at PlayerBuildProgramLibrary.PlayerBuildProgramBase.RunBuildProgram() in /Users/bokken/build/output/unity/unity/Editor/IncrementalBuildPipeline/PlayerBuildProgramLibrary/PlayerBuildProgramBase.cs:line 182
27.    at PlayerBuildProgramTypeWrapper.Run(String[] args)
28.    at Program.Main(String[] args)
29. UnityEngine.GUIUtility:ProcessEvent (int,intptr,bool&) (at /Users/bokken/build/output/unity/unity/Modules/IMGUI/GUIUtility.cs:190)
30.  

 

so when i remove admob the prject builds, but when i try to integrate yodo1 instead of admob the project fails as well with the same error messages. so it is not admob nor yodo. it is unity. in 2022.3.4 this was not happening but there was another bug with animation curves, so I upgraded first to 2022.3.6, and this issue appeared, nd then I upgraded to 2022.3.7 and this issue still persists. WHEN WILL I BE ABLE TO BUILD? This is really frustrating.

UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.PBXProjectObjectData.UpdateProps () (at <ca5baea5210f43dba4e79596749d3a36>:0)
UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.KnownSectionBase`1[T].WriteSection (System.Text.StringBuilder sb, UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.GUIDToCommentMap comments) (at <ca5baea5210f43dba4e79596749d3a36>:0)
UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBXProjectData.WriteToString () (at <ca5baea5210f43dba4e79596749d3a36>:0)
UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBXProject.WriteToString () (at <ca5baea5210f43dba4e79596749d3a36>:0)
Google.IOSResolver.AddDummySwiftFile (UnityEditor.BuildTarget buildTarget, System.String pathToBuiltProject) (at /Users/drsanta/dev/tmp/unity-jar-resolver/source/IOSResolver/src/IOSResolver.cs:2127)
Google.IOSResolver.OnPostProcessAddDummySwiftFile (UnityEditor.BuildTarget buildTarget, System.String pathToBuiltProject) (at /Users/drsanta/dev/tmp/unity-jar-resolver/source/IOSResolver/src/IOSResolver.cs:1995)
System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke (System.Object obj, System.Reflection.BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at <16d1a1e3fafa4d23a275526c945e1b62>:0)
UnityEngine.GUIUtilityrocessEvent(Int32, IntPtr, Boolean&) (at /Users/bokken/build/output/unity/unity/Modules/IMGUI/GUIUtility.cs:190)

 

In 2022.3.5, I downgraded to 2022.2.2 because of this problem. Now I've upgraded it back to 3.7 to use Analytics 5.0. Still the same problem. I'm confused why LTS is updated to a version and the build issue is still not resolved

 

I am having the same issue. I just upgraded my codebase from unity version 2021.x to 2022.3.5f1 and started facing this issue. Nothing was changed from previous STABLE code base to the current one. except upgrading unity version.

 

Same problem after upgrading from 2022.3.4f1 to 2022.3.6f1 on Intel Mac. Upgrade to 2022.3.7f1 didn't help. Reverting back to 2022.3.4f1 solved the issue.

BuildFailedException: Player build failed: Internal build system error. BuildProgram exited with code 1.
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.PBXProjectObjectData.UpdateProps()
at UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.PBXObjectData.GetPropertiesRaw()
at UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBXProject.SetTargetAttributes(String key, String value)
at iOSXcodeProject.SetupWriteProject(NPath targetFile, iOSFeatureValidator featureValidator, ObjectsFromDisk inputData)+MoveNext()
at System.Linq.Enumerable.ConcatIterator`1.MoveNext()
at System.Linq.Enumerable.WhereEnumerableIterator`1.ToArray()
at System.Linq.Enumerable.ToArray[TSource](IEnumerable`1 source)
at PlayerBuildProgramLibrary.PlayerBuildProgramBase.RunBuildProgram() in /Users/bokken/build/output/unity/unity/Editor/IncrementalBuildPipeline/PlayerBuildProgramLibrary/PlayerBuildProgramBase.cs:line 182
at PlayerBuildProgramTypeWrapper.Run(String[] args)
at Program.Main(String[] args)
UnityEditor.Modules.BeeBuildPostprocessor.PostProcess (UnityEditor.Modules.BuildPostProcessArgs args) (at /Users/bokken/build/output/unity/unity/Editor/Mono/Modules/BeeBuildPostprocessor.cs:718)
UnityEditor.iOS.iOSBuildPostprocessor.PostProcess (UnityEditor.Modules.BuildPostProcessArgs args) (at <cd213be5c0a6467182bf9949d7af5626>:0)
UnityEditor.BuildPipeline:BuildPlayer(BuildPlayerOptions)
MarbleBuild:Build() (at Assets/Scripts/editor/MarbleBuild.cs:35)

 

@Aurimas-Cernius @Alexey still no luck with 2022.3.7f1, the issue first appeared in 2022.3.5f1. Unfortunately we can't provide a repo project, will submitting a bug without the project help to escalate the issue?

 

Any updates on this issue, or known workarounds? We rolled back to 2022.3.3f1 and can't upgrade until it gets resolved.

Tried removing all of our iOS build post processing code (although plugins excluded), but still getting the same issue

 

@Aurimas-Cernius @Alexey no luck with 2022.3.8f1, the same story here:

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
at UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.PBXProjectObjectData.UpdateProps () [0x001e9] in <fde5c1e3700a463186cce16f247b09e3>:0
at UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.KnownSectionBase`1[T].WriteSection (System.Text.StringBuilder sb, UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.GUIDToCommentMap comments) [0x0006b] in <fde5c1e3700a463186cce16f247b09e3>:0
at UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBXProjectData.WriteToString () [0x00081] in <fde5c1e3700a463186cce16f247b09e3>:0
at UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBXProject.WriteToString () [0x00001] in <fde5c1e3700a463186cce16f247b09e3>:0

tested on both windows & macos, all 3rd party plugins removed & etc.

 

Same issue here. Started happening on Unity 2022.3.4f1 and happens in every Unity version up to (and including) 2022.3.8f1.

Every single call to UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode.PBX.PBXProjectObjectData.UpdateProps() (which, in our case, happens when we call .WriteToFile() on a PBXProject or ProjectCapabilityManager instance) throws an NRE. We have multiple plugins that apply changes/add entitlements when building for iOS (e.g. AppLovin MAX, Facebook SDK, Adjust, etc) and they all fail when they call those methods.

Currently, the only way to have a successful iOS build is to open the project with Unity 2022.3.3f1 and build from there.

I've just attempted to create a repro project with a couple of the scripts that are causing issues on our main project, but the repro project builds correctly, with no issues, which is even stranger. I've also attempted to take our main project and delete everything except a few of the scripts that are throwing NREs but, again, everything works.

Not sure what's happening and what was introduced in 2022.3.4f1+ to make it throw these exceptions (again, in 2022.3.3f1 and lower, everything works as expected).

As you might expect, sharing our full project is not an option, so do you have any idea what we can do on our side to help track this thing down?

 

@Aurimas-Cernius @Alexey turns out that we have plugin which is creating custom capability like this:

Code (CSharp):

1. var capabilityType = constructorInfo.Invoke(new object[] { "com.apple.developer.applesignin.custom", true, string.Empty, true }) as PBXCapabilityType;
2. project.AddCapability(mainTargetGuid, capabilityType, entitlementFilePath, false);

IF there are other postprocessors, which are executed later than the one above and if they call pbxproj.WriteToString(), then they end up with null reference. And it started to fail only since 2022.3.4.
The problem here is in the id of capability. If I change it to "com.apple.developer.applesignin" everything works fine again.

 

Well, it's a code from 3rd party plugin, so all the questions to the creators) https://github.com/lupidan/apple-signin-unity

 

Can confirm that the issue is 100% reproducible by adding the AppleSignInUnity plugin to our project. In my previous attempt at creating a repro project I did not add this plugin because I believed the issue lied elsewhere.

We are using this plugin (which Unity recommends in its own documentation for the Authentication package) to handle signing in with Apple. Up until 2022.3.3f1 everything was working correctly, though, and only on 2022.3.4f1 did we start seeing issues.

The plugin has not been updated since 2021, so I'm unsure if this is something that can be fixed on Unity's side or if the plugin is simply doing something that is deprecated/obsolete/not supported.

 

I can confirm we are also using AppleSignInUnity plugin mentioned above.

 

Just to be clear. The easiest fix - you can replace "com.apple.developer.applesignin.custom" with "com.apple.developer.applesignin" in the plugins' code.

 

Getting the same issue and using the same Apple Sign In plugin as others mentioned. Whats the best way to work around this then?

 

There's an extension method called AddSignInWithAppleWithCompatibility. Replace "com.apple.developer.applesignin.custom" with "com.apple.developer.applesignin" in it. Or try to use this code instead of postprocessor example in the plugin's description:

Code (CSharp):

1. public static void OnPostProcessBuild(BuildTarget target, string path)
2. {
3.     if (target == BuildTarget.iOS || target == BuildTarget.tvOS)
4.     {
5.         var projectPath = PBXProject.GetPBXProjectPath(path);
6.         var project = new PBXProject();
7.         project.ReadFromString(System.IO.File.ReadAllText(projectPath));
8.        
9.         var mainTargetGuid = project.GetUnityMainTargetGuid();
10.         var entitlementFilePath = project.GetEntitlementFilePathForTarget(mainTargetGuid);
11.         project.AddCapability(mainTargetGuid, PBXCapabilityType.SignInWithApple, entitlementFilePath, false);
12.         project.WriteToFile(projectPath);
13.  
14.         string entitlementsPath = Path.Combine(path, entitlementFilePath);
15.         PlistDocument entitlements = new PlistDocument();
16.         entitlements.ReadFromString(File.ReadAllText(entitlementsPath));
17.         PlistElementDict entitlementsDict = entitlements.root;
18.         var arr = entitlementsDict.CreateArray("com.apple.developer.applesignin");
19.         arr.AddString("Default");
20.         File.WriteAllText(entitlementsPath, entitlements.WriteToString());      
21.     }
22.     else if (target == BuildTarget.StandaloneOSX)
23.     {
24.         AppleAuthMacosPostprocessorHelper.FixManagerBundleIdentifier(target, path);
25.     }
26. }

 

Thanks for the info - got that working now - cheers

 

Tell a Unity intern to get on that.

 

We're also seeing this but not using the plugin mentioned above. We are using firebase, and the issue doesn't happen when we removed firebase. Our work-around was to move all of our own post-processing scripts to happen after firebase has done it own post-processing.

 

Was having this issue too and I'm also using the Apple Sign-in plugin.

@dankorenev 's solution works for me, but I wish this would be officially addressed/fixed by Unity.

 

I don't use Apple Sign In, but have similar issue - only XCode build by a replacement works but this takes tons of time fox XCode to compile everything again.

Any general workaround for that problem?

 

@Alexey any update on the progress of backporting? When can we expect the fix in 2022.3.x LTS versions?