diff --git a/firebase-vscode/CHANGELOG.md b/firebase-vscode/CHANGELOG.md
index c912dfd1d10..f61fc46b10c 100644
--- a/firebase-vscode/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/firebase-vscode/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 ## NEXT
 
+- Fixed an issue where log files would be written to non-Firebase directories.
+
 ## 0.10.3
 
 - Updated internal firebase-tools dependency to 13.21.0
diff --git a/firebase-vscode/src/logger-wrapper.ts b/firebase-vscode/src/logger-wrapper.ts
index ec3681557d2..1e9441e45e3 100644
--- a/firebase-vscode/src/logger-wrapper.ts
+++ b/firebase-vscode/src/logger-wrapper.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 import * as path from "path";
 import * as vscode from "vscode";
+import * as fs from "fs";
+import * as os from "os";
 import { transports, format } from "winston";
 import Transport from "winston-transport";
 import stripAnsi from "strip-ansi";
@@ -45,7 +47,11 @@ export function logSetup() {
     // Re-implement file logger call from ../../src/bin/firebase.ts to not bring
     // in the entire firebase.ts file
     const rootFolders = getRootFolders();
-    const filePath = path.join(rootFolders[0], ".firebase", "logs", "vsce-debug.log");
+    // Default to a central path, but write files to a local path if we're in a Firebase directory.
+    let filePath = path.join(os.homedir(), ".cache", "firebase", "logs", "vsce-debug.log");
+    if (fs.existsSync(path.join(rootFolders[0], "firebase.json"))) { 
+      filePath = path.join(rootFolders[0], ".firebase", "logs", "vsce-debug.log");
+    }
     pluginLogger.info("Logging to path", filePath);
     cliLogger.add(
       new transports.File({