Activity Logs and data retention

Watchful automatically records important events and changes on your monitored websites in Activity Logs.

These logs provide a searchable history of website activity, including software updates, uptime events, security warnings, and configuration changes.

Viewing Activity Logs

Activity Logs are accessible from the Logs menu item in the left-hand navigation menu of your Watchful dashboard.

To view your logs:

1. Log in to your Watchful account.
2. Click Logs in the left-hand navigation menu.
3. Select a specific website from the site dropdown, or choose to view logs for all websites.
4. Optionally, select a log type to narrow the results.
5. Choose a predefined date range or enter custom start and end dates.
6. Enter a keyword in the text filter to search for specific events.
7. Click Search to display the matching records.

Each log entry includes the event level, website name, date, and a description of the event. Where applicable, links to the website’s frontend and backend are also provided.

Use the Show dropdown in the upper-right corner to adjust the number of log entries displayed per page.

Exporting Activity Logs to CSV

Watchful allows you to export Activity Logs to a CSV file for offline review, recordkeeping, or further analysis in spreadsheet applications such as Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.

To export your logs:

1. Open Logs from the left-hand navigation menu.
2. Select the website, log type, and date range you want to export.
3. Click Search to apply your filters.
4. Click Export in the upper-right corner of the results table.
5. Select CSV from the export menu.

Watchful generates the CSV file and sends it to your Watchful account email address. You can then download and open the file in your preferred spreadsheet application.

Notification settings required for CSV exports

CSV exports are delivered using Watchful’s email notification system.

The Disable all notifications setting must be disabled for the CSV export email to be delivered.

If this setting is enabled, turn it off in your Watchful notification settings before requesting an export. Notably, no individual notification types are required to send emails with the exported logs.

If your export email does not arrive, check that Disable all notifications is turned off and review your spam or junk email folder.

Activity Log retention periods

Watchful retains Activity Logs for different periods depending on the event type and your subscription plan.

Retention periods vary between Free, Legacy, and Premium plans. Some events are retained longer than others, allowing Watchful to maintain useful historical records while managing data storage efficiently.

The following table shows the retention period for each log type.

Log name	Free	Legacy	Premium
Uptime monitor is down	31 days	31 days	12 months
SSL certificate expired	31 days	31 days	12 months
Uptime monitor is up	31 days	31 days	12 months
Site in maintenance mode	31 days	31 days	12 months
Stale backups	31 days	31 days	12 months
Admin user changes	31 days	31 days	12 months
Plugin or extension removed from auto updates	10 days	10 days	12 months
Core removed from auto updates	10 days	10 days	12 months
Scheduled backups offline	31 days	31 days	12 months
Word not found on homepage	31 days	31 days	12 months
Core update available	31 days	31 days	12 months
New update available	31 days	31 days	12 months
Watchful App error	31 days	4 months	12 months
System file missing	31 days	4 months	12 months
Website connection failed	31 days	4 months	12 months
Site URL changed to HTTPS	31 days	4 months	12 months
Your custom notes	31 days	4 months	24 months
Site redirected	31 days	4 months	24 months
Site URL updated	31 days	4 months	24 months
New data from Watchful App	31 days	4 months	12 months
Watchful updated	31 days	4 months	12 months
Modification of the site IP address	31 days	4 months	12 months
Modificaion of critical files	31 days	4 months	12 months
Plugin or extension installed	31 days	6 months	24 months
Plugin or extension updated	31 days	6 months	24 months
Plugin or extension deleted	31 days	6 months	24 months
PHP version modified	31 days	6 months	24 months
MySql version modified	31 days	6 months	24 months
Web server version modified	31 days	6 months	24 months
Core updated	31 days	6 months	24 months
Software update failed	31 days	6 months	24 months

Once a log entry reaches the end of its retention period, it is automatically removed from Watchful and is no longer available for viewing or export.

Preserving Activity Logs beyond their retention period

If you need a permanent record of your site logs, there are a few options. First, you may schedule reports that include the logs to be prepared and emailed on a regular basis.

You may also use the Watchful REST API to create a remote, automated log-retrieval tool that meets your specific needs and does not rely on email.

Finally, you can manually export them before they expire.

Remember that only logs still within their retention period can be exported. Once older entries have been removed, they cannot be included in a new export, regardless of the export mothod.