Dataverse Version History: Turn On Auditing and View Row Changes

Someone changed the status on a customer request last week, and now nobody remembers the old value. Dataverse can tell you who changed it, when, and what it was before, but only if auditing was on.

In this tutorial, we’ll set up Dataverse version history the way Microsoft builds it: auditing at the environment, table and column level. Then we’ll open the Audit History of a row, use the Audit Summary view, and manage audit log retention.

We’ll also cover Power Apps version history, which is a different thing: restoring an earlier version of a canvas app.

Quick answer: Dataverse doesn’t have a version history button. It keeps row history through auditing. In the Power Platform admin center, open your environment > Settings > Audit and logs > Audit settings and turn on Start Auditing. Then turn on Audit changes to its data for the table and Enable auditing for its columns. Open a row in a model-driven app and select Related > Audit History.

What You Need Before You Start

Dataverse auditing works on all custom tables and most standard ones. If you’re new to the platform, start with what Microsoft Dataverse is and how it stores data. Here’s what we had in place before turning anything on:

• A role: System Administrator or System Customizer in the environment (or equal permissions). Without it, you’ll see the familiar privileges error.
• A table with data: we use a Service Request table whose Status choice column holds Open, In Progress or Closed.
• A model-driven app that shows the table, because the Audit History tab lives on its form.
• Log storage capacity: audit logs count against Dataverse log storage, not database storage.

If a setting is grayed out or you get a permissions message, see the commands unavailable due to your current privileges error before you continue.

What Is the Old Name of Dataverse?

Dataverse used to be called Common Data Service (CDS). Microsoft renamed it in November 2020 and changed the terms at the same time: entities became tables, fields became columns, records became rows, and option sets became choices. Older blog posts and forum answers still use the CDS names.

Step 1: Turn On Auditing for the Environment

Auditing works in layers. The environment switch comes first; a table or column setting does nothing until it’s on. Here’s the current path in the Power Platform admin center:

1. Sign in to the Power Platform admin center and select Manage in the left pane.
2. Select Environments, pick your environment, and select Settings.
3. Expand Audit and logs and select Audit settings.
4. Check Start Auditing.
5. Under Retain these logs for, pick how long to keep logs. The default is Forever.
6. Select Save.

Here’s the Settings page of our developer environment, named Power Platform, with Audit settings under Audit and logs:

On the Audit settings page, Start Auditing is a checkbox at the top, and the retention dropdown sits right below it. The Global Audit Settings link only opens the older legacy options; you don’t need it for this.

You’ll also see Log access (records sign-ins) and Read logs (sends read activity to Microsoft Purview, production environments only). Leave them off unless your compliance team asks for them; they add log volume.

There’s a second route if you run Dynamics 365 apps: Security > Compliance > Auditing lets you turn on auditing and cover the common Dynamics 365 tables in one pass.

Step 2: Turn On Auditing for the Table

Next, tell Dataverse which table to track. We did this on our Service Request table; the same steps work for any table you create in Microsoft Dataverse.

1. In Power Apps, select the right environment, then Dataverse > Tables (or Tables in the left pane).
2. Open the table, select Edit, then Edit table properties on the command bar.
3. Expand Advanced options and select Audit changes to its data.
4. Select Save, then publish the table.

Tip from our own setup: do this inside a solution. Then the audit setting travels with the table when you move it to test or production, though each environment still needs its own environment-level switch.

Step 3: Turn On Auditing for the Columns

Column auditing is the step most guides skip. Open the table, select Columns, open a column, expand Advanced options, and check Enable auditing. On our new custom Status column it was already checked by default, so you only confirm it there and turn it off for columns you don’t need.

Pick the columns people argue about: Status, Priority, Assigned To, amounts and dates. Leaving noisy columns off keeps your log storage smaller and the history easier to read.

Step 4: Add the Table to a Model-Driven App

Audit History shows up on model-driven forms, not in canvas apps. If you don’t have an app for the table yet, our guide to building model-driven apps in Power Apps covers it in detail. The short version: create a blank model-driven app and give it a name.

Select Add page, choose Dataverse table, and select Next:

Choose Select existing table, search for your table, check it, and select Add. Then save, publish and play the app.

Step 5: Open the Audit History of a Row

Now change a row so there’s something to see. In the app, open the row, change a column you audited (we moved the Network Issue request’s Status from Open to In Progress), and save. Then select the Related tab and choose Audit History.

The grid lists each change with the date, the person who made it, the event (Create, Update, Delete, share and so on), the column, the old value and the new value. Use Filter on to see the history of a single column. New entries can take a little while to appear.

You’ll also see two setup rows at the bottom: Audit Enabled and Entity Audit Started. They mark when auditing began, so nothing older than those rows was recorded.

Users need the View Audit History privilege to open this tab. If a colleague sees an empty or missing tab, check their security role first.

How Do You See Audit Logs for the Whole Environment?

Audit History covers one row. The Audit Summary view lists every audit log in the environment, so you can answer questions such as “who deleted this record?” or “who changed a user’s role?” In the admin center, open the environment’s Settings > Audit and logs > Audit summary view, or open the Power Platform Environment Settings app from the Apps menu.

Users need the View Audit Summary privilege here. One quirk: to filter by table, use the Entity column’s Contains option; Equals doesn’t list any values.

Behind both views sits the Dataverse Audit table. You can’t export it from the UI, but developers can read it through the Web API or SDK. For other ways to pull rows into an app, see how to get data from Dataverse in Power Apps.

Dataverse Auditing Cheat Sheet

Setting or task	Where you find it	What to know
Start Auditing	Admin center > Environments > Settings > Audit and logs > Audit settings	Required first; per environment
Log retention	Retain these logs for (same page)	Default Forever; custom up to 24,855 days
Audit changes to its data	Table > Edit table properties > Advanced options	Turns on the table
Enable auditing	Column > Advanced options	Pick only the columns you need
Audit History	Model-driven form > Related > Audit History	Needs View Audit History
Audit Summary view	Power Platform Environment Settings app	Needs View Audit Summary
Delete audit logs	Admin center > environment > Auditing > Delete audit logs	By table, access logs, or up to a date

A retention change only applies to logs created after the change. Logs already written keep the retention period they were stamped with.

Power Apps Version History: Restore an Earlier App Version

People often search for Power Apps version history when they mean the app, not the data. Canvas apps keep a version every time you save, and you can roll back without touching any Dataverse rows. We use this all the time after a bad formula change.

1. In Power Apps, select Apps and make sure you’re in the right environment.
2. Select the app, then Details on the command bar.
3. Open the Versions tab, then open the … menu on the version you want.
4. Select Restore, then Restore again to confirm. Power Apps creates a new version from it.
5. Optional: select Publish this version so users get it. The published one shows as Live.

Restore doesn’t publish on its own, so users keep the Live version until you do. For an app that was deleted rather than broken, see how to restore deleted apps in Power Apps.

	Dataverse version history (auditing)	Power Apps version history
Tracks	Changes to rows and columns	Saved versions of an app
Turn on	Environment, table and column settings	Always on
View in	Audit History tab, Audit Summary view	App Details > Versions
Roll back	No restore; you read old values	Restore any version

SharePoint lists are different again: they keep item versions on their own. If you use both, our post on updating SharePoint columns without a version change shows how list versioning behaves.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Turning on the table but not the environment. Nothing is logged until Start Auditing is on.
• Skipping column auditing. Columns you didn’t enable won’t show their changes.
• Expecting reads or exports to show up. Auditing doesn’t log retrieve or export operations; that’s activity logging in Microsoft Purview.
• Expecting a restore button for rows. Audit History shows old values; you copy them back yourself.
• Forgetting log storage. Audit logs use log capacity; set a retention period or delete old logs by table.
• Saving without a real change. An update is logged only when the new value differs from the old one.

Next Steps

Turn on auditing in a test environment, audit two or three key columns, and check the Audit History after a few edits. Then roll the same solution to production. Our Power Apps tutorials hub covers model-driven apps, security roles and Dataverse in more depth.

We’d keep going with one of these if you’re building on Dataverse:

• Dataverse Solution: The Complete Guide to Creating, Exporting, and Deploying Solutions
• How to Create Dataverse View [With Examples]
• Power Apps Dataverse vs SharePoint List: Which One Should You Use?
• 51 Dataverse Interview Questions and Answers (With Scenarios)

Frequently Asked Questions