# Logging **URL:** \ **Category:** Questions & Help\ **Created:** [November 19, 2019, 7:02am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/logging/20952 "2019-11-19T07:02:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Joost\_Else](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/joost_else/32/17360_2.png) [@Joost\_Else](https://community.homey.app/u/Joost_Else)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 7:02am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/logging/20952/1 "2019-11-19T07:02:01Z")
Is it possible to have homey log all device events somehow? I have a couple of flows for my kitchen lights where a PIR sensor won’t play nice. The flows check the expiration of a timer which is re-initialized every time the PIR senses motion, but for some reason the lights sometimes don’t switch on or switch off even when there is motion detected, so I would like to check where it fails. ---
**Author:** ![anon8748058](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anon8748058](https://community.homey.app/u/anon8748058)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 7:12am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/logging/20952/2 "2019-11-19T07:12:46Z")
Out of the box: No. But there are a few apps that can help. Search the app store for ‘Simple Log’ or ‘Papertrails log’. Hope one can do what you’re looking for 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Joost\_Else](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/joost_else/32/17360_2.png) [@Joost\_Else](https://community.homey.app/u/Joost_Else)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 7:16am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/logging/20952/3 "2019-11-19T07:16:17Z")
Thanks, will give 'm a try! ---
**Author:** ![Tangodelta](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/tangodelta/32/9471_2.png) [@Tangodelta](https://community.homey.app/u/Tangodelta)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 8:26am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/logging/20952/4 "2019-11-19T08:26:34Z")
Having problems with Papertrails though, shuts down Homey app, works on the backup site! ---
**Author:** ![Marcel\_Ubels](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/marcel_ubels/32/18860_2.png) [@Marcel\_Ubels](https://community.homey.app/u/Marcel_Ubels)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 10:35am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/logging/20952/5 "2019-11-19T10:35:33Z")
You also can use notification. That way you immediately see what is going on. I use it for those flows i want to monitor. Once it works i delete the notification. Logging al the flows in simple log or papertrails was somewhat overwhelming. Advantage; 1 app less😱 ---
**Author:** ![anon8748058](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anon8748058](https://community.homey.app/u/anon8748058)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 11:25am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/logging/20952/6 "2019-11-19T11:25:39Z")
But not everything sends notifications (like failed flows or unreachable devices), so that is only useful for debugging purposes etc. ---
**Author:** ![Marcel\_Ubels](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/marcel_ubels/32/18860_2.png) [@Marcel\_Ubels](https://community.homey.app/u/Marcel_Ubels)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 12:17pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/logging/20952/7 "2019-11-19T12:17:13Z")
> [@anon8748058](#): > > But not everything sends notifications (like failed flows or unreachable devices) Absolutely right, ofcourse this goes also for papertrails and simple log. Failed flows only when it fails on the WHEN and AND part. At the THEN part it goes well🙃 When your device is unreachable you get your notification. That way you know your flow works and you can investigate further on ---
**Author:** ![Joost\_Else](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/joost_else/32/17360_2.png) [@Joost\_Else](https://community.homey.app/u/Joost_Else)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 1:26pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/logging/20952/8 "2019-11-19T13:26:43Z")
How reliable are notifications? Do these show up as OS driven notifications on the phone (thus extra communication through internet which suffers from unreliable timing)? I’ld rather do all logging on the homey itself if possible. Anyway, I’ve been toying around with the developer interface, it looks like my z-wave based PIR is weak in its communication. I’ll try to move it to my domoticz controlled z-wave network which is proven to be pretty robust. ---
**Author:** ![Marcel\_Ubels](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/marcel_ubels/32/18860_2.png) [@Marcel\_Ubels](https://community.homey.app/u/Marcel_Ubels)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 4:27pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/logging/20952/9 "2019-11-19T16:27:45Z")
You can see the notifications on the timeline in the Homey app. When pushing the notification you get the exact time the notification was made ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/a/8/a8e50bd8f7a57e04c5962a580950b3abccd9b229.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Joost\_Else](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/joost_else/32/17360_2.png) [@Joost\_Else](https://community.homey.app/u/Joost_Else)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 8:54pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/logging/20952/10 "2019-11-19T20:54:20Z")
Mja…, thanks. Seems like the time granularity on the notifications isn’t that good but I’ll give it a go anyway - it won’t hurt to try. ---
**Author:** ![tlangelaar](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/tlangelaar/32/10980_2.png) [@tlangelaar](https://community.homey.app/u/tlangelaar)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 9:41pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/logging/20952/11 "2019-11-19T21:41:16Z")
Click on a line to show the timestamp instead of passed time. ---
**Author:** ![Joost\_Else](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/joost_else/32/17360_2.png) [@Joost\_Else](https://community.homey.app/u/Joost_Else)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 10:03pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/logging/20952/12 "2019-11-19T22:03:16Z")
Cool, I did not know that! ---
**Author:** ![Rrrr](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/rrrr/32/629_2.png) [@Rrrr](https://community.homey.app/u/Rrrr)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2019, 10:46am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/logging/20952/13 "2019-11-23T10:46:51Z")
I’m using this too, but instead of adding and deleting notifications directly in the flows, I send the message in a text variable PushMessage to a debug notification flow. The debug notification flow will send out the message if the z-Debug flag is active. See attachments. After the flows work well, I just de-activate the debug flag. Hope this helps. PS in fact, in the example you can see I’m using a second variable OutMessage. This is useful as there is some delay when sending out notifications and other flows might fill PushMessage too before sending a notification. ![Screenshot_20191123-123254_Homey](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/d/7/d743596f390de704ef9bf12f6c6eae144512f4d0.jpeg) ![Screenshot_20191123-123424_Homey](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/b/4/b4292ee76a7b0f1b098715df52ad4acefcaa2ad5.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![HansNouwens](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/hansnouwens/32/27768_2.png) [@HansNouwens](https://community.homey.app/u/HansNouwens)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 4:01pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/logging/20952/14 "2020-07-29T16:01:55Z")
as a complete newbie on this platform I started creating my first flows and ran into the limitation of the debugging of flows too. After fiddling around with the notifications I soon ran into the rate\_limit. Then I tried pushing messages to my MQTT broker in a debug/flow\_id/ topic. With a MQTT Explorer you can immediately see the results. This works very well! ---
**Author:** ![Rrrr](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/rrrr/32/629_2.png) [@Rrrr](https://community.homey.app/u/Rrrr)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2021, 11:27am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/logging/20952/15 "2021-07-04T11:27:35Z")
Improved here (no rate limit on telegram): > [@Logging, timeline, and notifications: a better idea](https://community.homey.app/t/logging-timeline-and-notifications-a-better-idea/41175/3): > > There are many ways to Rome, but this works best for me: I’ve checked the simple and papertrail logging apps, but in the end do the logging without apps. In the flows I wish to log, I add a Logic text card with a text variable (eg. PushMessageAlways or PushMessageSelected) containing the name of the flow and the value of the variables I am interested in. Several logging/notification flows are triggered every time the text variable changes (\*1) and in each flow I decide what to do with the mes…