How to View Old Event Logs in Meraki Dashboard
Overview
The Cisco Meraki dashboard can maintain device event logs for up to 3 months and client event logs for up to 12 months. These can be viewed for historical purposes unless Network-Wide > Configure > General > Client privacy has been configured for a shorter timeframe. The Client Privacy feature is only available for organizations hosted in the Europe region of Meraki Cloud.
Note: For long-term historical logs, the recommended best practice is to implement a syslog server.
Prerequisites
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Access to the Meraki dashboard with permissions to view Network-wide > Monitor > Event log.
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The Dashboard network containing the device or client whose event log you want to view.
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(Optional) A configured syslog server if you require event log retention beyond the dashboard limits.
Step-by-step instructions
View historical event logs
This section uses the Before field on the Event log page to scroll back to a specific point in time within the retention window.
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Go to Network-wide > Monitor > Event log.
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Select the Before field and specify a date and time.
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Select the Search button to begin the search. Dashboard displays the matching client and device event logs.
View client event logs older than 3 months
This section explains how to retrieve client logs that fall in the 3-to-12-month window, where general searches do not return results.
- Populate the client field on the Event log page. Client logs that date back up to 12 months require a specific client to be specified in the search.
Verification
Confirm your search returned the expected logs:
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A successful search displays client and device event logs matching the Before date and time.
Troubleshooting
"No matching events found" message
Attempting a general search for event logs older than 3 months returns "No matching events found". This is expected behavior because device event logs are retained for only 3 months. To view client logs older than 3 months, populate the client field on the Event log page and re-run the search.
Export limit
You cannot download more than 1000 events at a time when using the export function. For larger historical exports, narrow your search range or use a syslog server.
Event logs are tied to the Dashboard network
Swapping devices does not affect the event log, but moving a device to a new network clears that device's logs.