How to find archived crash logs from the past year on iMac?

gobcross wrote:

Thanks. I appreciate the response, but I am beyond trying to determine if it's a RAM issue. The OWC RAM does not work in my system. Rember tests confirm the errors.

I never liked running a memory test while booted into a full OS. Too many things can interfere, plus Rember has not been updated in over a decade (IIRC it was compiled when I was using OS X 10.4 Tiger). In fact the Rember GUI stopped working over a decade ago for me when I was looking at it although the command line interface to the underlying core "memtest" app did function.

You can always reinstall the memory to have the system crash, then retrieve the resulting new Kernel Panic logs from the location noted by @kaz-k. Kernel Panic logs usually have file names containing "kernel" and/or "panic". They may also appear in the "Retired" subfolder as well.

You can try creating and using a bootable MemTest86 USB stick. Just make sure to use the default MemTest86 settings, otherwise the system will freeze due to known issues with the Intel CPU & Apple hardware (MemTest86 already puts some Mac specific restrictions in place, but I have found that any customized MemTest86 settings will freeze the test immediately).

If MemTest86 shows memory errors, then that may be sufficient for OWC....better than any system crash logs in my opinion since MemTest86 doesn't have a bloated OS to contend with. As long as you get a memory bit flip error of some sort, this will be more conclusive. If Memtest86 freezes, then on this 2020 iMac (or even 2019)....the results are a bit inconclusive, but likely would indicate a memory compatibility issue.

I am trying to locate the log reports for when my mac crashes. The location you provided only shows me a weeks worth of reports of diagnostics.

Sometimes you don't even get a weeks worth. I've seen a log from the day before disappear before my eyes as I'm looking to the log file. It is rare to have more than a few months of logs at best. A year.....nope unless you saved them elsewhere previously.

The Console app won't show all of the available log files in the various log folder locations. Besides the actual system logs in those Log folders are not really all there is as the command line is the only way to get actual log files, but unless you know how to filter them you will be overwhelmed by thousands of entries per second.

The only useful log files will be the Kernel Panic logs assuming the memory issue triggers a Kernel Panic and not just user space app crashes.

Hi,

System level crash reports are usually stored at /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/.

If you insist RAM is bad, try to run Apple Diagnostics if it reports RAM related error.

https://support.apple.com/en-au/102550

The 2020 iMac's were notorious for tipping over with a full boat load of RAM (4x32GB=128GB) from any supplier. Most folks that we helped around here, ended up running 2x32GB and two factory modules or 3x32GB and one factory module.

Not sure how having old or new logs and tests makes any difference.

If a module or modules were bad when you first purchased them, then they should have been replaced under the lifetime guarantee at that time.

Likewise if a lifetime guaranteed module has just recently failed, then it should be replaced under that lifetime guarantee contract.

I don’t think that OWC will or should be expected to replace one size set of module with another size set of module.

At this point, your best bet is to just keep jumping thru the OWC hoops.