How to Clear the Console Log on a Mac
When a Mac computer recognizes that an error has occurred somewhere in its system, it makes a note of the problem in a log file. Users can access this log file at any time through the Console application, which can be found in the "Utilities" folder of any Mac. In the Console window, users can view all recent error messages that the system has recorded; but because this log can quickly become cluttered , it may be necessary to periodically clear the data. This article explains how to manually clear the Console log file on a Mac.
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Instructions
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Open a new Finder window by clicking on the icon in the dock.
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Navigate to the "Applications" folder in the new Finder window. Then find and open the "Utilities" folder.
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Double-click on the "Console" icon to open the Console utility program. A new window will open that lists all recent error messages the system has recorded.
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Click the "Show Log List" button in the upper left corner of the Console window, then select a specific log file from the left portion of the screen.
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Click the "Clear Display" button at the top of the Console window to reset the log file and clear all existing error messages.
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Comments
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Yes it clears it but when you click show again, it pops straight back up!
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This does only clear the window, as it says. It's Apple, it does what it says, only what it says.
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this does not clear the log file...
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johnsawyer
Sep 28, 2010
There are also logs at /private/var/log, primarily the system.log, which typically can get the most cluttered (big). -
mudderwohe
Sep 07, 2010
This only clears the display until you reload. If you want to actually delete the data, go to Macintosh HD/Users/"your user name"/Library/Logs and delete everything in there. Next, go to Macintosh HD/Library/Logs and delete everything in there, too. Don't worry about deleting this stuff... it's just junk logs, absolutely won't affect system.
