Help - How to .zip a project from UE5?

Im trying to zip up my first UE5 project, but when I click to zip, it’s apparently completed within a second. Although it says complete, the .zip file is nowhere to be found, so im assuming it failed.

Note - Im not trying to package for windows, I just want a zipped backup file of the project just in case

Screenshot 2022-06-07 112759

UATHelper: Zip Project Task (Windows (Editor)): Running AutomationTool…
UATHelper: Zip Project Task (Windows (Editor)): ‘dotnet’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,
UATHelper: Zip Project Task (Windows (Editor)): operable program or batch file.
UATHelper: Zip Project Task (Windows (Editor)): Updating environment variables set by a Turnkey sub-process
UATHelper: Zip Project Task (Windows (Editor)): The system cannot find the path specified.
UATHelper: Zip Project Task (Windows (Editor)): The system cannot find the path specified.

The system cannot find the path specified seems to be the issue, but after trying many different locations on different drives, I dont know what the soulution could be. Any ideas would be great :slight_smile:

Hello TheMaxter,

I’m working with a fresh-install of windows, so I just got this very same problem.

I first tried to install Visual Studio 2019 (no luck) Then used the Visual Studio Installer ‘Modify’ function to install .NET Core 3.1 Runtime (no luck)

Then I installed .NET from Microsoft.

At that point opening up a command prompt and typing ‘dotnet’ worked, but I needed to restart my PC before I was able to zip projects. Cheers.

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Brillaint, I’ll give that a go, thanks.

Do you think this is something that will be made easier in the future of UE5?

why not just zip the folder from windows directly? the entire project folder?

you can also look into what folders can be omitted, those that unreal can recreate on start

I don’t remember this ever being an issue in UE4, so I think what we might be looking at right now is an oversight since most devs/qa already have .NET installed. - I think they tried to make this easier with Platforms → Windows → YourPCName → ‘Force Update Device’ , but that did not resolve this .NET problem for me.

Like you mentioned, zipping this way does not include the saved/intermediate folders that are generated. Nothing wrong with zipping manually, but I love the ability to spit out a neat little .zip with the push of a button.

2 Steps:

1- Copy the file hostfxr.dll
From:
C:\Program Files\Unreal Engine\UE_5.0\Engine\Binaries\ThirdParty\DotNet\Windows\host\fxr\3.1.9
To:
C:\Program Files\Unreal Engine\UE_5.0\Engine\Binaries\DotNET\AutomationTool\

2- Download and install the .NET Desktop Runtime 3.1.x from this link:
https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/3.1

1 Like

Love it, it worked like a charm! Many thanks Shex

Perfect! That did the trick for me! Thank you for posting this.