Diagnostic Reports

Automatically generated reports that capture information about app crashes, system panics, and performance issues for troubleshooting purposes.

What to Know

Diagnostic Reports provide detailed technical evidence of what caused application crashes, system hangs, kernel panics, and performance degradation. These reports contain stack traces, memory states, and system conditions at the time of failure, which are essential for identifying buggy software, incompatible drivers, or failing hardware components. Organizations use diagnostic reports to track recurring issues across fleets, document problems for vendor support cases, and prioritize software updates or patches.

Common Scenarios

Enterprise IT: IT departments collect diagnostic reports from user Macs to identify patterns in application crashes, especially after deploying new software or updates. Reports help determine if crashes are caused by conflicting software, insufficient resources, or bugs that require vendor escalation.

MSP: MSPs review diagnostic reports when troubleshooting client-reported Mac instability, using the crash logs to differentiate between application bugs, driver issues, and actual hardware failures. This prevents unnecessary hardware replacements when software fixes would resolve the problem.

Education: School IT teams monitor diagnostic reports from shared student devices to detect problematic apps or system configurations causing repeated crashes. Identifying these patterns helps IT update app versions or adjust deployment policies to improve classroom device reliability.

In Addigy

Addigy can deploy custom scripts that collect diagnostic reports from managed Macs and upload them to a central location for analysis. Administrators can also use Addigy’s Remote Desktop feature to navigate to ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports on end-user devices and review crash logs in real time without requiring users to manually locate and send files.