When you submit a crash report, where does it go?

[Let's Sekuhara!]

In OS X when an application crashes and you submit a crash report, who sees it anyway?

I'm sure Apple logs it somewhere and if an actual human being (Apple developer?) is searching for the right keywords they might actually read your crash report, but besides that what is the use?

I ask because I was recently testing an alpha version of a third-party application and every time something went wrong I submitted an error report and spent time commenting on what caused the crash.
But I'm not sure whether those reports or comments will ever actually make it to the developers of that application.

What's the story?

 

[jayducharme]

I've wondered that too. I'm not sure where they go, but I think they do help. I've submitted countless crash reports over the years. I don't know if it really is cause-and-effect, but in nearly every case a fix appeared within a month or two (usually in an Apple software update).

I would imagine that the bugs that get the most notice are those that have a wide occurrence. If thousands of people are submitting crash reports all based around the same program, I would guess there'd be a pretty quick fix.

 

[kolax]

I'd assume they check the statistics of crashes - if there is a high number of Safari crash reports, then it'll be something worth investigating etc.

 

[xUKHCx]

I am sure the crash reports are analysed to see if there are common causes. However this information is sent to apple and used by apple. There is an add-on for the crash reporter called Smart Crash reports, which if the developer supports it, will send the crash report to both apple and the 3rd party developer.

I have found that more and more applications are adding in their own crash reporters as well.