Troubleshooting

When something goes wrong, ProRDP’s logs usually show why. This page shows how to collect them, how to turn on verbose logging when you need more detail, and how to send them to us.

Pull the service logs

ProRDP writes its logs to macOS’s unified log under the subsystem com.prordp.server. They cover every connection from start to finish: the client connecting, signing in, the screen, audio and clipboard starting up, and why a session ended. They don’t include what’s on your screen or what you type.

Capture a problem as it happens

This is the most reliable way to get a useful log, because macOS only keeps ProRDP’s messages for a short time.

1. Open Terminal (in Applications › Utilities).

2. Start recording ProRDP’s log to a file on your Desktop:

   log stream --level info --predicate 'subsystem == "com.prordp.server"' | tee ~/Desktop/prordp.log
   

3. Leave Terminal open, and do whatever causes the problem, such as connecting from your Remote Desktop client.

4. Once the problem has happened, go back to Terminal and press Control-C to stop recording.

The log is now in prordp.log on your Desktop.

Collect logs from earlier

If the problem already happened and you can’t easily make it happen again, you can still pull the recent log. Change 30m to how long ago it happened, such as 2h for the last two hours:

log show --last 30m --info --predicate 'subsystem == "com.prordp.server"' > ~/Desktop/prordp.log

macOS doesn’t keep these messages long, so the sooner you run this, the more it finds. If the file comes back empty or stops before the problem, capture it as it happens instead.

Use the Console app

If you’d rather not use Terminal, open Console (in Applications › Utilities), select your Mac in the sidebar, click Start Streaming, and type com.prordp.server in the search field. Reproduce the problem, then select the messages and choose Edit › Copy.

Enable verbose logging

The normal log is enough for most problems. When it isn’t, verbose logging also records every message ProRDP and the client send each other, and every key press and mouse movement it receives. We may ask for it when a problem is hard to pin down, such as the screen freezing, input not reaching the Mac, or a client disconnecting during setup.

To turn it on:

1. Quit ProRDP by choosing Quit ProRDP from its menu bar item.

2. In Terminal, open ProRDP again with verbose logging on, saving everything to a file on your Desktop:

   open -a ProRDP --env PRORDP_TRACE=1 --stderr ~/Desktop/prordp-verbose.log
   

3. Connect from your Remote Desktop client and reproduce the problem.

4. Quit ProRDP from its menu bar item again.

The log is in prordp-verbose.log on your Desktop. Verbose logging only lasts until ProRDP quits, so to turn it off, just open ProRDP normally again from your Applications folder.

Next steps

If the logs don’t point to an answer, send them to us and we’ll take a look.

Remove personal information first

Before you share a log or screenshot, read through it and replace anything personal with a placeholder such as REDACTED. Look for:

• Names: your Mac’s name, your macOS user name, the ProRDP account name, and any email addresses.
• Addresses: IP addresses and host names, especially public ones and any from a VPN.
• File paths: paths that include your home folder, such as /Users/yourname/….
• Certificates and licenses: certificate names, fingerprints, and license or enrollment keys.
• Anything you typed during a verbose log, and any private content visible in screenshots.

Never share your password, even if it appears somewhere unexpected. If you think it might have been logged, change it in Settings › Account.

Open a GitHub issue

Bug reports go in the issue tracker of the prordp-app/release repository on GitHub. GitHub issues are public, so make sure you’ve removed personal information first.

1. Go to prordp-app/release › Issues and click New issue. You’ll need a free GitHub account.
2. Give it a short title that describes the problem, such as “Screen goes black after resizing the client window”.
3. In the description, include:
   • The ProRDP version, from Settings › General › Software Update.
   • Your macOS version and Mac model, from Apple menu › About This Mac.
   • The Remote Desktop client you connect from and its version, and the device it runs on.
   • The steps that cause the problem, what you expected to happen, and what happened instead.
4. Attach your redacted log file by dragging it into the description, and submit the issue.

Before you open a new one, search the existing issues to see if someone has already reported it. If they have, add your details there.

Or email us

If you’d rather not post publicly, or your question isn’t a bug, email hello@prordp.app with the same details and your redacted log attached.