Magento Error – Turn on Magento Error Reporting

After installing Magento, the Magento error reporting has been turned off by default in the more recent versions. This can make troubleshooting difficult if you’re trying to get to the bottom of some problems.

The default error page looks nondescript like the following:

There has been an error processing your request
Exception printing is disabled by default for security reasons.
Error log record number: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

How to get errors to print onto your screen?

Locate the errors folder located in the Magneto root folder.
Rename the local.xml.sample file to local.xml
This will output all errors to the screen like the ones we post here from time to time.

How to save all errors into a folder?

In order to redirect the error output into a folder, look for the file:
/lib/Zend/Cache/Backend/File.php under the Magento root.

Change the following code:
protected $_options = array(
'cache_dir' => 'null',

Specify the folder to save the errors in:
protected $_options = array(
'cache_dir' => 'errors/',

This will save all error files into the “errors” folder. You may want to create a sub-folder.