The Background Tasks window

The Background Tasks window displays the progress of any running asynchronous tasks. For example, you can see the progress for shader compilation, lightmapA pre-rendered texture that contains the effects of light sources on static objects in the scene. Lightmaps are overlaid on top of scene geometry to create the effect of lighting. More info
See in Glossary baking, and occlusion cullingA that disables rendering of objects when they are not currently seen by the camera because they are obscured (occluded) by other objects. More info
See in Glossary.

To open the Background Tasks window, do one of the following:

• From the menu, select Window > General > Progress.
• From the Unity Editor status bar, click the global progress bar or the activity indicator (spinner).

1. ToolbarA row of buttons and basic controls at the top of the Unity Editor that allows you to interact with the Editor in various ways (e.g. scaling, translation). More info
   See in Glossary: Provides options to filter tasks and clear inactive tasks from the list.

2. Task list: Displays progress information about each task for the following:

   • Active tasks, including tasks that have stopped responding.
   • Some finished tasks. By default, Unity removes these from the list, but some are designed to stay in the list until you clear them manually.
   • Failed and cancelled tasks.

Task information

Each entry in the Background Tasks window displays the following information about the task.

Subtasks

Some tasks spawn subtasks. The progress window displays an overall progress entry in the parent task (1), and a sub progress entry for each child task (2).

Monitor subtasks to determine which part of a complex task takes the most time. This is useful for operations like lightmap baking, which can have hundreds of subtasks.

View task status

Background tasks can have the following statuses:

Status	Description	Icon
Active	The task is running and reports progress as percent complete, or estimated time remaining.	None
Indeterminate	The task is running and reports progress, but cannot determine how close it is to being complete.	None
Finished	The task finished successfully	(check mark)
Unresponsive	The task has not reported any progress for five seconds.	None
Cancelled	The task is no longer active because you cancelled it manually. Some tasks cannot be cancelled from the Background Tasks window.	(warning symbol)
Failed	The task is no longer active because it failed	(error symbol)

Filter tasks by status

Use the filter options in the Background Tasks window toolbar to hide and show different types of tasks.

Filter option	Shows or hides
(check mark)	Finished tasks
(warning symbol)	Cancelled and unresponsive tasks
(error symbol)	Failed tasks

Cancel active tasks

You can cancel some running tasks directly from the Background Tasks window. To cancel a running task click the cancel (x) icon.

Clear inactive tasks

Click the Clear inactive button in the toolbar to remove all inactive tasks from the list.

Unity automatically clears most finished tasks from the list. However, some tasks are designed to stay in the list until you clear them manually.

Failed and cancelled tasks also stay in the list until you clear them.

To clear unresponsive tasks, you must cancel them first.

View global progress

The Unity Editor status bar displays a global progress bar that shows the aggregate overall progress of all active tasks. It does not include finished, failed, or cancelled tasks.