topic Re: How does keep track of changes to the data work? How can we view historic data in ArcGIS Online Questions

How does keep track of changes to the data work? How can we view historic data

LyonMNGIS — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 13:46:06 GMT

Hello,

I have a couple questions regarding the option in AGOL to keep track of changes to the data field (add, update, delete features).

Is the purpose of this function to archive changes to any AGOL hosted feature layers?
Can we view any changes (including deletions) in ArcGIS Pro?
I noticed I cannot turn keep track of changes to the data on or off in the settings menu. This is true even if I turn editing off. Why is that and how can I turn keep track of changes off?
Is there anything else I need to know about this function?

Thank You!

Re: How does keep track of changes to the data work? How can we view historic data

Koen — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 15:24:12 GMT

Hey @LyonMNGIS

I was able to find documentation:

Also, if you publish a hosted tile layer from the hosted feature layer, and the hosted tile layer is configured to build tiles automatically, you cannot disable the Keep track of changes to the data (add, update, delete features) option on the hosted feature layer.
The Keep track of changes to the data (add, update, delete features) option allows custom applications to identify which features have been added, updated, or deleted. This setting is enabled automatically when you publish a tile layer from the hosted feature layer, because it is necessary to keep the two layers in sync.

Hope this helps! Feel free to reply to this thread with any additional questions.

- Koen

Re: How does keep track of changes to the data work? How can we view historic data

Koen — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 15:29:39 GMT

Additional section in that article:

Hosted feature layer views inherit this setting from the hosted feature layer from which they are created and cannot be configured independently. To enable or disable editor tracking for a hosted feature layer view, change the editor tracking setting on the hosted feature layer from which the view was created.

Re: How does keep track of changes to the data work? How can we view historic data

ChristopherCounsell — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 16:25:23 GMT

Is the purpose of this function to archive changes to any AGOL hosted feature layers?

No. It tracks the change event only. It's basically a giant table of time + note if an add, update or delete was made.

It's useful for monitoring change events. E.g. fire a webhook response when a feature is edited in field maps.

Can we view any changes (including deletions) in ArcGIS Pro?

Not the changes, just if a change happened. And not really in Pro, more via REST API or ArcGIS Online which you could move to pro.

I noticed I cannot turn keep track of changes to the data on or off in the settings menu. This is true even if I turn editing off. Why is that and how can I turn keep track of changes off?

Best guess is it's a view, you need to disable on parent layer. Otherwise maybe read through the documentation above.

Is there anything else I need to know about this function?

What you're looking for is called versioning and it requires an enterprise geodatabase / ArcGIS Server. In ArcGIS Online your tracking options are more limited. General recommendations are regular data backups offline (you could use an enterprise geodatabase here to version change), or the use of related tables for 'adds only' against existing records.

Re: How does keep track of changes to the data work? How can we view historic data

ChristopherCounsell — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 20:54:21 GMT

Hot off the ESRI UC I was wrong about change logs, apparently you can recover it as JSON. Explains why the logs get so large.

Have to use rest API.

Re: How does keep track of changes to the data work? How can we view historic data

mdibbinsSNO — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 11:22:54 GMT

Hi @ChristopherCounsell,

Would you happen to know if this deck was published anywhere?

Re: How does keep track of changes to the data work? How can we view historic data

JanetSilb_Spike — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 21:51:41 GMT

@ChristopherCounsell can you please explain how to do this in the new AGOL release: "more via REST API or ArcGIS Online"? I've been trying to follow a process guided by ChatGPT but I think it may be outdated.

Re: How does keep track of changes to the data work? How can we view historic data

PeterKnoop — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 00:49:32 GMT

For directions on how to recover deleted features, when "Keep track of changes to the data (add, update, delete features)" is enabled on a hosted feature layer, see the recently published How-To:

Recover deleted features from a hosted feature layer using ExtractChanges

Re: How does keep track of changes to the data work? How can we view historic data

Bud — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 17:40:17 GMT

@ChristopherCounsell Your original reply was helpful. Thanks.