Deleting or editing a bad comment or work note from a record

Description

A comment or work note containing sensitive information needs to be edited or deleted from a record.

Release: All releases but not Express customers.

Solution

Update the journal entry in the [sys_journal_field] table and the audit entry in the [sys_audit] table. Please note that attempting to view the entire [sys_audit] table can result in a large number of records and can seriously damage the instances performance during the attempted query. Please follow the instructions below to locate the individual entries:

1. 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

2. Copy the sys_id. In the URL example above, the sys_id is: 85befb1c4a34bb12013b216a9fd5fee8.

3. 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.

4. 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 journal entry.

   3. Modify the record and update or delete the record.

5. Rebuild the History Set. This is only required when you do not use direct auditing and the property glide.sys.activity_using_audit_direct is set to false.

   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

Note: In cases where source of sensitive information is an email (or is recorded in an outbound email), you will need to perform bellow step to remove it.

6. 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.