A Guide to Being an Effective Beta Tester

Download the latest beta build, either directly as a standalone installer or via the new Unity Hub. This page also contains lots of beta information and resources. You can learn about new features, find helpful documents and tools, and stay informed about the latest sweepstakes.

Run the Installer or the Hub. If you use the installer, be sure to install the beta in a new directory. It’s ok to have multiple versions of Unity side by side, as long as they are located in individual directories.

Start a new project or make a copy of the project you plan to use for testing the beta, then open it with the latest beta version.

Develop as usual and/or test new features and updates. If you think you found a bug, follow the next steps described in parts two, three, & four of this guide.

You found a bug. This is how you can help most efficiently:

Research

• Check the issue tracker for existing bug reports.
• Google the issue and look for related Discussions threads.
  • In Discussions, you’ll find a category for the beta - or use the relevant beta tags.
• Is it a known unresolved issue?
  • Vote for the relevant issue tracker entry.

Report

• Is it an unknown issue?
  • Submit a bug report with a minimal reproduction project and respond to requests from Unity personnel.
• Was the issue already reported, but you want to make sure a fix will cover your case?
  • Submit a bug report with a minimal reproduction project and respond to requests from Unity personnel.
• Is there an existing Discussions thread about the issue?
  • Reply. If not, start one referencing your Issue ID.

If you run into an issue with Unity, the first thing you should do is determine whether it is a known issue or if you’re the first to experience it. The first place to get this kind of information is our public Issue Tracker. It allows you to search for bugs reported by other users and vote or comment on them. Voting on issues helps our team prioritize which bugs to tackle first.

The Unity Discussions is another great community resource. You can see what other people have reported when selecting the specific beta tags, find workarounds for issues, or provide information yourself. It’s also a good way to get in touch with someone at Unity. Just make sure the subjects you’re raising are related to the current beta, and don’t bundle multiple different issues in a single thread.

If you don’t find anything related to your bug, then it’s time to submit a bug report. Once you’ve submitted a report, it’s also a good idea to come back to the forum and post a description of the issue you’ve discovered. Doing so will enable others to inform themselves, add more context, or provide their workaround. It will also speed up processing times, since we’re monitoring the beta forum frequently and prioritizing the initial assessment of new cases that are discussed there.

If you start a new thread about an issue, please make sure to include your Case Number (provided in your confirmation email) in the post so that our team can identify the bug report you submitted - it will be the first thing they will ask if you leave it out.

If you’re in doubt whether an issue points towards a bug in the platform or your project, and consulting the forums or documentation doesn’t bring certainty, please go and submit a bug report.

Follow these simple steps to write a good bug report that our engineers will be able to easily understand and act on.

Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. If we can’t reproduce an issue with the information provided in your report, we will get in touch with you to figure out if something is missing.

Open the Bug Reporter

While running Unity, go to Help → Report a Bug in the menu. Alternatively, you can find the Bug Reporter installed next to the editor in the program folder. It will also launch automatically if you experience a crash.

Provide Basic Information

In the “What is the problem related to” field, select whichever option aligns best with the bug you are reporting. Since you’re reporting a bug in the beta, it will usually be “A problem with the Editor” or “Crash Bug”.

In “How often does it happen”, you will need to indicate if this is a problem that you have only experienced once, sometimes, or every time you take the steps that led you to encounter it.

Provide your email address in case our team needs to contact you for more information. If you’re logged in with your Unity account, this field will be filled automatically.

If your report gets verified, the text written in the “Title” and “Describe the problem” fields will be made publicly available in the Issue Tracker. This helps the community. Other users will be able to comment, vote (which aids with prioritization for fixes), and see when a fix is available. None of your personal information will be published. Your projects and other attachments are only accessible to Unity employees.

Identify the bug

Describe the bug in the most concise way. Keep it short and specific (e.g, Errors appear in the console after cleaning the GI Cache and reloading the project)

Categorize the bug and write the title

Categorize the bug according to what it’s affecting (e.g, UI, Scripting, Platform-specific, etc.) by adding this information to the bug description.

For the title, use the following format:

[Category] description

Example:[Enlighten] Errors appear in the console after cleaning GI Cache and reloading project

Provide the steps to reproduce

The Unity QA and Development teams need all the help you can offer in diagnosing and fixing an issue. Depending on the information they receive, they may not be able to identify the root issue, or they may get misled and fix something else that isn’t your bug. It’s in your interest to provide as much information as possible up front to make sure your issue definitely gets addressed. The easiest way to do this is usually to backtrack through the steps you took before encountering the bug. The more information you can provide, the easier it will be to reproduce and fix. If you can’t remember everything, see if you can reproduce the bug and pay attention to the steps that you’re taking.

Please note that you do not need to provide the steps in written form - for instance, you can submit the steps via video capture of your screen. What is most important is that it clearly illustrates the steps so that our engineers can recreate the bug.

The Bug Reporter will automatically include the currently loaded project in the bug report if you open it through the editor. If you start the reporter via its executable file, you will have to attach your project manually. Unless your project is already very small, it is recommended to strip it of irrelevant assets. Submitting a minimal reproduction project that only contains what is necessary allows our QA and Development teams to isolate the issue more efficiently and provide a fix much faster.

If the issue occurs in a specific scene of your project, try exporting the scene in which you encounter the bug, then import it into a new project and see if the bug still occurs. If it does, upload the new, smaller project. If it doesn’t, you can keep trying with larger versions of the project.

To ​help ​you ​reduce ​the ​size ​of ​your ​projects ​and ​to ​create ​minimal ​reproduction projects, ​we ​developed ​several ​tools ​that ​greatly ​reduce ​the ​required ​effort.

• Repro ​Project ​Wizard

The smallest project that recreates the issue is ideal, but large projects are definitely better than nothing, so please do include your whole project if you’re unable to narrow it down. Our ​reporting ​system ​supports ​huge ​attachments. Please ​do ​not ​upload ​individual ​assets ​because ​the ​project ​contains ​relevant ​data and ​files ​that ​the ​assets ​alone ​do ​not.

When your bug is submitted, you will be sent a confirmation email containing the case number, which you’ll need to hold on to. The email will include a link to a web page with the current status of the bug. You can check back on that page anytime for an update. Don’t share this link on the forum or other public spaces, as it reveals your contact address and bug report history. The case number is sufficient for others to find the issue on the Issue Tracker.

For your own tracking, we recommend the following approach:

• Create a zip file of the project you attached to each report.
• Save a .txt file describing the bug and repro steps in the project’s Assets folder.
• Prefix the zip filename with the case number from the confirmation email.

Upon receiving the notification from Unity regarding your bug report being closed, check to see if the bug has been fixed by finding the appropriate project and opening it in the latest Unity beta. Follow the steps to reproduce to easily determine if the bug is gone.

While this is a bit of work on your end, it means a) you are more likely to have a high-quality bug report, which means your bug is more likely to be reproduced and fixed, and b) you can easily ensure that the bug has been fixed in a future beta version.

It is always ideal for our staff to be able to get in touch with you in case they have questions. If you submitted a bug report, we will reach out to you via email. If you write in the forum, we will reply there. Please respond as soon as possible to questions and requests you receive from the team to ensure a speedy resolution of the case.

If you didn’t see your bug mentioned in the forums, we advise you to start a new thread. Remember that others may have experienced the same problem, so posting any workarounds you find is a fast way to make friends in the beta community!

Thank you for taking the time to learn how to be an effective beta tester. If you have questions about any of the above and your search engine of choice doesn’t reveal any answers, please drop by the Discussions and let us know.