I'm trying to switch from BibTeX to `biber` and ran into the problem that `biber` does not produce any output file. I noticed several questions about problems with `biber` e.g., 

> 
> [Biblatex/biber does not work](https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/168660/biblatex-biber-does-not-work)
> 
> 
> [Biblatex/biber fails with a strange error about missing recode\_data.xml file](https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/140814/biblatex-biber-fails-with-a-strange-error-about-missing-recode-data-xml-file), 
> 
> 
> [Error message when using biber](https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/21486/error-message-when-using-biber) 
> 
> 
> [Major problem with biblatex/biber](https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/159606/major-problem-with-biblatex-biber)
> 
> 
> [Biber not producing any output file](https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/91036/biber-not-producing-any-output-file)
> 
> 
> 

But none of them helped me in my particular situation (which was actually just an old version of `biber` somewhere in the path of my OS). Since I also noticed that several questions regarding problems with `biber` were closed as too localized since the underlying problem was due to formatting of a `bib` resource or similar simple issues, I would rather like to ask for a general troubleshooting guideline for using `biber` (since I saw many hints like *"check/delete the cache"*, *"check versions of this and that"* etc.).

What steps are to be taken and what things (in particular files) to be checked if `biber` does not produce an output file (and its output on the command line does not directly give you the advice what to do)?