--- title: "Rule Logs and Activity: Why an Automated Rule Did or Didn’t Fire | Birch Course (formerly Revealbot)" description: "Find out why an automated rule did or didn’t fire: how to read rule logs and the Activity section in Birch to check what your automations did." url: https://bir.ch/birch-course/monitoring-rule-activity-logs --- [Back to Birch course](https://bir.ch/birch-course) # Rule Logs and Activity: Why an Automated Rule Did or Didn’t Fire ## Transcript In this video, I’ll walk you through two really helpful features of Birch that give you a clear picture of what your automations are doing behind the scenes — the **Rule Logs** and the **Activity** section. If you’ve ever wondered why a rule didn’t fire, or you just want to double-check that everything is running as expected, these two areas will give you the answers — and help you stay in control. ## Getting started with the rule logs To find them, go to the **Automate** section in the left sidebar, pick your ad platform, hover your mouse over the rule you’re interested in, and click **Logs**. Here you’ll see a table showing all recent checks — by default, it displays data from the past 7 days. Each log entry includes: - **Time of the rule check** – shown in *your* time zone, not the one set in the rule, so keep that in mind. - **Applied items** – the number of items the rule looked at during that check. - **Affected items** – how many items the rule actually did something to (like pausing, increasing budget, and so on). - **Errors** – any items that returned an error during the check. You can switch between two views: **All checkings** to see every rule check, or **Triggered and errors** to focus only on the checks where something happened — either a rule was triggered or an error took place. There are several filters available — you can filter the logs by item name or ID, by task type, and more. You can also sort the logs in different ways: - Sort by **Errors and affected** to bring the most important checks to the top — successful actions will show in green, and errors in red. - Sort by **Parent item** to group together all the items that belong to the same campaign or ad set, making it easier to see patterns. Clicking any log reveals more details. You’ll see which items were checked, what metrics were evaluated, and whether each condition was met. Conditions in green were met, those in black were not — simple as that. There’s also a super useful **Search log** feature. If you want to see all rules that have checked a specific item, just copy its ID, go back to the rule logs homepage, and paste it into the **Search log** in the top right corner. This gives you a full overview of how different rules are interacting with that item. In short, rule logs help you understand what your rules are doing, and why — which is key to making sure your automations are running exactly how you want them to. ## Activity section Now, let’s move on to the **Activity** section. This view gives you a real-time feed of all actions taken by your rules and templates — across your entire account. It’s great for seeing the bigger picture, beyond just one rule. You can filter the activity feed in many ways: - By **ad account** — Google, Facebook, Snapchat, or TikTok - By **event type** — like "Post boosted" or "Automation started" - By **action type** — such as "Paused," "Enabled," or "Updated" - By **rule name** — to focus on a specific automation - And by **entity name or ID** — if you want to look at a certain campaign, ad set or ad These filters can be combined, giving you full flexibility to drill down to exactly what you need. Let’s check that item’s activity by filtering the Activity section by its **Entity ID.** Here you’ll see what actions were taken, along with the item’s name — which links to it in Ads Manager — and the rule that triggered it, that you can open by clicking its name. You’ll also see when the action happened. The Activity section also helps you catch errors or integration issues early — like when a Meta Profile disconnects or access to a Google Sheet is lost. It brings these issues to your attention quickly, so you can take action and keep everything running smoothly. So, to sum it up — **rule logs** help you understand what happened with a specific rule and why, while the **Activity section** gives you a real-time overview of everything going on across your account. Together, they make troubleshooting easier and give you more confidence in your automations. If you ever feel unsure about why something did or didn’t happen, start here. And as always, if you need any help, you can reach out to our team or check out more resources in our Help Center. ## Related articles in Help Center [How to read rules logs](https://help.bir.ch/en/articles/3493728-how-to-read-rules-logs) [Can I export rule logs or Activity logs?](https://help.bir.ch/en/articles/8858445-can-i-export-rule-logs-or-activity-logs) Birch course 20 videos Getting Started - [Birch Platform Overview](https://bir.ch/birch-course/birch-platform-overview) - [Connect Your Meta, Google, TikTok and Snapchat Ad Accounts](https://bir.ch/birch-course/account-setup-configuration) - [Manage Multiple Ad Accounts and Clients with Workspaces](https://bir.ch/birch-course/workspaces-team-management) - [Birch Integrations: Slack, Google Analytics, AppsFlyer and More](https://bir.ch/birch-course/using-built-in-integrations) Analyze & Explore - [Ads Report Example: Meta, Google, TikTok and Snapchat in One Client Report](https://bir.ch/birch-course/building-cross-platform-reports) - [Ad Creative Analysis for Meta Ads: Creative Reports in Explorer](https://bir.ch/birch-course/creative-dashboards-in-explorer) - [Compare Meta Ads Audiences with Top Audiences](https://bir.ch/birch-course/audience-insights-in-top-audiences) Automate with Rules - [How to Automate Facebook, Google, TikTok and Snapchat Ads: The 6 Most-Used Rule Types](https://bir.ch/birch-course/most-popular-automation-rules) - [Custom Metrics for Meta, Google, TikTok and Snapchat Ads: Build Your Own Formulas](https://bir.ch/birch-course/creating-custom-metrics) - [Rule Logs and Activity: Why an Automated Rule Did or Didn’t Fire](https://bir.ch/birch-course/monitoring-rule-activity-logs) - [How to Scale Facebook Ads with 4 Automated Rules](https://bir.ch/birch-course/best-practices-for-meta) - [TikTok Ads Best Practices: 4 Automated Rules](https://bir.ch/birch-course/best-practices-for-tiktok) - [Best Practices for Snapchat](https://bir.ch/birch-course/best-practices-for-snapchat) - [Advanced Facebook Automated Rules: Timeframes, Comparisons and Rankings](https://bir.ch/birch-course/advanced-tips-for-automated-rules) - [Facebook Ads and Google Sheets: Automate Meta and TikTok Ads with Your Own Custom Data](https://bir.ch/birch-course/using-google-sheets-data-in-rules) Launch ads - [Ad Creative Testing in Bulk: Upload Creatives to Meta, TikTok and Snapchat from Google Drive with Stage](https://bir.ch/birch-course/stage-walkthrough-automatic-creatives-upload-and-ads-creation) - [Bulk Ads and Ad Sets Creation for Meta: Launch at Scale with Launcher](https://bir.ch/birch-course/creating-ads-at-scale-in-launcher) - [How to Set up Post Boosting Rules](https://bir.ch/birch-course/how-to-set-up-post-boosting-rules) - [Facebook Custom Audience and Lookalike Audience: Create and Manage in Birch](https://bir.ch/birch-course/creating-managing-audiences-in-birch) Server-side Tracking - [Set Up Meta Conversions API Gateway (Signals Gateway) for Server-Side Tracking](https://bir.ch/birch-course/birch-hub-signals-gateway) Birch course 20 videos [Book demo](https://bir.ch/demo) 14 · days free trial Cancel anytime No credit card required [Try Birch](https://app.bir.ch/signup)