question how to delete/modify/edit Work Notes in ITOM forum

how to delete/modify/edit Work Notes

jlackman — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 17:56:49 GMT

I'm new to this system, so please bear with me for this simple question. I'm trying to figure out if I can DELETE/Modify/Edit "work notes" that I attach to a Ticket.

I've looked through the Wiki and online documentation and cannot find any way mentioned to do this.

Example; I add "work notes" to the WRONG ticket, so I want to go back and remove them.

JL

Re: how to delete/modify/edit Work Notes

Mark Stanger — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 22:30:22 GMT

You can do this as an admin. Check out this post from SNGuru.com

http://www.servicenowguru.com/system-definition/remove-activity-log-journal-entries/

Re: how to delete/modify/edit Work Notes

puffysleaves — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 00:03:55 GMT

Here's another community post that I generally follow: Edit activity log additional comments

Here's what it says:

by Tony Manino on Aug 9, 2014 9:29 PM

The text still shows in the activity history of the record because it is actually displaying history entries constructed from the sys_audittable. You need to remove the text from sys_journal_field first, where the current entry is actually kept. Then remove it from sys_audit, and finally remove the sys_history_set record. When the task record is displayed again, the history records will be rebuilt with the updated journal entries.

The procedure below will work. Practice on another instance before you do this in production, and exercise caution. You will need to use an admin account.

SEI is "sensitive electronic information," i.e. something you don't want exposed for everyone to see.

1 Obtain the sys_id of the record

Open the record containing the insecure SEI.
Right-click in the record header, and choose Copy sys_id.

2 Remove from sys_journal_field

Use this URI to query the journal entries: https://your-instance.service-now.com/sys_journal_field_list.do?sysparm_query=element_id=sys_id
- Replace sys_id with the sys_id of the record.
- Replace your-instance with your instance name.

If there are a lot of records, you may want to refine the query, adding a "Value contains SEI" condition. Replace SEI with the text you seek.

Edit the Value field of each record to remove the SEI.

3 Remove from sys_audit

Use this URI to query the audit entries: https://your-instance.service-now.com/sys_audit_list.do?sysparm_query=documentkey=sys_id
- Replace sys_id with the sys_id of the record.
- Replace your-instance with your instance name.

It may be helpful to add conditions to the query for "Old value contains SEI" OR "New value contains SEI".

Edit the text of the Old value and New value fields, removing the SEI.

4 Delete the sys_history_set record

Query the sys_history_set table using this URI: https://your-instance.service-now.com/sys_history_set_list.do?sysparm_query=id=sys_id
- Replace sys_id with the sys_id of the record.
- Replace your-instance with your instance name.
Delete the record that is returned.

Re: how to delete/modify/edit Work Notes

marwel — Wed, 17 Aug 2022 15:48:11 GMT

This is an instruction from Now Support - https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0520375

Right-click on the record and select Copy URL to Clipboard to obtain the unique sys_id of the record. For example: https://<instance name>service-now.com/nav_to.do?uri=incident.do?sys_id=85befb1c4a34bb12013b216a9fd5fee8
Copy the sys_id. In the URL example above, the sys_id is: 85befb1c4a34bb12013b216a9fd5fee8.
Update the Journal Entry:
1. Enter the journal entry URL + the sys_id. For example: https://<instance name>.service-now.com/sys_journal_field_list.do?sysparm_query=element_id=85befb1c4a34bb12013b216a9fd5fee8
2. Locate the journal entry.
3. Modify the record and update or delete the record.
Update the Audit Entry:
1. Enter the audit entry URL + the sys_id. For example: https://<instance name>.service-now.com/sys_audit_list.do?sysparm_query=documentkey=85befb1c4a34bb12013b216a9fd5fee8
2. Locate the audit entry.
3. Modify the record and update or delete the record.
Rebuild the History Set. This is only required when you do not use direct auditing and the System Property [glide.sys.activity_using_audit_direct] is set to false (= default value (this is the value used if the System Property does not exist on the instance).
1. Locate all History Set records for the item whose history needs to be rebuilt by entering the history set URL + the sys_id. For example: https://<instance name>.service-now.com/sys_history_set_list.do?sysparm_query=id=85befb1c4a34bb12013b216a9fd5fee8
2. Click the Delete button for each History Set. This will delete the History Set, not the audit data. The History Set will be rebuilt with the corrected audit and journal information as soon as a user views the item.
Update the Email Entry:
1. Enter the email entry URL + the sys_id. For example: https://<instance name>.service-now.com/sys_email_list.do?sysparm_query=instance=85befb1c4a34bb12013b216a9fd5fee8
2. Locate the email entry.
3. Modify the record and update or delete the record.

BR Marcin

Re: how to delete/modify/edit Work Notes

Community Alums — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 17:51:19 GMT

Hi ,

first i deleted sys_history_set comment record, then deleted record

sys_journal_field, and sys_audit respectively, but comment was not deleted from incident comment, plaese anyone help me how delete comment in incident record

Re: how to delete/modify/edit Work Notes

MohammedAsK — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 13:30:15 GMT

Had the same issue, but i was able to do it through a small script.
First delete from sys_journal_field

Then delete from sys_audit_list

If you're able to, delete from sys_hystory_list
If the record is greyed for delete, then open the entry which contains the comment, Use the script to delete this record.

var gr = new GlideRecord('sys_history_line'); gr.addQuery('sys_id', 'SYS_ID_OF_RECORD'); gr.query(); while(gr.next()){ for(var key in gr){ gs.info("Key: " + key + " val: " + gr[key]); } gs.info(gr.deleteRecord()); } gs.info("END");

Re: how to delete/modify/edit Work Notes

gazalagrawa — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 10:37:18 GMT

were you able to resolve it? Did you find history set table? I have same requirement but unable to delete.