Viewing logs

The App Store for Intune uses multiple logging destinations. Each serves a different purpose.

Application Insights (recommended)

Best for: Detailed error traces, background service logs, performance monitoring

Location: Azure Portal → Your App Service → Application Insights → Logs

Common queries:

1. View recent errors (last 1 hour)

traces
| where severityLevel >= 3  // Warning, Error, Critical
| where timestamp > ago(1h)
| order by timestamp desc
| project timestamp, severityLevel, message, operation_Name
| take 100

2. Packaging service logs

traces
| where message contains "PackagingQueueService"
| order by timestamp desc
| take 100

3. Search for specific package errors Replace Google.GoogleDrive with your package ID:

traces
| where message contains "Google.GoogleDrive"
| order by timestamp desc
| take 50

4. View all logs for a specific job ID Replace abc123 with your job ID:

traces
| where message contains "abc123"
| order by timestamp desc
| take 100

5. WinGet cache background service

traces
| where message contains "WingetCacheStreamingService"
| order by timestamp desc
| take 100

6. Failed requests (500 errors)

requests
| where resultCode >= 500
| where timestamp > ago(1h)
| order by timestamp desc
| take 50

App Service log stream

Best for: Real-time monitoring, startup issues, general web app logs

Azure CLI:

# Enable logging (one-time setup)
az webapp log config \
  --name <your-app-name> \
  --resource-group <your-resource-group> \
  --application-logging filesystem \
  --level verbose

# View live logs
az webapp log tail \
  --name <your-app-name> \
  --resource-group <your-resource-group>

Azure Portal:

Go to your App Service
Select Log stream from the left menu
Choose Application Logs

Note: Background services (packaging, cache refresh) may not appear in log stream. Use Application Insights for those.

Packaging job status

Best for: Quick status check, user-facing error messages

Location: Admin Dashboard → Packaging Jobs tab

What you see:

Job ID
Package ID
Status (Pending, Downloading, Packaging, Uploading, Completed, Failed)
Error message (if failed)
Start/completion time

Limitations:

Error messages may be truncated
Detailed stack traces not shown
For full error details, use Application Insights

Example job statuses:

Status	Description
Pending	Job queued, waiting to be processed
Downloading	Downloading installer from WinGet repository
Packaging	Creating .intunewin package
Uploading	Uploading package to Intune
Completed	Successfully published to Intune
Failed	Error occurred (see error message)

Background service logs

Background services run independently of HTTP requests. Their logs appear in Application Insights, not the live log stream.

Services that run in the background:

PackagingQueueService - Processes WinGet packaging jobs
WingetCacheStreamingService - Refreshes cached packages daily
RequestEscalationService - Escalates stale approval requests
AppSyncService - Syncs apps from Intune
LicenseValidationService - Validates PowerStacks license

How to view:

Use Application Insights with service-specific queries:

// Packaging service
traces
| where message contains "PackagingQueueService"
| order by timestamp desc
| take 100

// Cache refresh service
traces
| where message contains "WingetCacheStreamingService"
| order by timestamp desc
| take 100

// Request escalation service
traces
| where message contains "RequestEscalationService"
| order by timestamp desc
| take 100

Verifying Application Insights is enabled

Application Insights is critical for monitoring and troubleshooting. Follow these steps to verify it’s enabled and working:

1. Check if Application Insights resource exists

Azure Portal → Resource Group → Look for resource named like apprequest-insights-{uniqueId}

If missing, the ARM template deployment may have failed. Redeploy using the latest template.

2. Verify connection string is set

Azure CLI:

# View all app settings
az webapp config appsettings list \
  --name <your-app-name> \
  --resource-group <your-resource-group> \
  --query "[?name=='APPLICATIONINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING']"

Azure Portal:

Go to your App Service
Settings → Environment variables
Look for APPLICATIONINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING
Value should start with InstrumentationKey=...

If missing: The ARM template sets this automatically. If deploying manually, copy the connection string from the Application Insights resource.

3. Verify Application Insights is not disabled

Azure Portal:

Go to your App Service
Settings → Application Insights
Ensure it shows “Connected” or “Enabled”
If it says “Disabled”:
- Select “Turn on Application Insights”
- Select your existing Application Insights resource
- Select “Apply”

4. Test if logs are flowing

A. Check startup logs:

traces
| where message contains "Application Insights"
| order by timestamp desc
| take 10

You should see a message like:

Application Insights is configured with connection string: InstrumentationKey=...

B. Generate test traffic:

Visit your portal homepage
Go to a few pages
Wait 2-3 minutes for logs to appear

C. Query for recent activity:

requests
| where timestamp > ago(10m)
| order by timestamp desc
| take 20

If you see results, Application Insights is working correctly.

5. Common issues

No logs appearing:

Wait 2-5 minutes - There’s a delay before logs appear
Check if the connection string is set correctly
Restart the App Service to reinitialize Application Insights
Verify the Application Insights resource isn’t disabled or deleted

“Application Insights was disabled” message:

This can happen if you manually disabled it in the portal
Follow step 3 above to re-enable it
The ARM template configures it automatically on deployment

Connection string present but no data:

Verify the connection string matches the Application Insights resource
Check if the Application Insights resource has any data (Portal → Application Insights → Logs)
Restart the App Service

6. Manual configuration (if needed)

If Application Insights isn’t working after deployment:

# Get the connection string from Application Insights
az monitor app-insights component show \
  --app <insights-name> \
  --resource-group <resource-group> \
  --query "connectionString" -o tsv

# Set it in App Service
az webapp config appsettings set \
  --name <app-name> \
  --resource-group <resource-group> \
  --settings APPLICATIONINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING="<connection-string>"

# Restart the app
az webapp restart \
  --name <app-name> \
  --resource-group <resource-group>