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This Help Article appears in the Level 2: Intermediate Users learning track. Get the most out of this learning track by starting at the beginning.
This Help Article appears in the Level 2: Intermediate Users learning track. Get the most out of this learning track by starting at the beginning.
The activity log lets you quickly see a user's activity in a sheet or who last viewed a dashboard. You can get an audit trail of the edits and deletions of various elements on a sheet and better understand what your collaborators are taking action on in the sheet. You can also see who has viewed and made general edits to a report or dashboard and request a snapshot of your sheet from a prior date.
Use the activity log to track common actions:
You won't see those records of changes in the activity log of a report. They'll only appear on the activity log dialog of the source sheets. So if you need to track cell and row changes in a report, go to its source sheet.
Here are other things you might want to know about the activity log:
There are two ways to open the activity log dialog:
Some organizations create or use custom solutions that leverage the Smartsheet Application Programming Interface (API). An example is Smartsheet Pivot App. If the API influences the content in a sheet, you'll see the API - Integrated App image next to the date column.
The View activity log dialog displays sheet actions, such as who deleted rows and when or when a user viewed the sheet. The report in the activity log dialog displays the last seven days of events by default.
Use filters in the activity log to see only the entries you want. Apply a filter that shows you the activity for a specific date range, a specific type of action, or the specific people that have been active on the sheet.
Apply filters to the activity log
If you need to clear the filters, select Clear Filters.
You can download the activity log for the item to keep an additional record of sheet activity. Each download is limited to 90 days of sheet activity data.
The time it takes for Smartsheet to generate the file and send you the download link varies. Once you select Download, you should receive a message with the link to the file within the next business day.
If you're a licensed sheet Owner or Admin, you can request a snapshot of cell or column changes in your sheet.
Smartsheet will email the snapshot to the sheet owner in an Excel file. The Excel file contains sheet data, sheet summary, and comments only. Conditional formatting, attachments, notifications, cell history, and any formulas that aren't compatible with Excel (column formulas, @row, @cell, cross sheet formulas, etc.) aren't supported.
You can only submit one snapshot request on any given sheet. Once the first request is complete, you can file an additional request.
Some actions listed in the activity log dialog describe an overall change but won't provide context on the details of that change. Below are a few actions you might see and what they mean:
Sharing permission level | Can view activity log | Can export activity log | See tracked activity starting at this date/time |
---|---|---|---|
Owner* | Yes | Yes | Creation of the item |
Admin (Licensed)** | Yes | Yes | View and export from when you were last shared to the item |
Admin (Unlicensed) | No | No | - |
Editor (Licensed)** | Yes | No | View (but not export) from when you were last shared to the item |
Editor (Unlicensed) | No | No | - |
Commenter (Licensed or Unlicensed) | No | No | - |
Viewer (Licensed or Unlicensed) | No | No | - |
*If you transfer ownership of a sheet, the new owner will see all of the activity logs from when the sheet was created.
**If you are upgraded to Admin (Licensed) or Editor (Licensed) sharing permissions, you will be able to see activity log entries starting from when you were first shared to the sheet.
Want to know more about sharing permission? Check out the Permissions on sheets, reports, or workspaces article.