# Mac Crash Reports: Can You Delete DiagnosticReports?

> ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports keeps crash, hang and spin reports for your apps. Old reports are safe to delete once you no longer need them for a bug.

- Updated: 2026-10-10
- URL: https://fresh.ist/caches/crash-reports/

**TL;DR:** Old ones, yes. ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports stores text reports macOS writes when one of your apps crashes, hangs or uses too many resources. Nothing depends on them after they're written. Delete old ones freely, but keep any report you still plan to send to a developer or Apple Support. Console can show and trash them.

## Facts from the Freshist app

- Category in Clean: Crash Reports — "Old crash and diagnostic reports. Safe to delete."
- Location: `~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports`
- Risk level: Low risk — Rebuilt automatically by macOS or the app that made it. Freshist selects these for you — you still see every item before anything moves.
- Selected by default: yes
- What Freshist does: Moves the selected items to the Trash, so you can undo. Nothing is deleted outright.

## What lives in DiagnosticReports

When an app you're running crashes, freezes, or misbehaves badly enough for macOS to notice, the system writes a report describing what happened: the process, the thread that failed, a backtrace, loaded libraries and the macOS version. Reports from apps running under your account go to `~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports`. Reports from system components go to `/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports` instead.

Apple's [Console guide](https://support.apple.com/guide/console/reports-cnsl664be99a/mac) groups them by type, and you can tell them apart by file extension:

| Type | Extension | Written when |
|---|---|---|
| Crash reports | `.ips` (older macOS: `.crash`) | An app or process quits unexpectedly |
| Spin and hang reports | `.spin`, `.hang` | An app stops responding (the spinning cursor) |
| Diagnostic reports | `.diag`, `.dpsub` | macOS records resource use or response-time problems |

You may also find a `Retired` subfolder, where macOS moves older reports. Each report is small, usually a few kilobytes to a few hundred, so this folder is about tidiness and privacy more than disk space.

## Why it piles up

Reports accumulate for as long as something keeps failing, and a single misbehaving background process can produce a new report every few minutes. Beta software, apps with broken updates, and helpers left behind by uninstalled apps are the usual sources. Reports also contain file paths, app names and sometimes window titles, which is a reason some people prefer not to keep years of them.

## What happens if you delete them

Nothing on your Mac uses these files after they're written. Deleting them:

- Frees a little space.
- Removes the history you'd use to troubleshoot a recurring problem, or to attach to a bug report.
- Doesn't change the Analytics & Improvements sharing setting.
- Doesn't remove reports already submitted to Apple or a developer.

If an app is crashing now, read or save its latest report before you clear the folder. A developer will almost always ask for it.

## Look at them first (read-only)

```sh
ls -lt ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports | head -20    # newest reports first
du -sh ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports
ls ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports | sed 's/-[0-9].*//' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head
```

The last command counts reports per app name, which quickly shows a process that crashes repeatedly.

You can also open **Console** (in Applications → Utilities), select **Crash Reports**, **Spin Reports** or **Diagnostic Reports** in the sidebar, and read each one. Administrators see both user and system reports there.

## Clear them with Console or Finder

In Console, select a report and choose **File → Move to Trash**. That works one report at a time and is the Apple-documented route.

For a bulk cleanup, in Finder choose **Go → Go to Folder…**, enter `~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports`, select the reports you no longer need, and move them to the Trash. Leave the `DiagnosticReports` folder itself in place. The system-level folder in `/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports` needs an administrator password; it isn't covered by this page.

## When to keep them

Keep recent reports while you're chasing a crash, when a support ticket with a developer or Apple is open, or when you've just installed something that might be unstable. Otherwise, older reports have no ongoing use. Related folders: [Logs](/caches/logs/) for app log files, and [Saved Application State](/caches/saved-application-state/) for the window state apps restore after a crash.

## Sources

- [Apple Support: View reports in Console on Mac](https://support.apple.com/guide/console/reports-cnsl664be99a/mac)
- [Apple Support: Share analytics information with Apple](https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/share-analytics-information-mac-apple-mh27990/mac)
- [Apple Developer: Diagnosing issues using crash reports and device logs](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/diagnosing-issues-using-crash-reports-and-device-logs)

## Frequently asked questions

### Does deleting crash reports stop apps from crashing?

No. Reports only describe what happened. Deleting them changes nothing about the app; it just removes the record.

### Are crash reports sent to Apple automatically?

Only if you allowed it. System Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements controls whether diagnostics are shared with Apple and with app developers. Deleting local reports doesn't affect that setting.

### Why do I see the same app crash over and over?

Each crash writes a new report, so a repeatedly crashing helper or background agent can create hundreds. That's a sign to update or remove the app, not just to clear the folder.

---

Canonical page: https://fresh.ist/caches/crash-reports/
Official site: https://fresh.ist/ (fresh.ist only)
Generated: 2026-10-10