Trying to see when a change was made - Audit log only shows me to February 2026

Question

Hi Team,

Looking to get access to who made a change to some of our automations. This change was made around SEP25 but within my access to the audit logs I can only go back to February 2026.

Also, are we able to have visibility to the backend database storing the records for our Jira site?

Please can you offer assistance.

Thanks

SPHIOR · Answer

One thing worth adding, mostly so nobody reading later loses time on it: I would not count on support being able to recover audit records that have aged out of your retention window. Retention is a deletion, not an archive. It is worth asking, but plan as though the answer is no.

There is one more place to look before you conclude it is gone, though, because it is genuinely a different log rather than the same one seen twice. The organization-level audit log at admin.atlassian.com > Insights > Audit log has its own window (fixed at 180 days) and its own coverage, and it records some things the product-level Jira log does not. For a change from September 2025 it will also have aged out by now, but it is worth knowing the two exist for next time — a lot of "the audit log doesn't have it" turns out to be "I checked the other one".

For the forward-looking part, the uncomfortable truth about all of this is that it is not retroactive. Whatever you decide to do — raise the retention setting, export to CSV on a schedule, or something else — it only starts protecting you from the day you turn it on. Check Settings > System > Audit log and set the retention window now rather than the next time somebody asks, because the gap you are hitting today was created months ago.

And when you do export: the CSV keeps the NEWEST events when you exceed the cap, so on a busy instance the oldest ones fall off the end while you wait. Export early, not late.

Disclosure: I build a Jira app in this space. Nothing to pitch here — just that "ask support to recover it" is the part I would not want you to rely on.

Germán Morales · Answer

Hi @Robert Henson, the Jira Cloud audit log has a configurable retention period. By default it keeps a limited window of data (often around 6 months), and anything older is removed permanently.

If you can only see back to February 2026 and the change you're looking for was September 2025, those records have already aged out. You can check and adjust the retention setting under Settings > System > Audit Log > Actions > Audit Log Settings, but that only affects data going forward, it won't recover what's already gone.

On the backend database question: Jira Cloud doesn't expose the underlying database to customers. You're limited to what the UI, the REST API, and the audit log provide. That's a core difference from Server or Data Center where direct DB access was possible.

Your best path is to open a Support ticket with Atlassian and ask if they can retrieve audit data from that period. No guarantee they still have it, but it's the only channel for data outside your retention window.

Doc reference: Audit activities in Jira