How to read the journal file from Revit

Autodesk Support

Jan 7, 2025

Products and versions covered

Issue:

How to troubleshoot Revit using the journals.

Causes:

Journal files recorded by Revit contain a wealth of information on what is happening in the program, and can be used for troubleshooting both when you have access to the system encountering the error, and when trying to troubleshoot a remote system.

Solution:

Getting Started

Before looking at the journal, make sure you have a clear understanding of what you are looking for.

For example: When working in Revit you do X, and Y happens, when you expected Z to happen.

In addition to having a clear understanding of what you are looking for, if there isn’t a specific error message to search for, make sure you know an approximate time frame to look within (so you can start searching in the right place).

Finding Journals

Journals are stored in the following folder (replace the 2025 with the version you are working with):

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 2025\Journals

Note: By default, the AppData folder is hidden in Windows. If you have trouble finding the journals folder, please review this document for information on how to Show hidden files and folders in Windows.

See the following link for more information on the Location of Revit journal file.

Reading Journals

The following video shows some of the information available within journals as well as guidance on how to learn more:

Documented Issues

The following video shows how to quickly search for documented issues using journals:

If you decide to use Notepad++ with the Analyze plugin as described in the video there is an updated version of the search XML attached to this article (See below).