Android loading model from Application.persistentDataPath fails

[Wayne-nulitics]

When manually placing the model files in the Application.persistentDataPath path and then disabling the "Is model in Steaming Assets" and "Init on Awake" the files are not loaded.

Here is the code used:
if (File.Exists(Path.Combine(Application.persistentDataPath, "STT", sttModel)))
{
whisperManager.ModelPath = Path.Combine(Application.persistentDataPath, "STT", sttModel);
whisperManager.InitModel();
whisperManager.OnProgress += WhisperManagerOnOnProgress;
}

This works in Editor and iOS but not on Android

[Wayne-nulitics]

Some additional information, when replacing your "FileUtils.ReadFileAsync(modelPath);" with standard System.IO method "File.ReadAllBytesAsync(modelPath);" it works on Android.

What I changed in your code, in WhisperWrapper, to make this work on Android.
Replace: var buffer = await FileUtils.ReadFileAsync(modelPath);
With: byte[] buffer = await File.ReadAllBytesAsync(modelPath);

///

/// Start async loading of whisper model from file path.
///

/// Absolute file path to model weights.
/// Whisper context params used during model loading.
/// Loaded whisper model. Null if loading failed.
public static async Task InitFromFileAsync(string modelPath, WhisperContextParams contextParams)
{
LogUtils.Log($"Trying to load Whisper model from {modelPath}...");
byte[] buffer = await File.ReadAllBytesAsync(modelPath);
//var buffer = await FileUtils.ReadFileAsync(modelPath);
if (buffer == null)
return null;

        var res = await InitFromBufferAsync(buffer, contextParams);
        return res;
    }

[Macoron]

Thank for reporting this. I didn't test it, but it seems current code assumes that model weights are in Streaming Assets and uses WebRequest to access it (this is Android specific behaviour). Other folders should be loaded with normal File.ReadAllBytesAsync like shown in your example.

The fix would be to pass additional parameter for "Is model in Steaming Assets" into file loading function.

[Macoron]

I will keep it open, in case someone want to properly fix that in future