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Network Activity is a core MainWP Dashboard feature that records actions from both your MainWP Dashboard and child site WP Admin areas. Dashboard Insights uses this same data source to provide analytics summaries, while Network Activity provides the detailed event timeline.

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What You’ll Learn

  • Where to access Network Activity and its shared settings page
  • Where the Network Activity widget appears
  • How to filter activity by source, site, event, date, and user context
  • How to dismiss events with required confirmation
  • How to configure logging, auto-archiving, and retention
  • How to view only Non-MainWP Changes

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Prerequisites

  • MainWP Dashboard with connected child sites
  • MainWP Child active on connected child sites for direct WP Admin activity tracking
  • Network Activity logging enabled in settings

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Video Walkthrough

Watch this walkthrough to review activity sources, filter and dismiss logs, configure logging and retention, and use the Network Activity widget.

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Access Network Activity and Settings

1

Open Network Activity

Go to MainWP > Sites > Network Activity (admin.php?page=InsightsManage).
2

Open Network Activity Settings

Go to top-right user menu > MainWP Settings > Network Activity Settings (/wp-admin/admin.php?page=SettingsInsights).
Network Activity Settings is a shared settings page.
It configures the logs dataset used by both Network Activity and Dashboard Insights.

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Where the Network Activity Widget Appears

You can use the Network Activity widget in:
  • MainWP > Operations (admin.php?page=mainwp_tab)
  • Individual child site Overview pages (admin.php?page=managesites&dashboard=<site-id>)
Replace <site-id> with the child site ID.

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Understand Activity Sources

Network Activity includes events from two sources:

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Version and Role Changes

MainWP Child 6.3 corrects the before-and-after details recorded for WordPress core updates and user role changes. Keep Child sites updated when reviewing these events. The fixes apply to newly recorded activity; they do not rewrite older entries.

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Filter Network Activity Data

Use filters on the Network Activity page to narrow results by:
  • Date range
  • Tags
  • Clients
  • Users
  • Source (Dashboard or WP Admin)
  • Sites
  • Events
Filter selections are saved for your user account until you reset them.

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View Only Non-MainWP Changes

Non-MainWP Changes are a subset of Network Activity data. They show activity that did not originate from MainWP Dashboard.

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Filter in the Network Activity Widget

Animation showing how to filter Network Activity widget for Non-MainWP Changes only
1

Open a page with the widget

Open MainWP > Operations (admin.php?page=mainwp_tab) or an individual child site Overview (admin.php?page=managesites&dashboard=<site-id>).
2

Open the widget menu

In the Network Activity widget, click the three-dot menu.
3

Select Non-MainWP Changes

Choose Non-MainWP Changes to show WP Admin-originated events only.

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Filter on the Network Activity Page

Animation showing how to filter Network Activity page by WP Admin source
1

Go to Network Activity

Go to MainWP > Sites > Network Activity (admin.php?page=InsightsManage).
2

Set source filter

In the Source filter, select WP Admin.
3

Apply the filter

Click Filter to show only Non-MainWP Changes.

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Dismiss Events in Bulk or Per Row

Network Activity supports three dismissal actions:
  • Dismiss archives the event on that row.
  • Dismiss Selected Changes archives only the rows you select using their checkboxes.
  • Dismiss All Changes archives all active Network Activity logs across your Dashboard, including logs excluded by the current filters or not displayed on the current page.
To dismiss only specific logs, select their checkboxes and use Dismiss Selected Changes. Filters do not limit Dismiss All Changes. Dismissal removes logs from the active activity list; it does not undo the original changes on your sites. All dismiss actions require confirmation before execution.
Dismissal actions are available on the Network Activity page. The Network Activity widget has no dismissal controls; click View All Changes to open the page and dismiss events.

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Configure Logging, Archiving, and Retention

Open top-right user menu > MainWP Settings > Network Activity Settings (/wp-admin/admin.php?page=SettingsInsights) to manage:
  • Enable Network Activity logging
  • Automatically archive logs (optional)
  • Data retention period for active Dashboard logs before automatic archiving; Forever disables age-based archiving
  • Retention period for Network Activity Logs on child sites, in days (default: 7); this controls local Child-site cleanup and does not change Dashboard retention
  • Select events to log for Dashboard and Non-MainWP sources
Click Save Settings after making changes. Manually sync the child sites to send the logging, event-selection, and Child-site retention settings to them. Dashboard logging and archiving settings affect both Network Activity and Dashboard Insights because both features use the same logs dataset.

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Delete Archived Network Activity Data

To remove archived records:
1

Open Tools settings

Go to top-right user menu > MainWP Tools (/wp-admin/admin.php?page=MainWPTools).
2

Delete archived data

Click Delete Archived Network Activity Data and confirm. This permanently deletes all archived Network Activity records and their metadata from the Dashboard; active logs are not deleted.

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Self-Check Checklist

  • Network Activity page opens from MainWP > Sites > Network Activity
  • You can filter by source and isolate Non-MainWP Changes
  • Dismiss actions require confirmation
  • Shared settings are available under top-right user menu > MainWP Settings > Network Activity Settings (/wp-admin/admin.php?page=SettingsInsights)