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Writing a diagnostic log

Diagnostics, the last section of the Settings window, has one switch, Write a diagnostic log, which records what the app is doing to a plain text file on this Mac so that a problem you can reproduce can be sent with a report of it. It is off unless you turn it on, and it is the first thing to turn on when something goes wrong that you can make happen again.

The Diagnostics card switched on, with the folder, the size on disk, Reveal and Clear

The switch​

Off, the line under the title reads Off. Turn this on to capture a problem you can reproduce, then send the file. On, it reads Recording what the app is doing, to a file you can send with a bug report.

The Diagnostics card as it starts, switched off, with No log files yet

The switch is remembered across launches. A bug worth logging rarely reproduces before the next launch, so once it is on it stays on until you turn it off. At the moment you turn it on, Vixlo writes a line naming the build and the Mac — the Vixlo version, the macOS version and the number of cores — so nobody has to ask which build a file came from. That line is written only then, not at each launch, so a day's file begun later does not start with it.

Errors are written whether or not the switch is on. The switch exists so you are not paying for a running commentary during a shoot; it does not throw away the record of something going wrong.

Where the files are​

Under the switch the card shows the folder's full path, so it can be read out over a call or typed on another machine. It ends in Library/Logs/Vixlo, inside your home folder: the place the Mac keeps every app's logs, which Console.app already lists. The path can be selected and copied.

Inside it, one file per calendar day, named by the date: vixlo-2026-10-10.log. Each line carries the time, a level (DEBUG, INFO, WARN or ERROR), the part of the app it came from in square brackets, and the message. The 10 MB cap is for each day's file on its own: when a day's file reaches 10 MB it is set aside as vixlo-2026-10-10.log.1, and only the two most recent set-aside files of that day (.1 and .2) are kept. Earlier days' files are not removed, except by Clear, so a log left on for a week of shooting can take up to about 30 MB for each day.

Reveal opens a Finder window on the Logs folder in your Library, with the Vixlo folder selected. It points at the folder rather than one day's file because a file is set aside under a new name when it fills, while the folder stays where it is, and the folder is what you attach to a report. Open it to look at the day files.

Under the path the card says what the log is costing: No log files yet, or the total on disk for every day's files together, in KB or MB.

Clearing​

Clear deletes every log file Vixlo has written, and the size line goes back to No log files yet. Nothing else in the folder is touched. Clear before you reproduce a problem and what you send will hold that problem and nothing older. Clearing also removes the line naming the build, so clear first and turn the switch on after, as in the steps below.

Sending a report​

  1. Press Clear, so nothing older is in the folder.
  2. Turn Write a diagnostic log on. If it is already on, turn it off and on again, so the file opens with the line naming the build.
  3. Make the problem happen.
  4. Press Reveal and attach the selected Vixlo folder to your report; if what you are attaching it to will not take a folder, attach the files inside it. See Getting help for where to send it.
caution

The log is for a bug report, so read it before you send it if that matters to you. Made with the steps above, its first line names the build and the Mac, and every line names the part of the app it came from. It never contains a password, an API key or what keeps you signed in.