X

Quick Tip: Disable the Problem Reporter in Snow Leopard

Use this quick Terminal tip, via macosxhints.com, to disable that annoying problem reporter when applications crash.

Joe Aimonetti MacFixIt Editor
Joe is a seasoned Mac veteran with years of experience on the platform. He reports on Macs, iPods, iPhones and anything else Apple sells. He even has worked in Apple retail stores. He's also a creative professional who knows how to use a Mac to get the job done.
Joe Aimonetti
Use this quick Terminal tip, via macosxhints.com, to disable that annoying Problem Reporter when applications crash. Some developers may find this tip useful when working on their applications.

Mac OS X Hints user "troylanes" suggests opening Terminal and typing the following code to disable Problem Reporter:

sudo chmod 000 /System/Library/CoreServices/Problem\ Reporter.app
To then re-enable Problem Reporter, type:
sudo chmod 755 /System/Library/CoreServices/Problem\ Reporter.app
As some of the comments note on this hint, there are other ways to disable Problem Reporter in Snow Leopard. User "ehunt123" responds:
I can't imagine OSX liking/working best if you disable the executable bit on the app itself to be a good idea. I didn't try this nor feel inclined to really test the overall effect because if your desire is to get no report at all, Apple has an option for the "server" mode, where you only get a log of the crash itself (rather handy) but no dialog:
defaults write com.apple.CrashReporter DialogType server
Apple has a specific app in the Developer Tools for this at CrashReporterPrefs. As mentioned right above and known for quite some time, this does nothing more than modify the global value for com.apple.CrashReporter's dialogtype. This can be modified through the obvious GUI tools or via the terminal.


Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.
Do you have questions, issues, or stories you would like to see on MacFixIt? Email Us.