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How to View Your iPhone's Debug Log/Console

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Kelly Heffner Wilkerson, Co-Founder of Decipher Media
Kelly Heffner Wilkerson
December 1, 2019 at 10:30 AM
Categories: Development, iTunes | View Comments

In this article, we're going to show you how to view your iPhone's debugging logs live. Updated December 1, 2019: Our suggestions are up to date for iOS 13 and for Windows.

How to Access the iPhone Debug Log/Console on Windows

Unfortunately, Apple Configurator 2 is not available for Windows, so the way to access the iPhone Console/debugging logging is by using the open source project libimobiledevice. The folks over at Quamotion are kind enough to provide compiled Windows ports of libimobiledevice. If you're comfortable using Windows command prompt or power shell, you can download Quamotion's Windows libimobiledevice tools.

The tool you want to run is idevicesyslog.

Note: If you're a more novice user and aren't sure how to use idevicesyslog, send us a note. I'm considering posting a more user-friendly Windows tool here, but would love to make sure there is interest before taking the time to do so.

How to Access the iPhone Debug Log/Console on macOS

You could get idevicesyslog on your Mac, but there's two easier ways to view the iPhone console on Mac.

How to use Console on macOS to view the iPhone debug console:

On macOS High Sierra, Mojave, and Catalina, you can use the built-in Console app to access the iPhone debugging log.

  1. Open the Console app, by searching for Console in the spotlight search (magnifying glass) in the upper right corner.

  2. Click your iPhone under Devices on the left side of the window. (If you don't see Devices, in the menu select View > Show Sources)

  3. (Optional) Click the Clear button at the top of the window, to start the logging fresh.

How to use Apple Configurator 2 to access the iPhone console:

  1. Download the app Apple Configurator 2 from Apple on the Mac App Store.

  2. Run Apple Configurator 2, and double-click on your iPhone.

  3. Click Console in the left column.

  4. Scroll around, or export your log to a text file using the "Save" button for easier reading and searching.

If you're testing out a specific problem, I recommend pressing the "Clear" button to erase all of the old text, reproduce your problem, and then click "Save" to save the nice isolated log text to a file.