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Logging & Diagnostics

Overview

Section titled “Overview”

HiFi Control writes a local application log on every run and offers a few built-in tools for troubleshooting: a verbose Extended Logging mode, an Installation ID for correlating local logs with crash reports, and an in-app Issues list of recent failed operations. All of this lives in Settings → About.

Log Files

Section titled “Log Files”
  • Location: %LocalAppData%\HiFiControl\Logs\ (typically C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Local\HiFiControl\Logs\)
  • File naming: one file per day, HiFiControl_YYYYMMDD.log
  • Retention: the 7 most recent daily files are kept; older files are deleted automatically
  • Format: plain text, one line per log entry: {Timestamp} [{Level}] [{Installation ID}] {Source}: {Message}, followed by exception details if the entry logged an error

Opening the log folder

Section titled “Opening the log folder”

Settings → About → Logs → Open log folder opens this folder directly in Windows Explorer.

Extended Logging

Section titled “Extended Logging”

By default HiFi Control logs at Information level, which is enough to see what the app is doing without excessive detail. Extended Logging raises this to Verbose, capturing detailed device communication and error-handling traces that are normally omitted.

Enabling it

Section titled “Enabling it”
  1. Open Settings → About.
  2. Under Logs, check Enable extended logging. The card explains: “Logs additional device error details. Useful for troubleshooting; leave off for normal use.”
  3. A dialog confirms the change needs a restart: “Please restart HiFi Control to apply the Logging setting change.” Close and reopen the application for the new log level to take effect.
  4. To turn it back off, uncheck the box and restart again. Leave it off for normal day-to-day use: Verbose logging produces significantly larger log files.

What it affects

Section titled “What it affects”
  • Raises the local file log’s minimum level from Information to Verbose.
  • Adds extra detail to error handling in several plugins, including BluOS input-source selection, the Tidal desktop-app integration, and MusicCast task handling.
  • Adds detailed logging of the internal notification dispatch pipeline.

What it does not affect

Section titled “What it does not affect”

Crash and exception reports (sent automatically) are captured the same way regardless of this setting. HiFi Control also streams log entries for support purposes, but that stream is always capped at Information level and above: enabling Extended Logging only makes the local file more verbose; it doesn’t flood support tooling with noise.

Installation ID

Section titled “Installation ID”

Settings → About shows a per-installation Installation ID with a copy-to-clipboard button. This anonymous identifier is written into every line of the local log file and attached to every automatic crash report, so support can match a log file you send against the error reports HiFi Control has already submitted automatically. Include it when contacting support about a problem.

Issues (Recent Operation Failures)

Section titled “Issues (Recent Operation Failures)”

HiFi Control keeps a running list of the last 50 operations that failed, for example a command that couldn’t reach a device. This is separate from the log files and doesn’t require Extended Logging to be enabled.

  • In-app indicator: when there are unseen failures, a small red “Issues” badge with a count appears in the main window. It disappears once you’ve opened the list.
  • Settings → About → Issues → View recent issues opens the same list on demand, showing each failure’s timestamp and description.

This is a good first place to check when something didn’t work, before digging into the log files.

Sharing Log Files With Support

Section titled “Sharing Log Files With Support”

If support has asked you to send your logs (or you’re reporting a bug), follow this workflow:

  1. Enable Extended Logging (Settings → About → Logs → Enable extended logging) and restart HiFi Control, so the logs capture full detail.
  2. Reproduce the problem. Extended Logging only applies going forward, so trigger the issue again after restarting.
  3. Open the log folder (Settings → About → Logs → Open log folder) and locate the log file for the day you reproduced the issue (HiFiControl_YYYYMMDD.log). If you’re not sure which day, you can send the whole Logs folder.
  4. Copy your Installation ID (Settings → About → Installation ID → copy icon), and include it in your message so support can cross-reference it against the automatic crash reports HiFi Control has already sent.
  5. Contact support via Settings → About → Resources → Report an issue, which opens the contact form. Describe the problem; you’ll receive instructions on where to email the log file(s) as an attachment.
  6. Once the issue is resolved, turn Extended Logging back off and restart. It’s meant to be a temporary troubleshooting aid, not a permanent setting.
Section titled “Related Tools”

A Telnet diagnostic utility (a raw TCP prompt to a device’s hostname, useful for running HEOS CLI commands or inspecting other device protocols without an external telnet client) is available as a utility action on any networked audio component. It’s a separate tool from the Settings pane and is aimed at diagnosing device connectivity rather than application behavior.