Tired of waiting for Unity to enter Play Mode? Here’s a quick fix!
As your Unity project grows in size, you’ve probably noticed an increasingly frustrating delay when you hit the Play button. Unity often takes a while to load everything — even when you haven’t made any major changes.
But did you know there’s a built-in Unity feature that can reduce that Play Mode wait time significantly?
In this guide, you’ll learn how to enable Configurable Enter Play Mode in Unity for near-instant Play Mode launches — perfect for speeding up your iteration cycles and testing.
💡 Why Is Unity So Slow to Enter Play Mode?
By default, when you press Play, Unity does two expensive operations:
- Reloads the entire scene
- Reloads the scripting domain (which resets all your static variables and scripting states)
While this is necessary in some cases, it’s often overkill — especially if you haven’t made any recent changes to your scene or scripts.
⚙️ How to Enable Instant Play Mode in Unity
You can customize Unity’s behavior to skip one or both of these reload steps. Here’s how:
✅ Step-by-Step Instructions:
- Go to
Edit → Project Settings
- In the Project Settings window, select Editor
- Scroll or search for Enter Play Mode Settings
- Enable Enter Play Mode Options
- Check or uncheck the following:
- ✅ Reload Scene (recommended ON)
- ❌ Reload Domain (recommended OFF)
🔄 This setup reloads your scene but skips domain reloads — which saves a ton of time during testing.
📌 Recommended Settings for Most Developers
SettingStatusWhyReload Scene✅ EnabledKeeps your scene fresh each playReload Domain❌ DisabledKeeps scripts “hot loaded”
This configuration gives you the best of both worlds — your scene gets refreshed, but your scripts stay intact, reducing load times.
🔗 Related:
- Unity’s Official Docs on Configurable Enter Play Mode
- Unity Tips: Best Practices for Faster Iteration
- Unity Editor Hacks Every Dev Should Know
🧠 Final Thoughts
This feature was introduced in Unity 2019.3, so if you’re using an older version, the options may not appear.
Using Enter Play Mode Options is a simple but powerful way to save time, especially during frequent iteration and debugging. Set it once — and enjoy faster Play Mode almost every time.
Let me know in the comments below if you’ve tried this — and whether it improved your workflow!