Sysdiagnose offline logs

Offline logs are important for remote troubleshooting. This is how to get them, find them and use them on iOS devices

The Sysdiagnose is the single most important way you will use nOversight in remote troubleshooting sessions.

Apple devices are always logging into the background so your device under test can be used in an environment and the log captured when the test is complete or when an issue is found.

What is Sysdiagnose

Sysdiagnose is a package of diagnostic files. It contains a capture of historical logs and variety of other files which can be used to evaluate Wi-Fi.

It will have the extension .tar.gz and be in the region of 300MB in size. These files will need to be moved about using cloud storage, physical media or nearby sharing such as MacOS/iOS Airdrop.

Sysdiagnose files contain personal data such as email addresses, location and applications used on the device as a few examples.

When using sysdiagnose files, you should do one of the following

1. Use a generic device for testing which has no personal data on it

2. Get consent from the device owner to share personal data. If you need to comply with privacy laws such as GDPR, the data must be minimised to only what you need, and deleted once it is no longer needed.

Capturing Sysdiagnose

Method 1 - Assistive Touch

Assistive touch can be configured to provide a 1-touch method for triggering an analytics capture.

This method sets up a virtual button overlayed on the screen which can be used to capture an analytics log, allowing for easy log capture at any time.

The nOversight application provides an easy way to setup, enable and disable assistive touch for analytics capture. Within the Analyze tab, there are buttons to make this easy.

The manual way to setup Assitive Touch is through the iOS settings.

You do not need to do this when using the nOversight App to help.

Accessibility -> Touch	AssistiveTouch Menu	Enable Assistive Touch & Customize

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Now add the Analytics icon to touch

Add new custom icon	Select Analytics	AssitiveTouch Complete

Now you can tap the floating dot at any time to open the AssitiveTouch Menu and select Analytics to start 'Gathering Analytics' as shown in the message at the top of the screen

Now wait for the next message (usually takes 1-2 minutes). When you see "Successfully completed gathering analytics." the file is ready to be used with nOversight.

Method 2 - Quick Button Combo

This method requires a simultaneous press of 3 buttons which can take some time to master. On an iPhone there is a buzz and screenshot to let you know the log has been captured. On iPad there is no buzz, which can make this method challenging.

There are no visual queues to indicate that the log capture has started or completed. This method requires periodic checking for a new sysdiagnose file to appear in the system folders. (This approach is awkward - the Assistive Touch method is preferred to avoid this hassle)

Finding & Sharing Sysdiagnose

Once a sysdiagnose has been created, you need to find it and share it with nOversight for analysis. You can either

1. Share it to the nOversight application on the same device

2. Share it somewhere for storage and later analysis

Finding sysdiagnose on the device

The sysdiagnose file is written to a system directory and unfortunately cannot be accessed by an app running on the same device (the main reason for this will be privacy)

When the capture is complete a file will appear in the following path

Settings -> Analytics -> Analytics Data

There could be a lot of files in there making it hard to find the file you need

The easiest way to remember this and find it each time is through the following steps

1. Open Settings

2. Swipe down to reveal the search bar and enter "Analytics"

3. Select the Analytics menu and the Analytics Data

4. Swipe down to reveal the search bar and enter "sys"

You should now be presented with at least one file with the pattern

sysdiagnose_YYYY.MM.DD_HH-MM-SS+TZ_Device_OS_UUID.tar.gz

If you navigate to the folder before the file is ready then you might see a similar looking file name. This will not work - don't use it

If the correct file is not in the folder, you cannot wait for it to appear - it won't. You need to go back to the parent folder and then back to Analytics Data again to refresh the file list.

Share, Download, Drag

Once you have found a sysdiagnose on your device, you need to use it.

Your device cleans up system files periodically depending on how much space you have available and your sync rules (which may copy it to your device without you knowing).

Once you locate a sysdiagnose you want to use, you should copy it somewhere for storage before the system cleans up.

You have 4 choices to use the sysdiagnose. Things may change in the future but for now, it is recommended to go with the a choice which results in a permanent backup of the sysdiagnose file in case you need to com back to it later. However, be warned that each file is around 300MB so consider where you store it.

Most options require the sharing of the file from the device. Find the sysdiagnose file of choice and share it using the share icon .

If there are more than one sysdiagnose files available, use the date in the file name to locate the one you want

File sharing option	Ease	File Persistence
1. Airdrop the file to a Mac	Very easy. Just select the target Mac	File is stored on the Mac until you delete it
2. Share to nOversight iOS app on the same device	Very easy once the share menu has been configured	⚠️File is kept in the system area until the device decides to clean up
3. Share to Files (local storage or cloud storage)	Easy, Need to find somewhere with sufficient storage space. A good way to get device in the field to share with you via cloud storage	File is stored until you delete it
4. Plug into a Mac and read it in via nOversight	Easy. Plug in and take it from there	⚠️ File is NOT stored and once consumed by the Mac it is NOT saved to the recordings