Missing time and activity

Occasionally, you might notice that time or activity data is absent from your timesheets or activity records. This can be frustrating, but rest assured, there are usually logical explanations for these discrepancies. In this article, we’ll explore the most common reasons for missing time or activity, along with steps to identify and resolve those issues. Whether it’s related to settings, user activity, or other factors, our guide will help ensure your timesheets and activity remain accurate and reliable.

Connectivity issues

If you are facing internet connectivity issues, an unstable connection, or slow upload speeds, this may be the reason why time and activity is missing from your account. As soon as Hubstaff finds a good/stable internet connection all the queued data will get uploaded. Time, screenshots, and other activity data is not lost, they will get uploaded as soon as the app detect a stable internet connection. Recorded data is stored locally on the member’s computer prior to upload. You may see the message “No screenshot” on the activity page in these cases, even if screenshots were captured and are just waiting to be uploaded.

If this issue keeps affecting you, here are some steps you can try:

• Leave the timer open for a few minutes after you finish your work day (you can stop the timer, just leave it open. Don’t close the app). This will allow it some extra time to upload the data.
• Close and re-open the timer to force it to refresh and attempt a connection to our servers.
• Click the refresh button in the bottom left corner of the app.
• Identify and address any internet issues you may be facing where you are working.

Idle Time wasn’t kept

Companies are able to decide how Idle time is handled when members are using the timer application. There are two possible reasons why idle time that the timer tracked wouldn’t have been saved to your timesheets:

1. The company has the Keep Idle Time setting set to Never. This means that any idle time tracked on the timer is automatically discarded and not saved.
2. The company has the Keep Idle Time setting set to Prompt, but when you returned from being idle and the app asked you how you wanted to handle the idle time, you didn’t check the box to Keep idle time. When you pressed the button for the timer to resume, the idle time was discarded.

The project was archived

When projects are archived in Hubstaff, the activity (screenshots, apps, URLs) associated with those projects will no longer be visible. Historical time for the project would remain accessible in reports and visible in the timesheets of the team members. If you archived a project, but want to see the activity data for it, you will need to go to the archived projects area and restore the project.

The time was deleted

If time is deleted in Hubstaff, all associated activity records are also deleted along with it. When you delete time entries, screenshots and activity levels are permanently removed from the server and cannot be restored. Please exercise caution when deleting time and activities in Hubstaff.

Screenshots are still pending upload

The Hubstaff timer applications upload time and activity in a particular order, with full sized screenshots being near the end of the list. If your internet connection isn’t very stable or is slow, the app may be having difficulty uploading the screenshots. If you are viewing timesheets and seeing the message “Not yet uploaded” where the screenshots should be, this means that the screenshots were captured but just haven’t made it to our servers yet (they are still stored on your computer). If the data isn’t uploading yet from the desktop app, try clicking the Refresh button located at the bottom left of the app, and/or restarting the app.

The timer app being used doesn’t support screenshots, apps, or URLs

You may be looking at your data on the site and be wondering why screenshots, apps, and URLs are missing even though you were tracking time. Not all of our timer apps can record screenshots, apps, and URLs. If you need this activity to be tracked, you will need to use our Desktop timers on Windows, MacOS, or Linux. The web timer, chrome extension, and the mobile applications (iOS/Android) cannot track screenshots, apps, or URLS. To learn more, here is our guide: https://support.hubstaff.com/time-tracker-apps-overview/

If you are seeing the message “Mobile time”, “Browser time”, or “Web Timer” where you were expecting to see screenshots, the reason is that the member is using one of the apps that doesn’t support screenshots to track time.

Time zone differences between the member and organization

Depending on the person viewing the timesheet data, the time zones may be different and may cause the viewer to see different data that someone else viewing the same time spans. It is important to note that while each person may see different information, the recorded times are not lost or incorrect, they are only adjusted based on what time zone the data is being viewed. Payments, reports, and the organization dashboard data are always based on the organization’s set time zone and cannot be viewed as other time zones. We have a guide for this called Viewing your data in different time zones.

One of the more common confusions we have seen is when time tracked by a team member is appearing on a different days than expected. This happens when the team member was tracking time around midnight in one of the relevant time zones (their own or the organization’s). For example, if a company based in New York has a team member in Japan, but expects the person to work during USA business hours. In Japan, they would end up working before and after midnight in their time, which would split the time across days. If management is viewing reports in New York time or the member’s timesheets (and selects the ORG timezone), then they will see all of those hours on a single day.

Activity tracking is turned off in the settings

If activity tracking is turned off for the organization or in the project that time is being tracked to, then you will not see any activity records captured or available for viewing.

To check if Activity tracking is enabled:

1. Go to Settings
2. then Activity and Tracking
3. and finally Record Activity (note that it can only be set on an organizational level and not by member)

You can also check if activity is enabled or disabled on a project level:

1. Go to Project Management
2. Click on the project you wish to check
3. Select Edit
4. Look for the toggle called Disable activity (When turned on, activity will be off for the project. When off, activity will be tracked)

Screenshot capture (frequency) is turned off in the settings

If screenshot frequency is set to “0” in the organization settings (either across the whole organization, or for particular members), then you will not see screenshots captured or showing.

To check if Screenshot capture is on:

1. Go to Settings
2. then Activity and Tracking
3. and finally Screenshots (It can be set on an organizational level or by member)

Brower is not supported by our URL tracking

The following browsers support URL tracking. If you are using a different browser and not seeing URL’s recorded and showing on the site, this would be the reason.

• Chrome
• Firefox
• Edge
• Internet Explorer (IE 11 must be updated to the latest version)
• Safari

The screenshots were deleted

If you are seeing time still in the timesheets, but no screenshots for that time frame (even though you remember seeing them there before), it may be that the screenshots were deleted. Only Owners/Managers can remove screenshots, but keep the time that was associated with them (Project Managers can also delete screenshots from time tracked to the projects they are a manager of). Users can remove blocks of activity (both the screenshot and the time associated), not just the screenshot.

Your computer or the timer application crashed

An abrupt shutdown of the Hubstaff Desktop Tracker could be triggered by various factors, the most common ones being:

• Unexpected system shutdowns due to power outages
• System reboots or shutdowns for updates
• Forced app closures from the Task Manager
• App closures initiated by system settings, such as firewall or antivirus actions

These abrupt shutdowns may cause the desktop app to crash or close improperly. As a result, when you restart the app, it will detect you as resumed, as no activity was being tracked, and automatically resume tracking since the timer wasn’t manually stopped. Any time recorded during this period following an abrupt shutdown will appear on your activity page as Resumed Time.

If you re-open the timer within 1 hour of the shutdown, you will be prompted with a choice to retain or discard the time it tracked. However, if the timer was resumed more than 1 hour after it shutdown, the time will be automatically discarded. If you are missing time and activity from your timesheet and recall having to start up the timer again during your work day even though you didn’t remember closing it, it may be because it was discarded under this scenario.