TFS Error Publishing Log Files to non existent directory - visual-studio

Question

My Build Server has been running just fine for a couple months and then this week we started getting this problem (see below).
It's almost certainly a permission problem, but no one in IT will admit to having changed a permission somewhere.
Also, it's trying to publish a log file to a location that doesn't exist!
to '#/416/logs/msbuild/agent-2'
If I knew where this location was, I would happily fix it or turn this specific publish off. All the other logs are present and accessible (obviously I'm able to view the log of these errors).
using Visual Studio 2013 & TFS2013.
This is the same issue, but changing the drop folders didn't fix it:
TFS Error publishing log files to #/198/logs/msbuild/agent-2
Other Errors and Warnings
3 error(s), 0 warning(s)
Exception Message: TF270016: An error occurred publishing log files from
'C:\Builds\2\AppName\AppName\src\AppName\AppName.log'
to '#/416/logs/msbuild/agent-2'. Details: An error occurred while
sending the request. (type PublishLogFileException) Exception Stack
Trace: at
System.Activities.Statements.Throw.Execute(CodeActivityContext
context) at
System.Activities.CodeActivity.InternalExecute(ActivityInstance
instance, ActivityExecutor executor, BookmarkManager bookmarkManager)
at
System.Activities.Runtime.ActivityExecutor.ExecuteActivityWorkItem.ExecuteBody(ActivityExecutor
executor, BookmarkManager bookmarkManager, Location resultLocation)
Inner Exception Details:
Exception Message: An error occurred while sending the request. (type
HttpRequestException) Exception Stack Trace: at
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Workflow.Activities.FileContainerDropProvider.CopyDirectory(String
sourceDirectory, String targetDirectory) at
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Workflow.Activities.FileContainerDropProvider.CopyDirectory(String
sourceDirectory, String targetDirectory, String[] renameIfExists)
at
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Workflow.Activities.PublishLogFile.Execute(CodeActivityContext
context)
Inner Exception Details:
Exception Message: Unable to connect to the remote server (type
WebException)Exception Stack Trace: at
System.Net.HttpWebRequest.EndGetResponse(IAsyncResult asyncResult)
at System.Net.Http.HttpClientHandler.GetResponseCallback(IAsyncResult
ar)
Inner Exception Details:
Exception Message: No connection could be made because the target
machine actively refused it [::1]:8080 (type SocketException)
Exception Stack Trace: at
System.Net.Sockets.Socket.EndConnect(IAsyncResult asyncResult) at
System.Net.ServicePoint.ConnectSocketInternal(Boolean connectFailure,
Socket s4, Socket s6, Socket& socket, IPAddress& address,
ConnectSocketState state, IAsyncResult asyncResult, Exception&
exception)
An error occurred while copying diagnostic activity logs
to the drop location. Details: An error occurred while sending the
request.
An error occurred while copying diagnostic activity logs to
the drop location. Details: An error occurred while sending the
request.
Update 12/29/2015
I've been able to confirm with IT that our main TFS instance was updated to 2013 Update 5.
Our build server is running TFS 2013 Update 4. My next priority will be getting the build server updated.

Answer 1

You can try to create a new build agent to see whether the issue persists.

Answer 2

The issue had nothing to do with TFS.
On the build server machine, we had a copy of Visual Studio installed (necessary for MSBuild and MSTest). The license we used had expired, and as a result Visual Studio installed in trial mode.
I don't know why this mattered, but reinstalling Visual Studio using a valid license fixed the issue.