History, audit and undo
History, audit and undo
Who can do this: Audit log needs Manage Members. Data change log needs Read, and shows each person only the tables they can read. Undoing a data change needs Edit on that table. See the .
What it's for
When something looks wrong, you want to know who changed it and put it back. The product keeps two separate records:
The Audit log records changes to the structure of the space: documents created, renamed, moved, archived, restored or permanently deleted, and changes to a table's columns and settings.
The Data change log records changes to the rows in your data tables: created, changed, deleted, restored, imported.
Both let you undo. They are separate screens with separate rules.
Before you start
Both are in the space menu, in the navigator. Neither is shown to portal customers.
Row history is recorded for data tables only. It does not record the text of documents.
No administrator setup is needed to use these screens.
Steps: find out who changed a row
Open the table and the record. In the record panel, open the Journal tab. It shows that record's history, newest first.
Or, for the whole table, open the Data menu in the table's toolbar and choose Activity log. Filter by operation, source, person and dates, or with Field filter.
Or, for every table at once, choose Data change log in the space menu.
In the Data change log:
Pick a period: 24h, 7 days (the default), 30 days or Custom. A period can span at most 90 days.
Narrow by All tables (pick one or more), Source, Operation or Only mine. Clear filters resets.
Use Field filter to find changes by field value. Pick one table first. Choosing the field under Field changed and the condition on After finds, for example, rows whose status became "Done".
Press a change to see what it changed (From, To). Open record jumps to the row.
Each change shows an Operation (Row created, Row changed, Row deleted, Row restored, Bulk import) and a Source that says how it happened: Manual, Automation, Import, API, Webhook, Portal, Portal mirror, System or Undo.
Steps: undo changes to rows
In the Data change log, the table's Activity log, or a record's Journal, select the changes. In the log, tick Select this change on each, or Select all.
Press Undo selected (in a record's journal, Undo on one entry).
A preview opens: Undo these changes?, with how many rows are affected and how many cells restored.
Blocked — nothing will be undone: reasons the batch cannot run. Nothing is changed until these are resolved.
Changed since: someone changed those cells after the change you are undoing. They stay as they are unless you tick them.
Row edited after it was created: deleting the row would discard later edits. Add the later changes to the selection (Add to selection), or tick to delete anyway.
Press Undo. You see Undone — N rows changed.
Undo is all-or-nothing for blocks: a batch never half-applies. You can undo up to 5,000 change records at a time.
What blocks an undo
Block | Meaning |
|---|---|
Closed period | The row falls in an accounting period that is closed. Correct it by hand |
Locked row | The row is locked by its status |
Row no longer exists | The record was removed for good |
No edit right | You can view the table but not edit it |
Still referenced | Another row still links to the row you would delete |
Used by a later automation run | Something an automation did afterwards depends on it |
Value copied by a later automation run | An automation copied the value |
Later FIFO issues of the same item | Stock was issued after it |
What cannot be undone
Bulk import entries: Bulk import — no before/after captured, cannot be undone. Skipped entries are counted in the preview.
Emails and webhooks already sent. The product undoes data, not messages.
Changes already undone: Already undone.
Undo and automations
An undo does not trigger your automations. Undoing a status change does not re-send the email that status change sent.
Hidden columns
If a column is hidden from you, you do not see its values in the log. An undo that touches the row still restores hidden cells to their old values; the preview only says N cells in fields you cannot see will be restored too. If a hidden cell changed since, it is left alone and you cannot force it.
Roll back an automation run
To undo what an automation did, open the table's Run menu and choose Roll back automation runs… It undoes the runs started from the selected rows, with everything they triggered. See .
Deleted rows
Separately from the log, the table's Data menu has Recently deleted. Restore brings a row back with its original ID. It shows the 200 most recently deleted rows.
Steps: use the Audit log
Choose Audit log in the space menu.
Filter by Changed by, Object (Documents, Table columns, Table settings), Action and dates. Search by document name.
Press Details on an event to see Before and After.
To undo, select events and press Undo selected. A preview lists Cannot be undone items, Changed since conflicts and what will change. Tick a conflict to undo it anyway and discard the newer value.
Press Undo. You see Undone: N document(s).
Undo works for rename, move, archive and restore, for creating a document (undo archives it) and for table columns and settings. Selecting more than 1,000 events at once is refused.
Undo writes its own audit event, so you can undo an undo.
Careful: permanently deleted documents cannot be undone: Permanently deleted — nothing to restore from. Events recorded before detailed capture show Recorded before detailed capture — cannot be undone. Archive instead of deleting when you are unsure.
How to check it worked
The undo appears in the log with source Undo. The original entry is marked as undone (Undone in the record journal and the Audit log, Already undone. in the Data change log).
Reopen the record: its values are back.
Audit log: the restored document is back in the navigator.
Undo / what can go wrong
The undo does nothing for a cell. The cell was changed by someone outside your selection. It is listed under Changed since.
A table is missing from the Data change log. You cannot read it. Tables you cannot read are not shown.
You see a change but cannot undo it. You lack Edit on that table (You can view this table but not edit it, so this change cannot be undone.).
The log is empty for a recent change. Reload. The log is read from the main store and from a separate log store if your administrator set one up. If it cannot load you see Couldn't load the change log. and Retry.
How long records are kept. Nothing deletes Audit log or Data change log records because they are old: there is no expiry or clean-up job in the product, so records stay until someone removes them in the database. If your administrator keeps the history in a separate log store, each change is copied there within seconds and stays there. One action does remove them: Clear table data… (and Clear tables data… in the Reset project data dialog) deletes the Data change log entries of every table it clears and leaves a single entry recording that the table was cleared. The Data change log shows one period of at most 90 days at a time; older records are still stored, and you reach them by choosing an earlier period.
Row-level visibility. The Data change log is filtered by table access and by column access, but not by row visibility. If you limit which rows people can see in a table, a person who can read that table can still see the log entries, and the values they show, for rows the rule hides from them in the grid, in the project-wide log, in the table's history and in a single row's history. Keep this in mind before you give someone Read on a table whose rows you restrict.