What causes a Godot export shipping unused resources and files?

The export preset uses broad include filters (or none), so non-game files like docs, notes, and raw working assets get packed into the PCK.

How do I catch this when it only happens for some players?

Capture it automatically from the player's device with the full stack trace, the device and OS, the build, and a breadcrumb trail of what they did. That turns a vague complaint into a specific, reproducible issue you can fix without owning the hardware it happens on.

How to Fix a Godot Export Shipping Unused Resources and Files

Q: How do you fix a Godot export shipping unused resources and files?

Set the export preset's Resources filters to export only what the game uses, or add exclude filters for working files and non-resource directories.

Quick answer: Set the export preset's Resources filters to export only what the game uses, or add exclude filters for working files and non-resource directories.

Godot exports based on the preset's resource filters. With permissive settings, files that are not part of the running game still ship. Tightening the include/exclude filters keeps documentation, notes, and raw source files out of the PCK.

How to fix it

1. Review the export preset filters

In Project > Export, open the Resources tab and check the export mode and the include/exclude filter strings for the preset.

2. Exclude non-game files

Add exclude filters for working files and folders (for example raw art, docs, and notes) so they are not packed into the PCK.

3. Export only used resources

Switch the mode to export resources used by the selected scenes plus explicit filters, then re-export and confirm the PCK size dropped.

Catching the ones you can't reproduce

The hardest version of this to fix is the one you can't reproduce — it only happens on a player's hardware, OS, driver, or save state, under conditions that simply aren't present on your machine. A report that says “it crashed” or “it froze” gives you nothing to act on, so the bug survives release after release while quietly costing you players.

Automatic error capture closes that gap. Each failure arrives with its full stack trace, the device and OS, the build number, and a breadcrumb trail of what the player did right before it broke, so even a failure you have never seen becomes a specific, reproducible issue. Fold identical failures into one signature ranked by how many players each hits, and your worklist sorts itself worst-first instead of arriving as a stream of vague complaints.

This is where a tool like Bugnet earns its place. Its SDK captures every Godot error automatically with the full stack trace plus device, OS, memory, build, and game-state context, folds duplicates into one grouped issue with an occurrence count, and ties each to the build it first appeared on — so you fix the problem that hurts the most players first and confirm it is gone when its signature disappears from the next release.

Most of the time the fix is small. Seeing the failure clearly is the part that actually costs you.