Packaging errors and how to fix them

Hi all,

I’m quite familiar with packaging projects nowadays, however there are still some issues i encounter each time, particularly with projects that merge content from separate projects.
I’m going to list a few issues, and if anyone has any suggestions for them, they’d be much appreciated.

Shaders getting stuck on compiling when packaging.
Packaging hanging, with no critical errors in the output log.
Assets that are not used in the project, but are still being compiled (LogCook: Warning: Unable to find package for cooking) - how do we get rid of these files if they are not essential to the project?
How to increase the Heap size?

These are probably my most frustrating errors, because there are times when the project will compile despite their presence, and there are other times when I’m confused as to whether they are in-fact the primary issue that my project will not package or not.

I understand that this might be too complex of an issue to solve just through reading some summaries rather than a deep dive into the output log, but if anyone has initial suggestions that would be really helpful. Thanks