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Feedback Package Manager is wasting space

Discussion in 'Package Manager' started by iCeDrAgOn2025, Jun 9, 2021.

  1. iCeDrAgOn2025

    iCeDrAgOn2025

    Joined:
    Jul 23, 2012
    Posts:
    6
    At present there exists an issue with the package manager that I am sure a lot of users of Unity aren't even aware of. And that issue is, Unity saves every version of every package you have ever downloaded to your system. So if you have been using Unity for awhile, and have downloaded several packages and updates to those packages come along. Unity is still caching the old versions.

    Now you might say, but that's great for backwards compatibility, and to that I have to say, Yes, and no. Each Unity project has a database of the packages it is using, So if you're moving your project to a new system, Unity should be able to get the correct version of those packages on start up of the editor. And if you upgrade a package within your project chances are, if you create a new project in the future, you're going to use the newest version of a package, making keeping around the old version potentially pointless and wasting disk space.

    But that still doesn't negate the fact that the package manager doesn't have the ability to clean it's cache.

    It would be nice if the package manage included some way of

    A) showing users the cache itself
    B) Changing the cache location
    C) Cleaning the cache from the package manager so users don't have to
    D) Giving the Unity Hub the ability to do some sort of house cleaning. i.e. removing the package cache/GI cache etc. Because even with no version of Unity installed, these files are still left behind

    The only reason why I found out about this myself, is not to long ago I did a reinstall of my OS, so I wanted to save my user profile and move it to the new OS install. I was going through the profile looking for things that I know I wouldn't need to try and trim the fat off of it so to speak. And when going through folders I had noticed that the cache folder located in the Appdata\Local\Unity\cache\ folder was taking upwards of 11.5gb. When I explored this folder, I found that I had like 5 or 6 versions of Burst, Cinemachine, the various render pipelines etc. And some of these packages were old.
     
  2. UnityMaru

    UnityMaru

    Community Engagement Manager PSM

    Joined:
    Mar 16, 2016
    Posts:
    1,227
    Hey there!

    We are aware of these issues. We have several things in the pipeline to improve the use and configuration from the cache for both Package Manager and Asset Store. I can't provide any accurate timelines but I can at least advise it's something we're working on - the workaround you advised is the only thing we can recommend for now.
     
  3. Thorny2000

    Thorny2000

    Joined:
    Sep 18, 2014
    Posts:
    53
    Bump! Still doing this.
     
  4. Deleted User

    Deleted User

    Guest

    Hey. Is this the issue where Unity saves necessary files for the package manager? I had a go with 3D Game Kit, both full and lite, and I'm seeing "re-download" and "import" in the package manager. I would prefer to remove the assets off my small SSD, and the only way I can think of is to uninstall each Unity version to remove them.