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In Xcode, what is the difference between a folder and a group? Are these interchangeable terms or is there a subtle difference?
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Xcode relies on filesystem organization by keeping a reference to a "physical" file or folder. That is why you may have all the classes, images, plists, and other parts of your projects stored in the same folder, while the references to these parts are being kept organized into respective groups within Xcode project.
It means they are not found on disk where your project believes they should be. Control-click and Show In Finder to see the folder location to locate the file and drag it back in to the project, and delete the bad reference.
Xcode creates a group in the Project navigator for each folder you add, and it adds the contents of the folder to that group. Create folder references. Displays the folders in the Project navigator, but doesn't copy them to the project. In the Project navigator, each added folder points to a folder in the file system.
Groups
With groups, Xcode stores in the project a reference to each individual file.
Folders
Folder references are simpler. You can spot a folder reference because it shows up in blue instead of yellow.
There are two types of folders in Xcode: groups and folder references. You can use groups to organize files in your project without affecting their structure on the actual file system. This is great for code, because you’re only going to be working with your code in Xcode. On the other hand, groups aren’t very good for resource files.
On any reasonably complicated project, you’ll usually be dealing with dozens – if not hundreds – of asset files, and those assets will need to be modified and manipulated from outside of Xcode, either by you or a designer. Putting all of your resource files in one flat folder is a recipe for disaster. This is where folder references come in. They allow you to organize your files into folders on your file system and keep that same folder structure in Xcode.
Reference
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A folder in Xcode represents a folder in the file system.
A group in Xcode is a "fake" folder which does NOT represent a folder in the file system.
It is common to use a combination of groups and folders for a given Xcode project.
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