# FMODStudioSettings.asset keeps appearing in version control with no changes

**URL:** <https://qa.fmod.com/t/fmodstudiosettings-asset-keeps-appearing-in-version-control-with-no-changes/18594>\
**Category:** Unity\
**Created:** [March 29, 2022, 7:17pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/fmodstudiosettings-asset-keeps-appearing-in-version-control-with-no-changes/18594 "2022-03-29T19:17:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![aaron\_rh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@aaron\_rh](https://qa.fmod.com/u/aaron_rh)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 7:17pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/fmodstudiosettings-asset-keeps-appearing-in-version-control-with-no-changes/18594/1 "2022-03-29T19:17:27Z")

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FMODStudioSettings.asset has become a meme for some of our team members. Unity checks it out in Plastic SCM without any visible changes and it’s part of some peoples’ workflows to manually discard it when switching branches or when just trying to keep their pending changes clean.

I saw this has been reported by others before. It’s happened fairly consistently with each version of FMOD Unity we’ve used, I think? At least with 2.02.01 and 2.02.04.

In the past we’ve experimented with hiding FMODStudioSettings.asset from Plastic but to no success. I tried looking at the FMOD Unity plugin and I think the checkout happens because the Settings scriptable object is being cleared and re-populated with the same data? So it’s just the timestamp that’s changed.

Thanks!!

FMOD 2.02.04  
Unity 2020.3.7f1  
Plastic SCM 10.0.16.6621  
Windows 10

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**Author:** ![jeff\_fmod](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/qa.fmod.com/jeff_fmod/32/1766_2.png) [@jeff\_fmod](https://qa.fmod.com/u/jeff_fmod)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2022, 11:34pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/fmodstudiosettings-asset-keeps-appearing-in-version-control-with-no-changes/18594/2 "2022-04-04T23:34:07Z")

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Hello again, I can see FMODStudioSettings.asset is a point of contention for your team!  
The [default behaviour](https://forum.plasticscm.com/topic/21181-plastic-showing-status-changed-when-files-are-identical/?do=findComment&comment=39931) of Plastic SCM is to include timestamps as a “Changed” criteria. You can disable this in Plastic SCM by going _Preferences\>Other options\>Check content (hash) when the file timestamp is modified to set it as “Changed”_  
Please give that shot and let me know if you are still seeing unneccssary changes to FMODStudioSettings.asset

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aaron\_rh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@aaron\_rh](https://qa.fmod.com/u/aaron_rh)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2022, 12:07am UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/fmodstudiosettings-asset-keeps-appearing-in-version-control-with-no-changes/18594/3 "2022-04-05T00:07:15Z")

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Thanks, we’ve tried a few different things with Plastic, we’ll see if this works.

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**Author:** ![aaron\_rh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@aaron\_rh](https://qa.fmod.com/u/aaron_rh)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2022, 7:19pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/fmodstudiosettings-asset-keeps-appearing-in-version-control-with-no-changes/18594/4 "2022-04-05T19:19:34Z")

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We’ve had these three options checked for a long time but they don’t seem to affect FMODStudioSettings.asset or a couple others like QualitySettings.asset. We experimented toggling them and found that #2 and #3 are the same underlying option (they turn on/off together):

```auto
Pending Changes > What to find:
1) Find changed files in the workspace
2) Check the content to determine files as changed, not just timestamp

Preferences > Other options:
3) Check content (hash) when the file timestamp is modified to set it as "Changed"

```

I have `Pending Changes > What to find > Show checkouts` on since I like seeing if I’m blocking anyone. If I uncheck it then FMODStudioSettings.asset goes away but I still get an error about pending changes for it if I try to switch branches.

Maybe there is a third element besides its content and timestamp that is the cause, associated with how Unity sets the file dirty? Unity shouldn’t check it out unless it’s saved (via Ctrl+S) with more changes than just the timestamp?

These two posts are similar to our problem. Given that it’s not just Plastic SCM, is it likely that a Unity upgrade could affect this? If so then this is something we could fix ourselves at some point.

> [@FMODStudioSettings.asset and source control](https://qa.fmod.com/t/fmodstudiosettings-asset-and-source-control/13716):
>
> Hello, I have question about FMOD and source control - precisely said about FMODStudioSettings.asset. I know that it can’t be placed in .ignore, but it still make check-out and despite the fact that there is no changes, it want to send changes to repository. Is there any possibilty of avoiding such a controversy? How to deal with it? P.S. We use Plastic SCM. Regards Crane

> [@Fmodstudiosettings.asset keeps appearing in git without changing anything](https://qa.fmod.com/t/fmodstudiosettings-asset-keeps-appearing-in-git-without-changing-anything/17318):
>
> I ran the game to test it and then exited out of play mode and didn’t do anything. I looked in git and there wasn’t any change. Then when I closed unity, I saw that a “change” happened in fmodstudiosettings.asset. This happens a lot. Should I put this file in gitignore? Thank you

Thanks again.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeff\_fmod](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/qa.fmod.com/jeff_fmod/32/1766_2.png) [@jeff\_fmod](https://qa.fmod.com/u/jeff_fmod)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 11:52pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/fmodstudiosettings-asset-keeps-appearing-in-version-control-with-no-changes/18594/5 "2022-04-06T23:52:13Z")

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It looks like the settings asset is being marked dirty every time the editor reopens. I have created a task for the dev team to fix this in a future release. In the meantime, you can workaround this by modifying the `StagingSystem.Startup` method in “ **Assets/Plugins/FMOD/src/Editor/EditorUtils.cs** ”:

```auto
// EditorUtils.cs StagingSystem.Startup (~line1495)
public static UpdateStep Startup()
{
    if (!AssetDatabase.IsValidFolder(StagingFolder))
    {
        // START CHANGE
        if (Settings.Instance.SharedLibraryUpdateStage != Settings.SharedLibraryUpdateStages.Start
            || Settings.Instance.SharedLibraryTimeSinceStart != 0)
        {
            ResetUpdateStage();
        }
        // END CHANGE
        return null;
    }
...
}

```

Thank you for flagging this issue!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aaron\_rh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@aaron\_rh](https://qa.fmod.com/u/aaron_rh)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 10:43pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/fmodstudiosettings-asset-keeps-appearing-in-version-control-with-no-changes/18594/6 "2022-04-07T22:43:44Z")

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Initial tests are looking good! We’ll continue keeping an eye on this for a few days and come back if there’s an issue. Thanks!!