Tester Walkthrough — App Logs

Updated: 2026-10-21 18:03 ET · Reached via the profile icon (top right, signed in) → Settings → (/settings) → DIAGNOSTICS group → Show App Logs (/settings/logs)

TLDR: The Diagnostics group's on-device log viewer, which replaced the old native MetroLog screen. It shows real captured entries, narrows them by search, minimum severity and category, opens any entry in full, and exports every log file as a zip through the share sheet. Help desk staff: start with Guiding a member to send logs.

For help desk: guiding a member to send logs

Applies to ALPA Mobile 5.0.17 and later (released 2026-10-05). The version is shown at the bottom of Settings. A member on an older version should update from the App Store or Google Play first.

What the logs are. The app keeps a record of what it did on this device over the last 7 days: screens opened, server calls and errors. Sign-in tokens, member numbers and email addresses are removed before anything is written, and nothing leaves the device until the member shares the file. Each screen change is one line starting [Nav]: how the member moved (Push, Pop, Replace), the screen's route, how many screens deep the back stack is, and the screen they came from.

The member must be signed in. Settings is reached from the profile icon, which appears only when signed in. If the problem is that they cannot sign in, ask for screenshots of what they see instead.

1 · Ask for the context first

The logs are only useful next to a description. Before the steps below, get:

2 · Read these steps to the member

  1. Tap the profile icon at the top right, then Settings.
  2. Scroll to the bottom and tap the version number five times, quickly (within 3 seconds). No message appears: a DIAGNOSTICS section shows up just above the version, and a dark strip appears across the top of the screen. Both are expected.
  3. If the problem can be repeated, repeat it now, then come back to Settings. For the next 24 hours the app records extra detail.
  4. In the DIAGNOSTICS section, tap Show App Logs, then Export (top right).
  5. In the share sheet, tap Save to Files on iPhone, or a Files or Drive option on Android. The file is named alpa-logs-<date>-<time>.zip.
  6. Reply to the help desk ticket email and attach that file.
Settings with the DIAGNOSTICS section shown after five taps on the version number 5.0.17 Share sheet for the exported App Logs zip, offering Save to Files
Tell the member not to tap anything else in DIAGNOSTICS. Toggle Environment signs them out and points the app at a test server. Throw Test Exception sends a fake crash report. Refresh Auth Token and Verbose (Trace) are for the development team.

Afterwards. Diagnostic Mode switches itself off after 24 hours and the DIAGNOSTICS section disappears. To hide it sooner, tap the version number five times again.

For testers

The checks below confirm the App Logs screen works end to end on a build.

Before you start

Checks

1 · Open App Logs

Steps: With Diagnostic Mode on, open Settings, scroll to the DIAGNOSTICS group, and tap Show App Logs.

Settings page with the DIAGNOSTICS group showing the Show App Logs row

What you should see: An App Logs screen opens with a three-row toolbar: a date dropdown (defaulted to Current Session) with Refresh and Export beside it; a full-width Search messages and categories field; and a minimum-severity dropdown (Debug+ in a Debug build) next to an All categories dropdown. The entries are listed below the toolbar. While Diagnostic Mode is on, a dark debug strip naming the route (/settings/logs) sits above the page.

Something's wrong if: Tapping the row does nothing, or it bounces you to the login screen instead of the App Logs screen.

2 · Read the current session's log

Steps: On the App Logs screen, just look at the list — no extra taps needed.

App Logs screen listing real captured entries, newest first

What you should see: Entries newest-first, every row the same height, each with a severity badge (e.g. INFO, DEBUG), a timestamp to the millisecond, the source category (e.g. ALPADocs.Services.Caching.ImageCacheService), and the message clamped to two lines. This is real activity from this session (network calls, app events), not placeholder text. Typing in the search field or picking a category narrows the rows in place.

Something's wrong if: The screen says "No log entries." despite the app clearly having done something since launch, or the list never finishes loading.

3 · Filter by severity and confirm a real error appears

Steps: Go back to Settings → DIAGNOSTICS → tap Throw Test Exception. Then open Show App Logs again and change the severity dropdown from Info+ to Error+.

Log entry opened from the list, showing time, level, category, message, the Context block, surrounding entries and the Copy, Copy ±20, Share, This category, This template and Close buttons

What you should see: The list narrows to one row: a red ERROR badge, category System.Exception, message [ThrowTestException] Test Exception, and one red line under it with the exception type and message (⚠ Exception: Test Exception). Every row is the same height; the list no longer shows stack traces. Tap the row once: the entry opens with the full stack trace, the time to the millisecond, and Copy, Copy ±20, Share, This category and This template buttons. Below the exception it shows a Context block: the screen it was logged on, Signed in or Signed out, Foreground, and the app build. A log call written with placeholders also shows its Template and Values; this error line has none, because its template is the message itself, so This template keeps only identical messages. Entries from a past day's file show a note instead of those blocks. The screenshot shows an INFO entry opened the same way: under the message come the Context block and the surrounding entries, then the buttons.

Something's wrong if: The error entry never appears, lower-severity (e.g. INFO) rows still show up alongside it under the Error+ filter, the row is taller than the others, tapping it does not open the entry with the full stack trace, or the Context block names a member (it says only whether one was signed in).

4 · Export the logs

Steps: On the App Logs screen, tap Export.

Native share sheet offering the exported alpa-logs zip file

What you should see: Export dims (disabled) while the zip is built, then the device's native share sheet opens, offering App Logs / alpa-logs-<date>-<time>.zip. The zip holds every log file on the device (up to 7 days), whichever date is picked. The app keeps only its newest zip and deletes older ones the next time it starts.

Something's wrong if: Nothing happens after tapping Export, or the button stays dimmed with the share sheet never appearing.

What this checks, overall

The whole Show App Logs pipeline end to end: it's reachable only through Diagnostics, it shows real captured entries rather than a mock, the severity filter narrows correctly, and a tester can get the logs off the device (via the share sheet) to attach to a bug report — all without the old native MetroLog screen.

What's not covered yet