HOW TO: Manually retrieve all the logs

This information is only useful if you can't use the menu "Help > Contact Softron Support". The contact Softron support feature gathers all the files we need and is much easier. Here is an article to automatically send the logs:

HOW TO: Automatically retrieve all the logs

If you need to do it "manually", below you will find information on where to find the requested files for support.

Important Notes

How/Where can you send the files?

Once collected, zip the files, and send us the zip file using our WeTransfer page: softron.wetransfer.com

Compress (zip) the files before you send them to us !!

Gather all files in a folder, then right click on the folder and select "Compress File" to create a zip file. Then send it to us via Softron's WeTransfer page: https://softron.wetransfer.com

About the ~ character

The "~" character that we'll use here sometimes represents the user folder. Depending on how you have named your user, this can change, so if we write something like:

~/Documents/

In your computer this will be something like:

/Users/admin/Documents/

1. System Profiler 

The system Profiler file will give us all the information we need to know what version of the drivers you are using, which hardware you are working on etc... If you send us this file, you don’t even need to specify your Quicktime verison, OS, etc... All that can be found here.

To save your System Profiler, you need to go in the Apple Menu on the top left corner, hold the "option" key down and and select “System Information...”:

This will open a new window where you can see all the information about your Mac. To save a copy of this system Profiler, just go to the File Menu, and select “Save...”, and Save the file to the folder where you place all the files needed. Make sure it has the .spx extension, do not send a Text file.

2. System Logs 

Start the application "Terminal" (found in the folder "/Applications/Utilities/"). Then type in the Terminal window something like this:

sudo log collect --output ~/Documents/logcoll.logarchive --start '2022-11-06'

Note that you will have to modify the start date to include the day you had issues, so modify what follows "start", it is written in the format year-month-day. Once you have set the day, hit carriage return. Terminal will ask for an admin password. When it completes successfully, it should show you this message:

Archive successfully written to /Users/admin/Documents/logcoll.logarchive

Zip this file is it may be quite large. 

3. Crash Logs

If your application crashed and you had a warning window saying: "Your application has unexpectedly quit", then it has generated a crash log. Here is where you will find the crash log.

3.1. Using the "Console Application"

In the “Console” Application, select the "Crash Reports" line on the left:

Then on the right, search for the application name, make sure of the date. Then right-click on the line and select "Reveal In finder".

3.2. Using the "Finder"

The crash logs are saved in the following folder:

~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports

4. Technical logs of the Softron application

Our applications store some "technical logs" that can be important.

Important Note: 

• Some applications allow you to save the logs in a different folder, so the following information may be different for you, and thus you if you have changed that preference, please make sure to look in the appropriate folder. If you did not change the default location of those logs, you can access these logs as explained below.
• There will be one file created per day, and that these files are deleted automatically after one month.
• You will need to send us the system logs also (as explained above) as the system logs can give us some indication on your general system, while the application logs are for this one application only.

4.1. Using the "Console" application

In the “Console” Application, select the "Log Reports" line on the left:

As there may be a lot of different files, you may search for the application name in the search field at the top:

Find the correct line (make sure of the date). Then right-click on the line and select "Reveal In finder".

4.2. Using the "Finder"

By default, the Softron technical logs are stored here:

~/Library/Logs/Softron/

5. Preference Files 

5.1. For all our applications, but not OnTheAir Node 

Each application saves its preferences to a folder. When we have your preferences, we can make sure to reproduce the issue with the same preferences as you. 

If the user is named “admin”, the path to find the applications preferences will be:

~/Library/Preferences

Note that, by default, the Library Folder is not shown in the users folder. The easiest to find the Preferences folder is then to select the menu from the Finder: Go > Go To Folder... (cmd + shift + G). Then type the path "/Users/admin/Library/Preferences" in the window and click on "Go".

Each application will have its preferences, and for example :

• com.MovieRecorder.plist
• com.OnTheAirVideo.plist
• com.OnTheAirVideo1.plist
• com.OnTheAirVideo2.plist
• ...

 Copy the file required in the folder you have created to report us the logs.

 !!! Make sure yo COPY (hold the alt key pressed) and not to MOVE the file out of the Preferences folder or you will have to redo all your settings. !!!

Note that OnTheAir CG and OnTheAir Node do not store the preferences in these standard locations (see below)

5.2. For OnTheAir Node ONLY

OnTheAir node doesn't store its preferences in the standard location. The preferences of OnTheAir Node applications are stored in the following folder:

/Library/Application Support/Softron/OnTheAir Node/

Zip the whole folder and send it to us.

!!! Do not delete this folder, nor any of the files it holds as they also hold the OnTheAir Node application and many important information that can not be retrieved if trashed !!!

!!! If you delete this folder you will not be able to start OnTheAir Node again and loose a lot of vital information !!! 

6. Other Specific files for each application

6.1. OnTheAir Manager: Local Data source

OnTheAir Manager is using a database to store all the information about schedules, playlists, events, clips, etc... This database is stored here:

~/Documents/OnTheAir Manager Local DataSource/

If needed, zip the whole folder and send it to us.

!!! Do not delete this folder, nor any of the files it holds as they also hold the OnTheAir Manager database and many important information !!!

!!! If you delete this folder you will loose ALL your schedules, offline clips, playlists, etc !!!

!!! Backup before doing anything there !!!

6.2. OnTheAir Live: Local Data source

OnTheAir Live is using a database to store all the information about clips. However, unlike OnTheAir Manager, the playlists are not stored in this database as they are stored as regular vpls files on your disk. The OnTheAir Live database is stored here:

~/Documents/OnTheAir Live Local DataSource/

If needed, zip the whole folder and send it to us.

!!! Do not delete this folder, nor any of the files it holds as they also hold the OnTheAir Live database and many important information !!!

!!! If you delete this folder you will loose ALL you offline clips !!!

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