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Small and medium business | Business Central, N...
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Deleting records from Change Log not working as expected

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Posted on by 81
Hi,
We have about 1.8M records in our change log.  When we search for change log entries we get a timeout, so we are looking to purge the data.
 
I have tried a few options but each of them are not successful.   I am running these tests in my sandbox environment.
 
First I am using the retention policy.  I have set the record retention policy to be one year.  It returns about 250k expired records.  When I run this manually the records are deleting at a rate of 1 per minute.  This is way too slow.
 
 
Next, I tried using a configuration package to delete the records.  I created a package and deleted all but a few lines in the Excel file and imported.  I get the following error: Sorry, the current permissions prevented the action. (TableData Change Log Entry Delete: Base Application).  Am I missing a permission set or is there no way to delete change log records from a configuration package?
 
 
 
 
I'm not sure what else to do at this point to clear the change log.  Any other suggestions?
 
I have the same question (0)
  • T Henry Profile Picture
    81 on at
    Bumping this up looking for assistance.
  • Lukasz Nowak Profile Picture
    2 on at

    Hi  there,

    I am having the same problem but with a different table. Did you find an answer why Ret. Policy removed only one record?

  • Suggested answer
    OussamaSabbouh Profile Picture
    18,639 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

    Hello,

    The supported way to delete Change Log Entry records is the Retention Policy, not a configuration package; the permission error is expected because RapidStart does not have the required indirect delete permission for this protected Base Application table, so adding another user permission set normally will not solve it. Enable the policy and let its automatically created job queue run outside working hours, confirm that the job queue user has SUPER or the required read/delete permissions, and review Retention Policy Log Entries for errors; the protected entries shown with NEVER DELETE will remain by design. Deleting one record per minute is not normal, so if the background job behaves the same, update the sandbox to the latest available version and raise a Microsoft support case with the retention-policy logs and telemetry; meanwhile, reduce Change Log growth by tracking only necessary tables/fields rather than All Fields.

    Regards,
    Oussama Sabbouh

  • Suggested answer
    YUN ZHU Profile Picture
    102,749 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

    It looks like you've added the Table Filter; you might want to try removing it first.

     

    Thanks.

    ZHU

  • Suggested answer
    Saurav.Dhyani Profile Picture
    14,423 User Group Leader on at

    Hi @T Henry ,

    I am going to talk about a different point other than permission issue that you have.

    Retention policy works great only if you started from beginning on a table where there are few records.

    Situation that you have I would suggest:

    1. Create a batch and delete change log entries using batch.

    2. Once log entries are deleted then configure Retention policy for change log.

    Hope it helps.

    Regards,

    Saurav Dhyani

    https://www.youtube.com/@sauravdhyani

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