Mac OS X Sysdiagnose – Advanced Mac Troubleshooting Diagnostics

If your Mac is suddenly suffering hardware or software issues, or is generally acting up you can run sysdiagnose in Mac OS X Terminal. Sysdiagnose compiles a number of advanced technical reports for expert Mac users to review and troubleshoot appropriately.  Sysdiagnose will output the following information in a tar.gz file.

• Crash report
• Input/Output details
• Disk information








• Compiled system profiler report
• System logs (including kernel logs)
• Filesystem usage report
• Memory usage and processes details
• Powermetrics

In reality, Sysdiagnose is ran and performed by Mac OS X technical specialists including Apple store engineers (Genius Bar) and authorized Mac repair shops. The sysdiagnose report is run on Mac X systems as a last or first resort to solving and understanding complex technical hardware and software issues.

Get Started Running Sysdiagnose in Terminal

1. Open Terminal (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal)

2. Type the following command in Terminal. Be prepared to wait about 2 to 5 minutes for Sysdiagnose to completely run.

sudo sysdiagnose –f ~/Desktop/

You will receive the following warning prompt:

This tool generates files that allow Apple to investigate issues with your

computer and help improve Apple products.  The files might contain personal

information found on your device or associated with your iCloud accounts and/or

AppleID, including but not limited to your name, your user name, your email address

and email settings, file paths, file names, downloads, your computer’s IP addresses,

and network connection information.

This information is used by Apple in accordance with its privacy policy

(www.apple.com/privacy) and is not shared with any other company.  By using

this tool and sending the results to Apple, you consent to Apple using the

contents of these files to improve Apple products.

Press 'Enter' to continue.

3. Confirm and press return.

4. Sysdiagnose begins running. Below is what you might see as the process runs.

sysdiagnose version 3.0 (56)

Starting time sensitive tasks...

Running ps

Running thread-aware ps

Running fs_usage, spindump, vm_stat, and top

Running powermetrics

Starting graphics tasks...

Gathering Quartz Compositor information

Starting memory tasks...

Running lsof

Running footprint

Collecting file coordination status

Starting disk tasks...

Running diskutil

Running gpt

Running hdiutil

Running BootCacheControl

Running df

Running mount

Starting kernel tasks...

Starting networking tasks...

Getting Wi-Fi info

Getting opendirectory info

Getting NFS info

Running netstat

Running ifconfig

Running ipconfig

Running scutil

Running dig

Running get-network-info

Starting power tasks...

Running pmset

Starting configuration tasks...

Running system_profiler

Running ioreg

Gathering loginwindow logs

Gathering logs...

Generating microstackshot reports...

5. Once Sysdiagnose completes, a new window will pop up to your Mac temporary folder. The path is /var/tmp/ and inside you will have your Sysdiagnose file - sysdiagnose_2017.02.04_14-20-31-0600.tar.gz – the file will vary in size but should be between 10 and 30 megabytes.

6. You can open the .tar.gz file by double-clicking it. This will contain a folder of over 75 files and folders with the information Sysdiagnose collected.

Note: Sysdiagnose collects system info including wireless networks, network configurations, and system account usernames. While the info isn’t necessarily confidential, you should be aware it is being collected if you are sharing these reports.

Remember, Sysdiagnose compiles a detailed report of your Mac OS X machine in attempt to troubleshoot system software or hardware problems. Learn more about troubleshooting Mac X issues.