📘 FormWatch docs
FormWatch Flight Recorder: Reading the Event Log
What the event log shows, how long it keeps events and how to export or clear it.
What it is
The flight recorder is the list of recent events at the bottom of the FormWatch dashboard. It shows the most recent 50 events, newest first. When you need more, export the whole log as a file.
The columns
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Time | When it happened, in your site’s time zone, with how long ago underneath. |
| Event | The kind of event (see below). |
| Source | Where it came from, for example Contact Form 7, WordPress Mail or WordPress. |
| Status | OK, Problem or Info. |
| Details | A short description, such as a form’s name or the reason a message failed. |
Event types
| Event | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Form | A form submission was received, or, for Contact Form 7, the form’s email failed. |
| WordPress could not hand an email to its mailer. | |
| Test | A mail-path test you ran. |
| Change | A WordPress, plugin or theme was installed or updated. The name is shown for up to three items. |
| Alert | A failure alert was emailed, or could not be sent. |
Status
- OK means it worked. For a form, OK means the submission was received, not that its email was delivered.
- Problem means something failed and counts toward the status in the dashboard.
- Info is for your reference, such as an update, and never counts as a problem.
What is not listed
Successful emails are counted but not listed, because a busy site sends many of them. You will see their total in Mail handoffs, 7 days. Form submissions are listed and also counted.
How long events are kept
- You choose 14, 30 or 90 days under Failure alerts and data. Older events are removed automatically.
- The log holds at most 300 events. When it is full, the oldest events that are not problems go first, so problems are kept the longest.
- The daily counts behind the dashboard numbers are kept for about 35 days.
Export and clear
- Export CSV downloads every event in the log. Times in the file are in UTC, and the columns are Time, Event, Source, Status and Details. Text that starts with a character a spreadsheet could read as a formula is marked so it is shown as plain text.
- Clear log removes all events, the daily counts and the reviewed marker, after you confirm. It cannot be undone. Your settings are kept.
Reading a failed form email
When a Contact Form 7 form’s email fails, you will usually see two Problem rows close together: a Form row naming the form and a Mail row with WordPress’s reason. They describe the same failure and count as one problem. Start with the Mail row’s details, which usually name the cause, such as a missing recipient or a refused connection. Then follow Troubleshooting.
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