What is DiagnosticReports on Mac, and is it safe to delete?

Where it is

What it is

When an app crashes, freezes or is stopped for using too many resources, macOS writes a report describing what the app was doing at that moment. Reports for your own apps go to ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports. Reports for system processes go to /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports.

The files are plain text, mostly ending in .ips, and each one is small. Developers and support staff ask for them when you report a bug.

macOS clears out old reports by itself, so the folder normally stays small. It only gets large when one app is crashing over and over, and that app is the thing to fix.

How big it gets

Usually a few MB. Tens or hundreds of MB means something is crashing repeatedly.

How to clear it by hand

1. Run the command below to see the most recent reports. The file names begin with the name of the app that crashed.
2. If one app appears again and again, update or reinstall it, and keep a recent report in case its support team asks for one.
3. To browse reports in a readable form, open the Console app and select Crash Reports in the sidebar.
4. To clear them, open ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports in Finder and move the files to the Trash.

ls -lt ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports | head -20

What happens afterwards

Nothing changes in how your Mac or your apps run. macOS writes a new report the next time something crashes.

How Diskzy handles it

DiagnosticReports is inside ~/Library/Logs, which Diskzy lists in the Clean up tab and ticks. Logs also appear as a named part of System Data.

Related guides

• Logs~/Library/Logs
• diagnostics/private/var/db/diagnostics
• Caches~/Library/Caches