Console Logging

The App Log Viewer can be a helpful tool for diagnosing QGroundControl problems. It can be found in Application Settings > App Log Viewer.

Click the Categories button to enable/disable the logging categories displayed by QGroundControl.

Common Logging Categories

The most commonly used logging categories are listed below.

Category(s)	Description
Comms.LinkManager, Vehicle.MultiVehicleManager	Debug connection problems.
Comms.LinkManager:verbose	Debug serial ports not being detected. Very noisy continuous output of available serial ports.
VehicleSetup.FirmwareUpgrade	Debug firmware flash issues.
FactSystem.ParameterManager	Debug parameter load problems.
FactSystem.ParameterManager:debugCacheFailure	Debug parameter cache crc misses.
PlanManager.PlanManager, PlanManager.MissionManager, PlanManager.GeoFenceManager, PlanManager.RallyPointManager	Debug Plan upload/download issues.
AutoPilotPlugins.RadioComponentController	Debug Radio calibration issues.

Logging from the Command Line

An alternate mechanism for logging is using the --logging command line option. This is handy if you are trying to get logs from a situation where QGroundControl crashes.

How you do this and where the traces are output vary by OS:

• Windows

  • You must open a command prompt, change directory to the qgroundcontrol.exe location, and run it from there:

    cd "\Program Files (x86)\qgroundcontrol"
    qgroundcontrol --logging:full

  • When QGroundControl starts you should see a separate console window open which will have the log output

• OSX

  • You must run QGroundControl from Terminal. The Terminal app is located in Applications/Utilities. Once Terminal is open paste the following into it:

    cd /Applications/qgroundcontrol.app/Contents/MacOS/
    ./qgroundcontrol --logging:full

  • Log traces will output to the Terminal window.

• Linux

  ./qgroundcontrol-start.sh --logging:full

  • Log traces will output to the shell you are running from.