System Info App Mac

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You can view information about your Mac, including the model name, the macOS version you’re using and more. In the System Information app on your Mac, choose Window About This Mac, and then click any of the following. Overview: View the specification information about your Mac. Displays: Get information about displays connected to your Mac. The Console app included with the Mac is a modern-day version of the old computer console; its primary job is to help you monitor how well your Mac is operating. It can do this because of its ability to display logs, status, and error files your Mac’s operating system and individual apps generate as they’re running.

  1. System Info App Mac
  2. System Info Application

System Information (formerly System Profiler) in OS X provides a detailed breakdown of the hardware and software configuration of a Mac, from Bluetooth information and attached USB devices to installed software and extensions.

While most of us have used System Information at one time or another, it’s an often overlooked and undervalued tool. To get the most out of it, we’ll exploring the app, and its lesser-known command-line options, in further detail.

Launching System Information

There are a number of ways you can access System Information as it has a number of shortcuts in different places, the most common way is from the About This Mac pane.

Click on More Info to reveal some additional information about the Mac and then click System Report…

You can bypass this process completely by holding down the Alt key when in the Apple menu. This will swap About This Mac to System Information… and allow you to launch it directly.

Finally, you can simply launch the app from where it resides: within /Applications/Utilities.

The System Information App

The System Information app is nothing more than a tweaked XML viewer. It doesn’t do anything itself, instead relying upon the system_profiler command (which we’ll come to later) to generate hardware and software configuration reports.

The report that the command generates is then opened by System Information and formatted in a way that’s easy to view. System Information also views a report that has already been created, though it can be refreshed at any time by selecting File > Refresh Information.

Each section is broken down into its respective categories, such as Hardware, Network and Software, and their related reports are separated into subcategories.

Within the app’s menu are a few options that can alter the output of the report. If you’d prefer not to view a full report, you can select Show Less Information which will hide most Software reports. This can be toggled by selecting Show More Information to bring them back.

System Reports

A great benefit of System Information is that reports can be saved and opened on any Mac. You can save a report from one Mac and open it on another, useful when trying to troubleshoot an issue with a remote Mac.

To save a report, select File > Save. The report saved reflects the current view of System Information so if you’ve opted to display less information, a basic report is saved.

A full report can be several megabytes in size whereas a basic report can be only a few hundred kilobytes. Unless there’s a need to include all software information, it can be sometimes worth displaying less information before saving a report.

All system reports are saved with the .spx file extension and opening any system reports will launch System Information automatically.

System Information Via the Command-Line

As we touched upon earlier, System Information is just a viewer for system reports, all of the work for creating them is done by the command system_profiler.

Sometimes it may be necessary to bypass System Information when we’re wanting to view a report. For example, you may need a system report of a Mac that you only have remote access to via SSH so opening System Information wouldn’t be possible, but that doesn’t mean we can’t create a system report.

Generating Reports

To get started, open Terminal and enter the command system_profiler. You’ll notice that (after a brief delay) a lot of system information is displayed within the Terminal window.

Running the command without any arguments just dumps the entire system report to the screen. If we wanted to find out what the Mac’s Model Identifier is, we could use:

This isn’t very efficient as running system_profiler generates a complete report each time, which can be time consuming if the Mac contains a lot of software or isn’t particularly speedy.

Instead, we can generate a report only on a particular part of the Mac, such as network or storage information, by specifying a Data Type. What data types are available depend on the Mac’s hardware capabilities and configuration.

To list all of the available types of data, use the listDataTypes argument:

You can request a system report on only a specific part of the hardware by invoking the system_profiler command, along with the data type, like so:

The Mac’s Model Identifier is located within the SPHardwareDataType data type. By generating a report just using that data type, the result to our grep search is substantially quicker:

Saving a System Report

To save a text-only version of a system report to your desktop, you can use the following command:

As you’re redirecting the output to a text file rather than the terminal window, any reports you generate (including on specific data types) can be saved.

Full Report Detail Level

By default, system_profiler generates a complete system report. Just like System Information, we can choose to generate a more basic one using the argument detailLevel:

There are three different levels of detail that can be used:

  • mini (report with no personal information, such as Serial Number of Hardware UUID)
  • basic (basic hardware and network information)
  • full (all available information)

So to generate a basic report, the command would be:

Opening Reports in System Information

So far, the reports generated have all been plaintext. To create System Information-compatible reports, an additional argument would be needed, xml, and the file extension specified must be .spx.

Combining all of this together, an example command would be:

These reports can then be opened within System Information and more easily viewed.

Wrapping Up

System info app mac ios

The ability to generate system reports via the command-line using system_profiler provides a level of flexibility that System Information cannot, such as generating or scheduling reports on remote Macs via SSH. This can be advantageous when trying to determine what software is installed on which Mac or if any users are running an outdated version of OS X.

Migration Assistant copies all of your files to your new Mac so that you don't have to copy your files manually.

  • If your files are currently on a Windows PC, follow the PC migration steps instead.
  • If your new Mac is using OS X Mountain Lion v10.8 or earlier, follow the Mountain Lion migration steps instead.

Check software, settings, and power

  • Install all available Apple software updates on both Mac computers. Install any updates for your third-party apps as well.
  • Make sure that your old Mac is using OS X Lion or later.
  • Make sure that your old Mac has a computer name: Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Sharing and check the Computer Name field.
  • Connect both computers to AC power.

Connect the computers to each other

System Info App Mac

  • If both computers are using macOS Sierra or later, just make sure that they're near each other and have Wi-Fi turned on. If either is using OS X El Capitan or earlier, connect them to the same network using Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
  • Or connect them using target disk mode and the appropriate cable or adapter. Then start up your old computer in target disk mode.
  • Or connect your new Mac to a Time Machine backup of your old Mac.

Use Migration Assistant

On your new Mac:

  1. Open Migration Assistant, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
  2. Click Continue.
  3. When asked how you want to transfer your information, select the option to transfer from a Mac, Time Machine backup, or startup disk.
  4. Click Continue.

On your old Mac:
If you started your old Mac in target disk mode or are migrating from a Time Machine backup, skip these four steps.

  1. Open Migration Assistant.
  2. Click Continue.
  3. When asked how you want to transfer your information, select the option to transfer to another Mac.
  4. Click Continue.

On your new Mac:

  1. When asked to select a Mac, Time Machine backup, or other startup disk, click the appropriate icon.
  2. Click Continue. You might see a security code.

On your old Mac:
If you started your old Mac in target disk mode or are migrating from a Time Machine backup, skip these two steps.

  1. If you see a security code, make sure that it's the same code as on your new Mac.
  2. Click Continue.

On your new Mac:

  1. Choose the backup to transfer information from.
  2. Click Continue.

Continuing on your new Mac:

  1. Select the information to transfer from the backup.
  2. Click Continue to start the transfer. If you have a lot of content, the transfer might take several hours to finish.


In the example above, John Appleseed is a macOS user account. If you transfer an account that has the same name as an account on your new Mac, you're asked to rename the old account or replace the one on your new Mac. If you rename, the old account appears as a separate user on your new Mac, with a separate home folder and login. If you replace, the old account overwrites the account on your new Mac, including everything in its home folder.

System Info Application

After Migration Assistant is done, log in to the migrated account on your new Mac to see its files. If you're not keeping your old Mac, learn what to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your old Mac.