When troubleshooting DirectAccess connectivity issues on Windows 8.x clients you may find the option to generate advanced troubleshooting logs missing. On Windows 8 clients, the Collect Logs button will be grayed out. On Windows 8.1 clients it will be missing altogether.
Windows 8
Windows 8.1
This issue is caused by not providing an e-mail address when configuring the DirectAccess server.
To resolve this issue, supply an e-mail address and apply the configuration. The e-mail address does not necessarily have to be valid. It simply has to be present in order to have the option to generate DirectAccess advanced troubleshooting logs. After the clients have updated their group policy, the option to collect advanced troubleshooting logs will be available.
Ryan Perry
/ August 4, 2017Richard, your articles have been extremely helpful. I have a simple question. I have configured a helpdesk email address, but when I click the “Collect” button on a Windows 10 DA client no log bundle is ever emailed to me. I can browse to C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Temp and view the html log file, so I know that’s being created. Does an SMTP relay server need to be configured somewhere, or should the user’s default email client simply open with the To: field already populated and the logs attached?
Richard M. Hicks
/ August 4, 2017The user’s email client should open automatically with the log files attached. If the user doesn’t have an email client installed it obviously won’t work, of course. 🙂
Ryan Perry
/ August 4, 2017Thank you for the quick reply! My client is a Windows 10 computer with the 1703 update. I have Outlook 2016 installed and set up with an Exchange mail account. I also set Outlook as the default mail application. Clicking on MailTo: links from a browser work so it seems like the “Collect” button should work too.
Richard M. Hicks
/ August 12, 2017Very odd. Not sure what’s up there to be honest. You’re right though, if mailto: links work, so should the “collect” button. :/
Karsten Hentrup
/ March 13, 2018Hi Richard,
hope you are fine?
I have the same problem here! I now have seen 3 different DA-installations, all with the same problem with Windows 10 Clients (1709). Means: the button “collect a log, and email it to your it admin” leads to nothing. Like Ryan said in …..\Temp a html file is created, but NOT with all results!! Only the first “box” is filled, but the detailled informations below isn’t there anymore. Email-Client doesn’t open, regardless if Outlook or Mail App is used. So it seams IMHO that the collection doesn’t finish completely – any ideas here?!
Greets from over the ocean, 🙂
Karsten…
Karsten Hentrup
/ March 14, 2018Addition: Same environment Win10 1607 log collection works fine. 1703 + 1709 not! So perhaps a Bug in >1703?
Richard M. Hicks
/ March 15, 2018This is a known issue. I’ve documented the workaround here: https://directaccess.richardhicks.com/2018/03/15/unable-to-generate-directaccess-diagnostic-log-in-windows-10-v1709/. Let me know how it goes!