WARNING: The Admin Activity Log table has over 50,000 records and should be archived

I am receiving this error message:
WARNING: The Admin Activity Log table has over 50,000 records and should be archived to conserve space ... 51420

Will resetting the admin activity log do any damage to the website?

Ann

No damage will be done! Your admin is just letting you know that the activity_log table in the database should be reset to cut down on the database size.

First, use the top portion of Admin Access Management->Admin Activity Logs to save the current log contents. I'd suggest choosing "All log data" from the first dropdown (new in Zen Cart v1.5.4!) and the CSV file format from the 2nd one, leave the filename as the default and then either save the file to your admin's /backup folder or on your own computer.

Once the current contents are saved, use the "reset" button towards the bottom of that screen to reset the activity-log table itself.

What does this actually delete? Surely not the actual records.

Yes, the actual records are deleted. That's why you need to "save" the information in either an CSV (my preference) or HTML prior to doing that reset.

And by "actual records" what is deleted is the history of what has been done, not the order history, not the customer records, not your products, etc... just the data in the activity_log table.

By storing the data, you have something to which to reference if asked a question about the history of operations on the site whether for yourself or by others. By deleting the records then space is returned to the database to do other things and to free up resources.