If the Cradle desktop app closes itself unexpectedly, the most useful thing you can do is send us your diagnostics. The desktop app does most of the work for you in v26 and later; the older "find the log folder and zip it" path is still here as a fallback.

v26 and later: send diagnostics from inside the app

The Cradle desktop app has a built-in diagnostics path that packages up the right files and opens a support ticket for you. Two entry points, depending on what you want to flag:

General crash or app-wide issue. Open the Settings tab and click Create Support Ticket. Cradle attaches recent diagnostics automatically.
A specific call that misbehaved. Open the call from the call tab, then click Log a support ticket on the call's detail page. Diagnostics for that one call are attached automatically. The note in the desktop app reads: "If this call was problematic, start a ticket from here. Diagnostics for this call will be attached automatically."

Use this path first. It's faster, gives our team the right data, and avoids the manual zip-and-email step.

If you can't open Cradle at all (it crashes on launch every time), skip to If you can't reopen Cradle at all.

Quick checks (try these first)

Reopen Cradle and try again. A single crash is usually a one-off. If it doesn't recur, you may not need to do anything.
Update if there's an update available. Cradle auto-updates on Windows and macOS, but a manual relaunch encourages it to apply.
Check status.cradle.io before assuming the problem is local.

If the app keeps crashing, gather the logs and send them in.

Manual fallback: find and send the logs yourself

If you're on an older build that doesn't have the in-app diagnostics path, or if the in-app path failed, you can find and send the logs yourself. The location depends on your operating system.

Windows

Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog.
Type %AppData%\Cradle\logs and press Enter.
A File Explorer window opens with the log files.

Alternatively, type %AppData%\Cradle\logs into the address bar of any File Explorer window.

macOS

Open Finder.
From the menu bar at the top of the screen, click Go → Go to Folder… (or press Cmd + Shift + G).
Paste ~/Library/Logs/Cradle and press Enter.
A Finder window opens with the log files.

Linux

Open your file manager.
Navigate to ~/.config/Cradle/logs in your home directory. You may need to enable "Show hidden files" (often Ctrl + H) to see .config.

If you'd rather use the terminal, the files are at ~/.config/Cradle/logs.

Package the logs and send them in

Zip the whole logs folder. Right-click the folder and choose Send to → Compressed (zipped) folder on Windows, Compress "Logs" on macOS, or use your file manager's equivalent on Linux.
Email help@cradle.io with the zip attached.

In the email, include:

What you were doing when it crashed. "I was on a call and clicked the transfer button" tells us more than "it crashed". Be specific.
What time the crash happened. A rough time is fine. The logs are timestamped and a window of a few minutes narrows the search considerably.
Your operating system and version. "Windows 11, 24H2" or "macOS 14.4 Sonoma" or your Linux distro and version.
The build of Cradle you're on. Visible in the Help → About menu.
Whether the crash happens once or repeatedly. If it happens during the same action every time, that pattern is gold for diagnosis.

A zip is usually a few megabytes. If it's bigger than your email allows, let us know and we'll share an upload link.

What's in the logs?

Activity from the app itself: when it started, when sign-in completed, when it placed or answered calls, errors it ran into. Nothing about the content of your calls, your messages, or your contacts. We use the logs to work out what the app was trying to do at the moment things went wrong.

If you can't reopen Cradle at all

If Cradle crashes on launch every time and you can't get to the Help → About menu, send us the logs anyway and tell us what happens.

Two things to try first that fix the worst cases:

Quit Cradle from your task manager, then reopen it.
Clear the local credential cache, see What do I do if Cradle won't log in?. Sometimes a corrupted token causes a launch crash that disappears once the cache is fresh.

If those don't help, send us the logs and we'll go from there.

Cradle support hours

Support is open Monday to Friday, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm New Zealand time. We'll get back to you as quickly as we can.

The app crashed, sending logs to support