How to investigate an app that crashes when starting up, using log entries. Includes detailed instructions for one of the simplest adventures in the log, and a summary of code signature errors.
troubleshooting
When an app can only run for a moment, it might seem hard to work out why it crashes. Here are useful clues from the crash log and elsewhere to help you get the app running properly.
How to discover what went wrong when a document doesn’t show the right thumbnail, but a generic icon instead. How to dive deeper to solve problems with 3rd party thumbnail and preview generators.
Use the mdimport and mdls commands to dump full information about all the metadata attributes found for a file, and those indexed by Spotlight.
Can be a Mac-saver if you have problems when your backup storage isn’t available. You don’t need to run Time Machine to make them, and can roll back in Recovery, as shown here.
My friend took it to extremes, travelling everywhere with a 30-foot rope in his suitcase. But he was right: would you be able to get to the fire escape? How that applies to problems with the structure of the internal SSD of an Apple silicon Mac.
It now consists of many discrete services. How to test CloudKit’s shared databases, iCloud Drive’s cloud storage, and whether your Mac can install from iCloud.
How long should you expect your Mac’s log to retain entries? Evidence here suggests that anything beyond 5 days isn’t looking good, and expecting to retrieve those made more than 5 days ago is likely to fail.
When humans explain how to tackle a Mac problem, they usually prefer to use GUI apps when appropriate. AI much prefers you to enter commands into Terminal. This has consequences.
How to use Share Disk in Recovery on an Apple silicon Mac, how fast it can be. Target Disk Mode on Intel Macs, and some less likely alternatives.
The Eclectic Light Company 