View the console log from a device
Follow the live console output from a single device while you use the app — a troubleshooting tool for finding out what actually happens when something goes wrong
View the console log from a device
Go to Console log in starti.app ManagerWhat is the console log?
Console log shows you, line by line, what your app writes out while it runs on one specific device. It is the same output a developer would see in a browser's developer tools — console.log, warnings and errors — but from the app on a real phone.
It is a troubleshooting tool. Use it when something doesn't work as expected and you need to see what actually happens, rather than guess:
- A button doesn't do anything when a tester taps it
- A page loads on a computer but not in the app
- A login fails for one user but works for everyone else
- You want to confirm that a change you just made really reached the device
Console log is an optional feature. If you can't see the page in the menu (under Tools), the feature isn't enabled for your app yet — get in touch and we'll turn it on for you.
Before you begin
You need a device to watch. The list of devices is the same one you find under Test devices — so add the phone as a test device first if it isn't there already.
If you know the user it goes wrong for instead, you can jump straight to their device from the App users tool — see the shortcut further down.
You can only watch one device at a time, and only while the app is open on it. The console log is a live view, not a recorded history — so have the device in front of you, or ask the person holding it to reproduce the problem while you watch.
Step-by-step guide to reading the console log
Log in
Open starti.app Manager and log in with Microsoft, Google, or Apple.
Open Console log
Go to Console log in the menu, under Tools.
Choose a device
Click Select device and pick the phone you want to follow. You'll see the device name, a short description, and a badge showing which environment it is on.
The connection starts by itself as soon as you pick a device — you don't need to click anything else. The status next to the picker changes to Connecting… and then to Live.
When you connect, the last couple of minutes of output are pulled in as well, so you can see what led up to the moment you started watching.
Use the app on the device
Do the thing that goes wrong — tap the button, open the page, try the login. New lines appear at the bottom as they happen, and the view follows along.
Read the lines
Every line has four parts:
- Time — down to the millisecond, so you can see exactly what followed what
- Level — how serious it is:
info,warn,error,debugortrace. Errors are red and warnings are amber, so they're easy to spot in a long log - Origin — which part of the app wrote the line
- Message — the text itself
Red error lines are usually where you should look first.
Shortcut: view the log for a specific app user
If you want to troubleshoot for one particular user rather than one particular device, you can come at it from the other direction and start in the App users tool.
Open App users
Go to App users in the menu, under Tools.
Find the user
Search for them in the Search by user ID… field. The search matches the start of the user ID and is case-sensitive — so you need to know the user's ID.
Leave the search field empty to see the most recently active users. That's often the quickest route if the user has just been in the app.
Click the console log icon next to the device
Under the user you'll find the devices they use the app on. Click the console log icon next to the exact device you want to test on. The icon looks like a small terminal, and hovering over it says View console log for this device.
The log opens for that user
The console log opens with that device already selected, and the connection starts by itself. From there the page works exactly as described above — same controls, same filter, same status.
The device doesn't have to be a test device when you come this way. If it isn't on the list of test devices, it appears in the picker as Selected device followed by the first characters of the device's ID.
If you can't see the console log icon next to the devices, Console log isn't enabled for your app — get in touch and we'll turn it on for you.
The controls
Along the top of the page you'll find everything you need while the log is running.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Stop | Ends the connection. The lines you already have stay on screen |
| Reconnect | Connects again after a stop or an error, and pulls in the last few minutes |
| Pause | Freezes the view where it is so you can read a line without it scrolling away. Lines keep arriving in the background — click Resume to jump back to the bottom |
| Filter… | Type a word to show only the lines that contain it. It searches the message, the level, and the origin — so typing error gives you just the errors |
| Show starti.app log | Off by default. Turn it on to also see what starti.app itself writes, on top of your own app's output |
| Copy | Copies what you can currently see — including your filter — so you can paste it into an email or a support ticket |
| Clear | Empties the view. It doesn't stop the connection; new lines keep coming |
Below the log you can see how many lines you're looking at, for example "Showing 34 of 512 lines" — the first number is after your filter, the second is everything received.
The page keeps the most recent 2,000 lines. On a busy app, the oldest lines drop off the top — so if you need to keep something, use Copy while it's still on screen.
What the status says
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Idle | No device selected yet |
| Connecting… | Getting hold of the device's output |
| Live | Connected — lines arrive as they happen |
| Stopped | The connection ended, either because you clicked Stop or because it ran out |
| Error | Something went wrong on the way. Click Reconnect to try again |
Nothing is showing up
If the log stays empty, work through these in order:
- Is the app open on the device? The output only exists while the app is running
- Is the status Live? If it says Stopped or Error, click Reconnect
- Is a filter hiding things? Clear the Filter… field and check whether lines appear
- Is it starti.app's own output you're after? Turn on Show starti.app log
- Right device? If several testers use similar phones, check the name in the picker
If it's still empty, the app may simply not be writing anything out at that moment — that in itself is useful to know.
A console log can contain whatever the app happens to write out, which may include details about a user. Treat a copied log as you would any other internal material, and don't paste it somewhere public.
See also
Download test version of the app
Download the test version of your app on iOS and Android, and control who has access to test it
Turn on auto-renewal for your Apple Developer membership
Make sure your Apple Developer membership renews automatically, so your app doesn't risk being removed from the App Store