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I've done some Googling and nowhere do I find where you can log the shutdown process. The best I've found is a log where it states when the shutdown process begins but that's all.

My computer is hanging on the end of the shutdown process and I'm trying to troubleshoot it.

Have any ideas?

daviesgeek
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jwmann
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2 Answers2

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Instead of looking at logs, I would start by booting in verbose mode. (It will also shut down in verbose mode.) Just hold Command ⌘ + V at boot.

daviesgeek
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Jay Thompson
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    I was considering do this (except in single user mode since it does verbose too) but I was wondering if I could save the output somewhere so I can research the output. – jwmann Apr 10 '12 at 19:28
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Check the console for the time of shutdown enter image description here

In the terminal, go to 

     /var/log

enter image description here

Find launchd-shutdown.log that was last modified by your system at the time of shutdown and perform a more on it

     more launchd-shutdown.log
DogEatDog
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    I found using vim was easier than more but thanks! this was exactly what I needed. – jwmann Apr 12 '12 at 01:44
  • I agree that vim is better for searching through the logs, but for beginners 'more' can be a bit more friendly. (Pun not intended. Don't laugh.) – DogEatDog Oct 17 '12 at 03:53
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    For OS X 10.10 Yosemite it's under `/var/log/com.apple.launchd/launchd-shutdown.system.log`. – DASKAjA Nov 07 '14 at 16:26
  • @DAKSAjA - have an upvote... but I cannot find the shutdown log there either, any other possibilities? Could something disable or erase these logs? – rebusB Jun 29 '16 at 18:00
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    I cannot find the logs in `/var/log` or `/var/log/com.apple.launchd` on macOS 10.12 Sierra. Have these logs been moved? – Chris Vasselli Apr 07 '17 at 13:30
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    The terminal approach is much more comprehensive. For example I did a `grep -r --include="*.log" reboot .` and was able to immediately see what caused the most recent reboot on my mac. – Scott Willeke Jan 03 '19 at 04:34