Occasionally, you might notice that URL visit records (the websites and pages being viewed while the Hubstaff time was tracking time) are missing from your account. This can be frustrating, but rest assured, there are usually logical explanations for this discrepancy. In this article, we’ll explore the most common reasons for missing URL records, along with steps to identify and resolve those issues.

Connectivity issues

If you are facing internet connectivity issues, an unstable connection, or slow upload speeds, this may be the reason why URL records are missing from your account. As soon as Hubstaff finds a good/stable internet connection all the queued data will get uploaded. URL records are not lost, they will get uploaded as soon as the app detects a stable internet connection. Recorded data is stored locally on the member’s computer prior to upload.

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.

The timer app being used doesn’t support URL visit tracking

You may be looking at your data on the site and be wondering why URL records are missing even though you were tracking time. Not all of our timer apps can record URL visits. If you need this 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 URL visits records (This also applies to screenshots and App records). To learn more, here is our guide: https://support.staging.hbstf.co/time-tracker-apps-overview/

Track App and URLs setting is off in the organization settings

If the Track apps & URLs setting is turned off in the organization settings (either across the whole organization, or for particular members), then you will not see URL records captured or showing.

To check if URL tracking is on:

1. Go to Settings
2. then Activity and Tracking
3. then Activity
4. Finally, select Track apps and URLs. You can set this at the organization level or individually for each member.

The project was archived

When projects are archived in Hubstaff, the URL records 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 URL records 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 URL records are also deleted along with it. When you delete time entries, all data is permanently removed from the server and cannot be restored. Please exercise caution when deleting time and activities in Hubstaff.

Time zone differences between the member and organization

Depending on the person viewing the data, the time zones may be different and may cause the viewer to see different data than someone else viewing the same time spans. This may create the false impression that URL visit records are missing entirely, while in reality they are just logged on a different date or time of day than what the viewer of the page is expecting.

It is important to note that while each person may see different information, the recorded data is not lost or incorrect, it is only adjusted based on what time zone the data is being viewed. We have a guide for this called Viewing your data in different time zones.

A common source of confusion is when URL records show up on a different day than expected.
This usually happens when a team member tracks time around midnight in their own or the organization’s time zone. For example, a New York–based company may have a team member working in Japan. If that person works U.S. business hours, they’ll log time before and after midnight in Japan. That split causes their URL visit records to span across two days.
However, if management views data in New York time, they’ll see all records on the same day.

The time was tracked as Idle Time

Idle time is any time that was tracked without activity of the mouse or keyboard. If you are missing URL visit records, it may be that this time was tracked as idle time and no URL records were recorded. Idle time starts being tracked when the timer application measures a period of time without mouse or keyboard activity that exceeds the organization’s setting for Idle timeout (which can be set to 5, 10, 20 minutes, custom, or never).