Question

My iPad app uses synthesized speech (from Acapela Group) which makes the file size rather large (about 90MB) because of all the voices. This problem centers around the files found in the build folder of the application. There is a stored .app file for each setting (Debug, Ad-Hoc, Distribution, etc).

I am having two issues:

• When I remove the other build files the app size is small, but it loses the synthesized speech. I press the speak button and it does nothing, rather than its regular speech function.
• If I leave the other build files the final compiled app is 350+ MB, but the speech works just fine.

First, why would the other build files affect this?

Second, how do I get the final binary smaller without causing these issues?

Thanks for the help!

Answer 1

There is a stored .app file for each setting (Debug, Ad-Hoc, Distribution, etc).

What do you mean by “setting”? Are those targets, configurations, xcconfigs, something else?

When I remove the other build files the app size is small, but it loses the synthesized speech.

The only thing that matters is what’s inside the app bundle. What are you referring to when you say “the other build files”? When you open the app bundle, are there any extraneous files? Have you somehow managed to add the build directory to your Xcode project?

The first thing I do when setting up a new Xcode installation is to move the default build location outside of the project root. This might help you narrow down the cause of the problem.

Second, how do I get the final binary smaller without causing these issues?

If the voice files are largely responsible for the size of the app, then you will have to reduce the number of voices or reduce them in quality somehow.