How do I - Fix SharePoint ULS Logs not being written?

From time to time, you will run into a situation where you're looking for ULS logs in their regular place i.e. %CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\LOGS\ but there aren't any log files being written.  Most of the time, the problem is simply that an admin might have changed the logging location.

1. Ensure you're checking the correct logging location.
2. Navigate to Central Admin >>> Monitoring >>> Configure Diagnostic Logging
3. Check the Path value.  You can copy the value and paste it into your Windows Explorer address bar for quick access to the logging location.

If the logging location is correct, but you're still not getting logs on the server, check the Trace service.

1. Open the Service console from the server where the logs aren't being written.
2. Scroll down and check that the "SharePoint Tracing Service" is running.
3. If the service is running, you may want to restart it for good measure.
4. Most likely it's NOT running though.  If it's not, start the service.
5. If the service does not use Local System for the account, but instead uses a domain account, it's likely that the password might have changed recently.  Obtain the new password and reset the credentials for the service and then restart the service.

If that isn't the issue, there's sometimes some access issue with the logging location at the time the service started up.  You could try toggling the logging location path value.

1. Navigate to Central Admin >>> Monitoring >>> Configure Diagnostic Logging
2. Check the Path value.  Change it to a folder that does exist.
3. Click OK.
4. Navigate back to the "Configure Diagnostic Logging" page.
5. Change the Path value back to %CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\LOGS\ and click OK.

I'll continually add more steps as I uncover more reasons logging doesn't work in SharePoint. ;-)

Later
C