What does updating the Xcode Project Format do?

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dhoerl OP

Created Apr ’25

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Select the Project in leftmost pane, open right most pane where Project Document is shown.

My (quite old) project has the Project Format set to "Xcode 3.2" (which amazingly I used at one point!).

I changed it to "Xcode 16.3", and even selected "Minimize Project References", closed the project, then re-opened it. However, the size of the "project.pbxproj" file didn't change at all.

I'm told the newer formats reduce project size as well as reduce merge conflicts when new files are added to the project.

Is there a "compress" option from the command line?

Thanks,

David

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Answer 1

B347 OP

Apr ’25

hi,

for ‘references’ topic see here: [https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/782153?answerId=836739022#836739022)

for expected size reduction: most size (and complexity reduction) comes from using folders instead of groups.

see here for further information: [https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/managing-files-and-folders-in-your-xcode-project#Convert-groups-to-folders)

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