Event history and retention
Find recent events and the actions they ran, filter them, and set how many days event history is kept.
Contents
Event history records what cameras, devices, and the system reported, and which actions your rules ran. You browse it in Configure > Events & automation > History, and you set how long it is kept in Configure > System > General.
What you need
- View event policies to browse history.
- View system health to see the retention setting, and Administer the system to change it.
Browse event history
- Go to Configure > Events & automation and open History.
- Choose Events to see what was reported, or Actions to see what your rules did.
- Narrow the list by Event, Source, and Severity.
- Turn on Group identical events in a row to fold repeats into one line.
The page loads the latest 100 entries and shows 25 at a time.
Common checks
- Did my rule run? Open Actions and narrow the list to the camera or device as the Source.
- Which camera is noisy? Open Events, turn on Group identical events in a row, and look for sources that repeat.
- What needs attention first? Narrow Events by Severity.
Set how long history is kept
- Go to Configure > System and open General.
- Under Event history, a new installation shows Keep 90 days · default. Select Edit.
- Enter a number of days from 1 to 3,650, and save.
Older camera events are deleted unless an alarm, an action, or other evidence still needs them. An event that raised an alarm or ran an action therefore stays as long as that alarm or action needs it, even past the number of days you set.
The setting is one value for the whole installation, so choose a number of days that suits the site with the longest need.
What the setting covers
The setting applies to the whole event history. It does not change:
- Recordings, which follow their own retention. See Recording storage.
- Protected video. See Recording and playback.
- Alarm cases.
- The audit log.
Good to know
- A shorter setting deletes older events that nothing else needs, so check first whether you still want them.
- Rules decide which events become alarms and which actions run. See Rules and alarms.
- Event history shows what cameras, devices, and rules did. Who changed the configuration is in the audit log, which this setting does not touch; see Users and permissions.
- For problems you need help with, send a support bundle. See Diagnostics and support.