iOS generates a multitude of diagnostic files every day. The most useful of these are the log-aggregated plist files, rotated every week (although my iPad seems determined to hang onto a week’s worth of files from 2012-09 for some reason).
My preferred method of getting at them is to carry out the following process every morning, for the previous day:
- On iOS Device: Open Settings
- General → About → Diagnostics & Usage
- Find the plist file starting with
log-aggregated-YYYY-MM-DDfor yesterday - Open the file
- Double tap, select all, copy
- Open mail, compose message
- Subject: date, Body: paste
- On Mac: Open mail message
- Paste into .plist doc
- Save as YYYY-MM-DD in iOS Diagnostics/YYYY folder
Questions to be Resolved
- Are the files still generated/contain the same data if you deselect “send logs to Apple”?
- Could we automate this via iOS backups? All the backup files have opaque IDs, but their contents are available. Are the DD files even contained within the backups?