Apr 15, 2020 Now open the Mac App Store and select Updates from the sidebar. Download and install any available updates to your apps. For any apps you downloaded outside of the App Store, visit the developerâs website to download and install the latest updates. Check the box to automatically keep your Mac updated. Remove and reinstall problematic apps. Oct 09, 2019 macOS Catalina, which came out on Monday, is the newest version of the operating system that runs on the Mac.Catalina brings some significant changes, including the removal of the iTunes app.
Your Mac is probably pretty much trouble free, at least most of the time. But occasionally you may experience a system, process, or app crash that stops you in your tracks, and prevents you from continuing to work. These crashes are usually fleeting in nature, and resolved by simply relaunching the app or restarting your Mac.
Since Apple split apart iTunes in macOS Catalina, stuff got removed and/or move around. One of those things is app subscriptions. Hereâs how to manage app subscriptions on Mac. System Preferences. The Twitter app on MacOS Catalina. Apple Users of the Post-it app had requested a desktop version, and Catalyst was a relatively easy way to make that happen, said Remi Kent, global brand director.
And while an occasional crash can be frustrating, itâs generally not something to worry too much about. Stuff happens, and you can think of it as one of the many reasons you have a good backup system in place. (You do, donât you?)
Now, when a crash starts occurring on a more regular basis, or you notice it always happens when x event occurs, it may be time to start delving into the crash and discover what may be causing the problem.
In this Rocket Yard Guide, weâre going to take a look at using the Console app to track down the cause of a system or app crash. With any luck, the Console app will be able to help you resolve the problem thatâs causing the crash, or at least give you a good idea of whatâs going on.
What is the Console App?
Back in the early years of computing, the console was a terminal that was attached to a computer to monitor the status of the system. If you go back even further, the console may have been a bank of meters, lights, and switches that indicated how well the computer was operating. How To Check App Space For Mac Catalina Island(The Console app from macOS High Sierra. The sidebar shows devices reporting to the Console, as well as reports organized by category.)
The Console app included with the Mac is a modern-day version of the old computer console; its primary job is to help you monitor how well your Mac is operating. It can do this because of its ability to display logs, status, and error files your Macâs operating system and individual apps generate as theyâre running.
Log Files (OS X Yosemiteâs Console app displaying the crash log from when a system preference terminated unexpectedly. Turns out the preference pane is from an old version of an app, and is no longer supported).
There are a number of different types of files that apps, processes, and the system generate as they work; you can think of them as a journal or diary of whatâs going on at any point in time. While there are diagnostic files, crash files, log files, and a few other types, weâre going to refer to them collectively as log files. And for the most part, they can all be read by the Console app.
The Console app can also look at process messages, and a few other real-time events, but weâre going to concentrate on looking at log files to discover what happened in the past, such as when the system or an app crashed.
Introduction to Console
Even if you havenât experienced a recent system or app crash, or an unexpected restart, go ahead and launch the Console app, so you can become familiar with the interface.
Launch Console, located at /Applications/Utilities.
Console may look a bit different, depending on the version of the Mac operating system youâre using. Most changes from system to system are cosmetic, such as a few name changes here and there, although there was a significant change going from OS X El Capitan to macOS Sierra. The primary change was the removal or relocation of some troubleshooting tools used when looking at real-time events. Since weâre not developers trying to track down bugs, that shouldnât have much effect on our use of Console to review log files.
With the Console app open, youâll see a multi-pane interface, with a sidebar used to select either real-time messages or log files for display, a toolbar across the top, and in new versions of Console, a search bar and tab bar just below the toolbar.
Accessing Log Files
Log files you may be interested in reviewing for information about what caused a crash are found in the Console sidebar under the heading:
To access a log file, select the category in the sidebar youâre interested in. If the category has a chevron next to its name, expand the chevron by clicking or tapping on it.
A list of log files will be displayed, either within the sidebar or in the main viewing pane, depending on the Console version youâre using.
How To Check App Space For Mac Catalina Free(The /var/log category contains some interesting logs, including the results of all the automatic maintenance scripts that are run in the background by your Mac.)How To Check App Space For Mac Catalina Island
Select one of the listed files to view its content.
The log file names usually contain the process or app name that generated the file, the date, the name of the Mac, and finally, the file type, such as crash, diag, or analytics.
For the most part, the crash logs will be the ones youâll be interested in for troubleshooting system or app crashes, but the diag ones are also interesting to review, since they may contain information about unusual memory usage or high levels of CPU usage.
Understanding Reports
Crash reports are broken into multiple sections, with the first section containing all the information about what process crashed:
The next section tells you when the app or process crashed:
And finally, the meat of the problem: what caused the crash.
The next long section of the report lists what led to the crash in reverse chronological order, starting with the thread listed as the cause. This may seem like a goldmine for discovering what caused your crash, and it is. This section and the next, which is called a backtrace, can be very helpful for the developer to troubleshoot a system or app crash. However, itâs usually not very helpful for most users.
How To Check App Space For Mac Catalina Bay(The anatomy of a crash report as displayed in the Console app.)
What Can I Do With This Information?
One of the best things you can do is contact the developer, open a support ticket, and send in this crash report. Developers need this type of information to troubleshoot and refine their apps or code.
Depending on the version of Console youâre using, you can either:
Use the Save As command under the File menu to save a copy of the crash report, which you can then send to the developer. Or, if youâre using a later version of Console, you can use the Share button in the toolbar to attach the crash report to an email.
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You can also right-click on the crash report name and select Reveal in Finder from the popup menu. You can then use the Finder to make a copy to send along to the developer.
(An app crash will display a message indicating a crash occurred. You can select the Report button to display the crash report without having to wade through the Console app to find it.)
If youâre trying to resolve the crash on your own, pay attention to the exact time the crash occurred, then check the diagnostic logs and analytics logs for unusual events that may have occurred at or near the same time. Youâre looking for excessive memory or CPU usage, as an example. You may find, for example, that WebKit, a core component of Safari, was using a great deal of RAM when the crash occurred, something you may be able to correct by adding more RAM. Or, perhaps CPU usage was so high that on a hot summer day, your Mac couldnât cope with the high temperatures.
Another thing to look at is the app version that was crashing. Many times an app crash can be caused by an out-of-date version. Check with the app developer to see what the current version is, and which version, if any, is recommended to run on your version of the Mac OS.
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For more information about using the Console app, you can find details on advanced usage at Appleâs support site for Console Help.
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