Hey folks- Question: I know my computer maintains a log. If someone was to download files onto an external device, is there a record of that? And if so, How do I access that? Thanks. higgo5

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Doing some at some snooping of how others are using your computer?
There is a log and it is rather easy to find. If you go to applications->utilities->console. Once there you can see a log list on the left side and then under log files there should be system.log
once you found that you need to look for the transfer time. I will warn it does not keep a log for eternity. I find the easiest way of looking for the event your looking for is do a search for "/Volume". Every time that comes up should be an event with the description of "getting new uuid:"
now you have a time an external drive was plugged in. Next, get rid of the search criteria and go to that time to see the logs after it. Then in the system log any events after that that are labeled "Exited: Terminated" in the log will mark a transfer of a file. I dont how, if you can, to pull the name of the file

Well- it's like you said, the logs don't go back very far. I'm looking for an event which may have occurred May 9, 2010. Otherwise your instructions were right on. Thank you.

agreed to mesamb1 and one thing more that it do not hold data for long period of time.

Thanks lillygil, thanks again mesamb1. I will mark this post resolved because my computer's log was successfully found. Have a great year.

Hey folks- Question: I know my computer maintains a log. If someone was to download files onto an external device, is there a record of that? And if so, How do I access that? Thanks. higgo5

if you are looking for system logs you should open a program called Console it can be found under Applications > Utilities

Doing some at some snooping of how others are using your computer?
There is a log and it is rather easy to find. If you go to applications->utilities->console. Once there you can see a log list on the left side and then under log files there should be system.log
once you found that you need to look for the transfer time. I will warn it does not keep a log for eternity. I find the easiest way of looking for the event your looking for is do a search for "/Volume". Every time that comes up should be an event with the description of "getting new uuid:"
now you have a time an external drive was plugged in. Next, get rid of the search criteria and go to that time to see the logs after it. Then in the system log any events after that that are labeled "Exited: Terminated" in the log will mark a transfer of a file. I dont how, if you can, to pull the name of the file

I agree with you!

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