How to use the Action history page in Dropbox Protect

Admins Updated Aug 28, 2026

How to access the Action history in Dropbox Protect

Log in to Dropbox Protect. Learn more about accessing Protect.
Click Action history.
Click the description of any entry in the Action history list.

A drawer will open that shows who performed the action, what changes were made, which items were affected, and the completion status or any error messages.

What you’ll see in Action history

The Action history table shows details about every action taken in Protect to give you a complete view of what’s happened in your account. Along with each action taken, you’ll also see the status, timestamp, and total number of items per action.

The table includes the following columns:

Action: The specific type of action, such as add link type, remove access, or stop sharing
Status: Whether the action is created, running, or completed
Successful: How many actions were successful
Skipped: How many actions were skipped due to expected connected app behavior or limitation
Failed: How many unexpected system failures occurred
Initiated by: Who initiated the action
Created: When the action started

Notes:

The Skipped status won’t be available on actions taken before March 31.
Click the number in the Successful, Skipped, or Failed columns to see the details or error message for the action.

How to view details

Click the description of any entry in the Action history table.
A detail drawer opens and shows the following information:
- Who initiated the action
- Action type
- Criteria
- Total selected items
- Total updated items
- Status
- Timestamp of when the action started
- Timestamp of when the action completed, skipped, or failed
- When you filter by Export to CSV, here is where you’ll find a download link.
Click through the drawer to see the list of items included in the action and the result for each item, including any error messages. Learn more about error messages.

Click Summary to see an overview of the item’s updates.

Things to keep in mind about the details summary:

Only the first 10,000 skipped and failed fixes are grouped by individual errors. All other skipped and failed fixes are grouped into “Something went wrong.”
For Microsoft items, Protect may show Access is managed by a top-level source, but the source folder path and source summary aren’t available.
You can view the sources and number of skipped items for each source associated with the message “Access is managed by a top-level source.”
- When you click View sources, you will see these items grouped by source.
- You can click ✗ to view the source path, or click the folder to view the fixed items.

Filters you can use

Action history includes three filtering options to help you find specific events:

Status: Queued, In Progress, or Completed
Action: Add link type, Remove link type, Add collaborator, Remove collaborator, Stop sharing, Delete item, Export to CSV
Initiated by: Filter actions by the Protect user who initiated them

Error message and handling

The table below explains common errors by action type and connected app.

Status	Message	Description	Troubleshooting
Error	The action wasn't completed because the app connection is limited	There are too many items selected to apply fixes.	Select fewer items and retry the action again. For Google, select less than 500,000 total items. For Dropbox, select less than 10,000 total items.
Error	There was a problem with the app connection	There is an issue with the app connection, but the reason is unknown.	Check the app connection, reconnect the integration, and try again.
Error	The access update was only partially completed	This occurs when some links or collaborators were removed, but not all.	Try again at a later time.
Error	The item wasn't found	This occurs if an item was moved, deleted, or is not yet available.	Try again at a later time.
Error	Collaborator not found	This occurs when an admin tries to add a collaborator that does not have access to selected connector. Sometimes ingestion lag can cause delays with trying to add a collaborator to an item.	Check the collaborators’ access to the source app and try again later.
Error	Something went wrong.	This happens when an unspecified error occurs.	Try again at a later time.
Skipped	Insufficient permissions to make the change	This occurs when a user with sufficient permissions was not found or when you try to perform an action on a user that's not part of the organization.	Update access in the source app.
Skipped	The app settings need to be updated	This specific error message occurs because the the source app is not configured to allow for this change.	Check the source app settings and try again.
Skipped	The result was already completed and no update was required	This occurs when the requested action was already completed.	Check the access in the source app and try again.
Skipped	Access is managed by a top-level source	This error occurs when access is managed at the top level source (folder or drive).	Check the top level item. If it was updated, no action is needed. If it wasn’t updated, remove access at the top level.
Skipped	Cannot update owner access.	This occurs because the system prevents owners being removed from items.	Change the owner of the item and try again.
Skipped	This action isn't supported for these items	This occurs if you are trying to delete a shared drive or when a connector doesn’t support a certain action.	Nothing further can be done in Protect, but you can try this action in the source app.
Skipped	This action isn't supported	This error occurs when attempting to remove a company link when a guest link is present in Microsoft 365. Guest access in Microsoft cannot exist without the Company (Everyone group) permission. This error can also occur if you try removing Microsoft 365 groups from Team sites that they were created on.	Remove the guest link and try again.
Skipped	Something went wrong	This happens when an action was skipped for an unspecified reason.	Try again at a later time or update access in the source app.