Where apps hide your files

Reading Mac crash reports

Updated 2026-10-28 · 5 min read

When an app crashes, macOS writes a report to one of two DiagnosticReports folders. This page shows which folder holds what, how to read the file names and how to share a report.

The locations

~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/
/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/

The first holds reports for apps you run as yourself. The second is system-wide and holds reports for background services and things that run for all users. Each usually has a Retired subfolder, where macOS moves reports it has finished processing. General app logs, as opposed to crashes, are in:

~/Library/Logs/
/Library/Logs/

They stay small: on the Sequoia Mac checked for this page, the user-level folder was 340 KB and the system-wide one 21 MB.

Open them

In Finder, press ⇧⌘G and paste a path. In Terminal:

open ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports

Or use the Console app, which is in /System/Applications/Utilities. Under Reports in its sidebar, Crash Reports, Spin Reports, Log Reports and Diagnostic Reports list the same files with no digging through folders. Select a report to read it, choose File > Reveal in Finder to get the file itself, or use the Share button in the toolbar. Apple notes that a standard (non-administrator) account sees only user reports.

Reading the file names

A report is named <process>-<date>-<time>.<extension>, or with an underscore and the Mac's name at the end, for example ANECompilerService_2026-10-21-124934_MacBook-Pro-7.cpu_resource.diag. The extension tells you the kind:

Extension	What it is
.ips	A crash report in the current format; Console lists these under Crash Reports
.crash	The older plain-text crash format, still found on older Macs and from older tools
.diag	A diagnostic report about resource use, such as heavy CPU use or disk writes, rather than a crash
.spin	A spin report, written when an app stops responding (the spinning wait cursor)

Several .ips files from chrome_crashpad_handler in /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports appeared on the Mac checked within seconds of each other, which is a typical pattern: one fault can generate a burst of reports.

Which one to send to a developer

Pick the report whose name matches the app and whose timestamp is closest to the crash. Reports are plain text or JSON, so you can attach the file. Check it first: crash reports contain the app's code paths, your username in file paths, and sometimes the names of documents. If that matters, open a copy in TextEdit and remove what you do not want to share before you send it.

Panics and restarts

If the whole Mac restarted, the report is about the system rather than one app. Look in /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports for a recently dated file with panic in its name. After such a restart, macOS shows a message that the Mac restarted because of a problem and offers to send a report to Apple.

Logs that are not files

Modern macOS keeps most system logging in the unified log, which is not a folder of text files. Read it in Console, or from Terminal with log show --last 10m (the log command is read-only; add a filter like --predicate 'process == "Safari"' to cut the noise). A few plain-text logs remain in /var/log, such as system.log and install.log (Console shows system.log in its sidebar), but most system messages now go only to the unified log. Many apps write their own logs into ~/Library/Logs/<app name>; on the Mac checked these included Adobe, Claude, Homebrew and JetBrains folders.

Cleaning up

Crash reports are small and safe to delete. In Console, select a report and choose File > Move to Trash, or select old files in Finder and move them to the Trash. Do this only for the DiagnosticReports folders, and leave the rest of ~/Library/Logs to the apps that write there. There is no need to clear /Library/Logs as an admin unless disk space truly requires it.

Making sense of the report itself

You do not need to read a whole report. The top lines name the app, its version, the macOS build and the time. Further down, the line starting with the exception type (such as a bad memory access or an abort) tells a developer what kind of failure it was, and the Thread that crashed is marked in the backtrace. If you are filing a bug, include the app version and macOS version in your message as well as the file, because developers match reports to the exact build.

Why the folders seem empty or hidden

~/Library is hidden and Spotlight does not search it. The folder may also look empty simply because nothing has crashed recently. Crash reports for App Store apps land in the same DiagnosticReports folders, even though those apps keep their data in containers.

Finding one report in a long list

When Console's list is long, name search is faster. Report names start with the process name, so typing chrome_crashpad or the start of an app's name into Everywhere lists its reports in ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports, its Retired subfolder and the system-wide /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports, none of which Spotlight shows, and ⌘↵ reveals one in Finder. A report written to /Library in the last few minutes can wait for the next scan, so for a crash that just happened, Console is quicker. It matches file names only, so it will not find a report by the error text inside.

Common questions

Where are crash logs stored on a Mac?

In ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports for your apps and /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports for system-wide reports. Console's Crash Reports section lists them too.

What is the .ips file on my Mac?

It is a crash report in the format used by recent macOS versions, and Console lists it under Crash Reports. Older reports used the .crash extension.

Can I delete crash reports?

Yes, they are small diagnostic files. Move old DiagnosticReports files to the Trash in Finder, or use File > Move to Trash in Console, and leave other app logs alone.

Where are the system logs on macOS?

Most are in the unified log, which you read in Console or with log show in Terminal. App-written logs sit in ~/Library/Logs and /Library/Logs.