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If a crash occurs (application suddenly and unexpectedly quits) Mac OS X usually writes a number of files that are a big help for developers when it comes to diagnosing and fixing the problem. All the log files are put in the ~/Library/Logs folder (where ~ is a standard abbreviation that means your home directory). There are several different types of log file though, which can make the situation somewhat confusing!

The two main distinctions are between application and system log files. Often, an application will write its own log file that gives details about what it's doing, but once the application has crashed it's too late for it to be able to say why. Instead, the operating system itself detects when an application dies and automatically writes a crash log detailing the precise instruction that caused the crash.

Remember that CatDV and Live Capture Plus are two different applications, so it's important to be clear which failed. Both of these write their own application log files (CatDV Error Log and CatDV Live Capture Log respectively) which can give plenty of useful information about events leading up to the crash, or about problems which don't result in a crash.

Once a crash occurs, though, go to ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter and look for a file called CatDV.crash.log or LiveCapturePlus.crash.log and mail us the appropriate file. You might also see a bunch of files called JavaNativeCrash_pid???.log in the Logs folder. You need to work out which is the relevant file, so if you view by date and mail us the latest one of these that would also be a big help.

Why do crashes occur? Thankfully they're quite rare but they can occur for various reasons. For example there might be a bug in QuickTime or a third party hardware driver, you might be trying to open a corrupted movie file, or you might have updated your system software and not downloaded an update to CatDV that is compatible with that system. Whatever the cause, sending us the relevant crash logs provides us with the information we need to work around the problem in our code (or raise a bug report with Apple if the problem lies with them).

14/7/05