• Hello [name]! Thanks for joining the GMC. Before making any posts in the Tech Support forum, can we suggest you read the forum rules? These are simple guidelines that we ask you to follow so that you can get the best help possible for your issue.

Mac OSX Included files starting with a number not supported.

kitty_cay

Member
Hey everyone, I've got an issue that I've tried to find discussions on, but nothing turned up after Googling for a couple hours. In my project file, I'm trying to test the Mac target platform through my Windows IDE. The communication between my PC and Mac is successful, but whenever I try to build it says that included files starting with a number are not supported by various platforms. When I looked through all the offending included files, I saw that they were all sprites I no longer use, so I wanted to just delete them to save space and stop causing issues.

I deleted them in the file explorer on my PC, cleared out the caches in GameMaker Studio 2.3, closed the program and reopened. Upon doing this, the included file folder in GameMaker is empty, but when I try to build it still gives the same error. In another attempt to fix the issue before I just decided to delete them, I even tried renaming a couple files in the file explorer and the files were still causing errors through their original file names. Ultimately, any changes I make to the datafiles folder's contents are reflected in the included files window, but not in the compile errors.

Is there a way to solve this issue? Either through making sure GameMaker no longer has these files in its memory or some other way? Thank you.
 

TsukaYuriko

☄️
Forum Staff
Moderator
First, make a backup of your project so you don't irreversibly fry it while attempting anything I'm about to suggest. Always good to have a backup plan (pun not intended) in case something goes wrong. :)
(If you aren't already making regular backups or using source control, this is also the time to change that.)

Try to export and re-import your project (via File -> Export/Import Project). This may clean out any outdated/unused file links.

If this doesn't resolve it, open up your project file (.yyp) and look for the names of the files that are referenced. Remove them and reload your project.
 

kitty_cay

Member
First, make a backup of your project so you don't irreversibly fry it while attempting anything I'm about to suggest. Always good to have a backup plan (pun not intended) in case something goes wrong. :)
(If you aren't already making regular backups or using source control, this is also the time to change that.)

Try to export and re-import your project (via File -> Export/Import Project). This may clean out any outdated/unused file links.

If this doesn't resolve it, open up your project file (.yyp) and look for the names of the files that are referenced. Remove them and reload your project.
Not to worry, I'm very much in the habit of keeping backups! I went ahead and tried your fix and it looks like it didn't make any changes to the issue. The new version of the re-imported project still shows as having no included files but also still has the error stating there are included files starting with numbers in their names.

As for the second fix, that was what I had tried initially. Specifically, I removed them in the file explorer folder, cleared all the caches in the IDE, and then closed and reopened GameMaker and the project to no avail. Is it likely that this is a bug I should contact Yoyo Games directly for support?
 

kburkhart84

Firehammer Games
As for the second fix, that was what I had tried initially. Specifically, I removed them in the file explorer folder, cleared all the caches in the IDE, and then closed and reopened GameMaker and the project to no avail. Is it likely that this is a bug I should contact Yoyo Games directly for support?
Did you try removing the actual references to the files in the .yyp? I don't think @TsukaYuriko is referring to the project being open when you do this, rather you opening the .yyp in a text editor and finding the relevant part of the file, deleting the parts with external files, and then re-opening the project. This direct manipulation is the main reason why backups were recommended(not that you didn't do it).
 

kitty_cay

Member
Did you try removing the actual references to the files in the .yyp? I don't think @TsukaYuriko is referring to the project being open when you do this, rather you opening the .yyp in a text editor and finding the relevant part of the file, deleting the parts with external files, and then re-opening the project. This direct manipulation is the main reason why backups were recommended(not that you didn't do it).
Ah, I see! No I have not tried that, I'll try giving it a go right now! Good thing I do keep backups as I haven't edited the .yyp in a text editor before, so I am definitely worried about messing something up haha. I'll give it a try and report whether or not it fixes the issue, thank you for clearing that up for me!
 

kitty_cay

Member
Did you try removing the actual references to the files in the .yyp? I don't think @TsukaYuriko is referring to the project being open when you do this, rather you opening the .yyp in a text editor and finding the relevant part of the file, deleting the parts with external files, and then re-opening the project. This direct manipulation is the main reason why backups were recommended(not that you didn't do it).
Alright, I just opened the .yyp in notepad and I could not find any references to the unneeded files when searching for them. I also checked the section that listed included files and there was nothing in the brackets for that section. So, I'm assuming that the .yyp is already reflecting what I want it to, that these files are not showing up anywhere in the notepad file? Is this how I was supposed to check or was there a different way I should be doing this? Apologies for the frequent questions, as you can probably tell I'm not used to this. 😅
 

kburkhart84

Firehammer Games
Alright, I just opened the .yyp in notepad and I could not find any references to the unneeded files when searching for them. I also checked the section that listed included files and there was nothing in the brackets for that section. So, I'm assuming that the .yyp is already reflecting what I want it to, that these files are not showing up anywhere in the notepad file? Is this how I was supposed to check or was there a different way I should be doing this? Apologies for the frequent questions, as you can probably tell I'm not used to this. 😅
That is what you were supposed to check. I guess the next step is to send it to Yoyo. I would send them the whole project so they can take a look. Even if you had found and deleted references in the yyp, I would have still recommended you sending it to them because you shouldn't have to hack the project file(it would have only been a workaround). I've never had to do that specific hack so I don't know for sure how that stuff is labeled honestly or I would confirm better.
 

kitty_cay

Member
That is what you were supposed to check. I guess the next step is to send it to Yoyo. I would send them the whole project so they can take a look. Even if you had found and deleted references in the yyp, I would have still recommended you sending it to them because you shouldn't have to hack the project file(it would have only been a workaround). I've never had to do that specific hack so I don't know for sure how that stuff is labeled honestly or I would confirm better.
Thanks for clarifying. After leaving my computer off all night, I booted things up to send a report into Yoyo with screenshots and any relevant info, only to find that it ended up fixing itself overnight! I guess I not only had to restart the program/project, but also my computer itself. Simple mistake on my part! Thank you for helping, it looks like somewhere along the way it was enough to fix things!
 

kburkhart84

Firehammer Games
Awesome...I actually kinda assumed you had done that already. That said, you really should not have had to, doesn't make sense to me.
 
Top