diff --git a/MoltenVK/MoltenVK/GPUObjects/MVKPipeline.mm b/MoltenVK/MoltenVK/GPUObjects/MVKPipeline.mm
index a6b7af4..4f9bc4a 100644
--- a/MoltenVK/MoltenVK/GPUObjects/MVKPipeline.mm
+++ b/MoltenVK/MoltenVK/GPUObjects/MVKPipeline.mm
@@ -25,7 +25,11 @@
 #include "MTLRenderPipelineDescriptor+MoltenVK.h"
 #include "mvk_datatypes.hpp"
 
-#ifndef MVK_EXCLUDE_CEREAL
+#ifndef MVK_USE_CEREAL
+#define MVK_USE_CEREAL (1)
+#endif
+
+#if MVK_USE_CEREAL
 #include <cereal/archives/binary.hpp>
 #include <cereal/types/string.hpp>
 #include <cereal/types/vector.hpp>
@@ -1973,7 +1977,7 @@
 
 #pragma mark Streaming pipeline cache to and from offline memory
 
-#ifndef MVK_EXCLUDE_CEREAL
+#if MVK_USE_CEREAL
 static uint32_t kDataHeaderSize = (sizeof(uint32_t) * 4) + VK_UUID_SIZE;
 #endif
 
@@ -2009,7 +2013,7 @@
 // returns the number of bytes required to serialize the contents of this pipeline cache.
 // This is the compliment of the readData() function. The two must be kept aligned.
 VkResult MVKPipelineCache::writeData(size_t* pDataSize, void* pData) {
-#ifndef MVK_EXCLUDE_CEREAL
+#if MVK_USE_CEREAL
 	lock_guard<mutex> lock(_shaderCacheLock);
 
 	try {
@@ -2043,14 +2047,14 @@
 		return reportError(VK_INCOMPLETE, "Error writing pipeline cache data: %s", ex.what());
 	}
 #else
-	MVKAssert(false, "Pipeline cache serialization is unavailable. To enable pipeline cache serialization, build MoltenVK without the MVK_EXCLUDE_CEREAL build setting.");
-	return reportError(VK_INCOMPLETE, "Pipeline cache serialization is unavailable.");
+	*pDataSize = 0;
+	return reportError(VK_INCOMPLETE, "Pipeline cache serialization is unavailable. To enable pipeline cache serialization, build MoltenVK with MVK_USE_CEREAL=1 build setting.");
 #endif
 }
 
 // Serializes the data in this cache to a stream
 void MVKPipelineCache::writeData(ostream& outstream, bool isCounting) {
-#ifndef MVK_EXCLUDE_CEREAL
+#if MVK_USE_CEREAL
 	MVKPerformanceTracker& activityTracker = isCounting
 		? _device->_performanceStatistics.pipelineCache.sizePipelineCache
 		: _device->_performanceStatistics.pipelineCache.writePipelineCache;
@@ -2087,14 +2091,14 @@
 	cacheEntryType = MVKPipelineCacheEntryTypeEOF;
 	writer(cacheEntryType);
 #else
-	MVKAssert(false, "Pipeline cache serialization is unavailable. To enable pipeline cache serialization, build MoltenVK without the MVK_EXCLUDE_CEREAL build setting.");
+	MVKAssert(false, "Pipeline cache serialization is unavailable. To enable pipeline cache serialization, build MoltenVK with MVK_USE_CEREAL=1 build setting.");
 #endif
 }
 
 // Loads any data indicated by the creation info.
 // This is the compliment of the writeData() function. The two must be kept aligned.
 void MVKPipelineCache::readData(const VkPipelineCacheCreateInfo* pCreateInfo) {
-#ifndef MVK_EXCLUDE_CEREAL
+#if MVK_USE_CEREAL
 	try {
 
 		size_t byteCount = pCreateInfo->initialDataSize;
@@ -2162,10 +2166,10 @@
 		}
 
 	} catch (cereal::Exception& ex) {
-		setConfigurationResult(reportError(VK_SUCCESS, "Error reading pipeline cache data: %s", ex.what()));
+		setConfigurationResult(reportError(VK_ERROR_INITIALIZATION_FAILED, "Error reading pipeline cache data: %s", ex.what()));
 	}
 #else
-	MVKAssert(false, "Pipeline cache serialization is unavailable. To enable pipeline cache serialization, build MoltenVK without the MVK_EXCLUDE_CEREAL build setting.");
+	setConfigurationResult(reportError(VK_ERROR_INITIALIZATION_FAILED, "Pipeline cache serialization is unavailable. To enable pipeline cache serialization, build MoltenVK with MVK_USE_CEREAL=1 build setting."));
 #endif
 }