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Read crash logs and find the right line

latest.log, crash-reports, debug logs: which file to open and how to find the one line that matters.

1 min readUpdated 2026-09-14Diese Anleitung auf Deutsch lesen →

Which file

  • Minecraft: logs/latest.log (this run) and crash-reports/crash-<date>.txt (only when the game itself crashed). Forge/NeoForge add logs/debug.log with more detail.
  • Rust: the console; Oxide writes oxide/logs/.
  • ARK: ShooterGame/Saved/Logs/ShooterGame.log.
  • Bots: the console.

Finding the line

  1. Open the file in the panel editor and scroll to the end, because crashes are at the bottom.
  2. Search upward for the first ERROR, FATAL, Exception or Caused by.
  3. In a stack trace, the line with Caused by: is the root cause; the lines above it are consequences. Read the last Caused by: first.
  4. The at ... lines below it show where. The first one that mentions a plugin/mod name (at net.example.myplugin...) tells you whose fault it is.

Crash report anatomy (Minecraft)

  • Description: what the game was doing.
  • Exception block: the error and Caused by:.
  • Affected level / Entity being ticked: the world and coordinates, useful for corrupt chunks.
  • At the bottom: the mod list, Java version, memory numbers.

Shortcut

No need to paste anything. Just ask Kowalski: "read the latest crash report and explain it". It opens the file, finds the Caused by line and tells you which plugin/mod/config it points to.