Modularizing made our app bigger and slower to launch. One build setting won it all back, with zero code changes.

We didn't write a single new line of code. We just moved some of it into frameworks, like every modularization guide tells you to.

Then we archived the release build, and the app had gotten bigger .

This happened on a team I worked with, and it took us a week to crack. Here's the case file. I rebuilt the crime scene as a demo app, so every number below is real and reproducible.

🗂️ CASE FILE: The App That Gained Weight

Victim: MyApp , freshly modularized

Symptom: got bigger after we only moved code

Suspects: Xcode · the CI cache · Mercury in retrograde · public

Fix: one build setting, 22% smaller , 0 frameworks loaded at launch

🔍 Exhibit A: 3 KB of Code in a 73 KB Box

All three modules are plain dynamic frameworks, which is what Xcode gives you by default.…