Painful Unity project export to Android each build (I'm doing something wrong)

Question

I would like to know if there is a faster way than the following steps to test Unity app with Android (gradle export):

1. Change something in unity
2. Build settings & Run --> Export (new Gradle)
3. Now the old gradle in the Android project is replaced, so i need to copy paste from a backup
4. The Res folder is also replaced, so I need to copy paste the backup one
5. Finally Build and Run the APK on the device

Steps 3 and 4 are obviously what makes this process painful (slow), I found the manifest.xml of the Unity android plugin, so this one stays the same (edited it directly in Unity). So am I doing something wrong ? Is there a way to update only parts of the Android project (like, if I only changed one line of a C# Script, just rebuild this one for Android)

Tell me if I'm not clear enough with my explanation :)

EDIT: I Already posted this in Unity forum but I didn't get any answer yet after a day

Answer 1

You can create your own Gradle file. Put it in Plugins/Android folder and call it mainTemplate.gradle It will use that.

As far as I know, there is no way to rebuild just part of it. Unity does not create java files from the c# code. It creates its own modules and uses them directly.

BTW, why are you exporting at all? Why not compile directly to your device?

Answer 2

I just wanted an additional answer for this question even though it is a bit old (just in case anyone else in the future is wondering about this like me). I personally need to make use of both Android Studio and Unity so making a plugin wasn't really an option for me.

Now I have a custom gradle file as explained in the accepted answer. However I have also added an additional resource folder (Explained well by Android here: https://developer.android.com/studio/write/add-resources.html).

You basically just have to edit your custom gradle file to add paths to both resource directories. Add the resources you don't want Unity to overwrite to the other resource folder.

Now every time you rebuild to the project the resources remain and you don't have to copy them back in.