Step-by-Step Guide to Activating Activity Feeds in Your CRM
You can easily enable Activity Feeds in your CRM, especially within Microsoft Dynamics 365, with just a few clicks. When you enable Activity Feeds, your team receives instant updates about shares, sign-ups, and rewards. These feeds help you identify top advocates, monitor referrals, and launch targeted campaigns. By enabling Activity Feeds, you keep everyone informed and encourage greater participation, as brands with strong engagement retain more users. Follow each step carefully and review the details that best fit your system.
Key Takeaways
Activity Feeds help your team see updates right away. They help everyone stay in touch inside your CRM.
You need the right permissions to turn on Activity Feeds. You also need to use user-owned entities.
To turn on Activity Feeds, pick the entities you want. Then turn on posts and follow features. After that, publish your changes.
Make rules and change settings to control how activities show. You can also choose who can interact with them.
If Activity Feeds do not show or notifications do not work, check your permissions. Look at your settings and follow steps to fix problems.
Overview
What Are Activity Feeds
Activity feeds in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM work like a social media stream inside your business tools. You see updates about important changes, such as when someone creates or updates a record. You can follow records that matter to you, like projects or accounts. When you follow a record, you get updates on your personal wall, called "What's New." You also see posts on each record’s wall.
Here’s what you can do with activity feeds:
See a stream of posts about changes and updates in your CRM.
Follow records to get updates that matter to you.
Like, comment, or mention other users and records in posts.
View all posts about records you follow in one place.
Use advanced search to find posts, comments, or likes.
Only see posts for records you have permission to view.
Tip: Activity feeds help you stay in the loop without searching through emails or reports.
Benefits
You get many benefits when you use activity feeds in your CRM. These feeds make teamwork easier and help you stay organized.
Stay updated with real-time changes, so you never miss important news.
Work together with your team by commenting and liking posts.
Find updates quickly because all posts about records you follow appear on your wall.
Save time by seeing everything in one place instead of checking each record.
Use mentions to get someone’s attention or highlight a record.
Boost engagement, since everyone can see and react to updates right away.
Note: When you enable activity feeds, you make it simple for everyone to share and respond to updates, which helps your team work better together.
Prerequisites
Permissions
Check your permissions before you begin. Not everyone can change Activity Feeds settings in Microsoft Dynamics 365. Here are some things to remember:
You do not need to be a system administrator to view the Post Configurations grid.
You must have administrator permissions to change which entities use Activity Feeds.
Only administrators can turn Activity Feeds on or off for entities or refresh the list.
To connect Yammer with Activity Feeds, you need the System Administrator security role in both Dynamics 365 and Yammer.
After making changes, open a new tab or window to see the updates.
Tip: If you cannot find the settings, ask your system administrator for help.
Supported Entities
You can only turn on Activity Feeds for certain records, called entities. In Dynamics 365, Activity Feeds work with user-owned entities by default. These are records that belong to one user, like Account or Case. Organization-owned entities, like Team or Campaign, do not work with Activity Feeds. If you make a custom entity, it must be user-owned to use Activity Feeds. For example, you can turn on feeds for a custom entity called "Group" if it is user-owned.
Note: If you try to turn on Activity Feeds for an organization-owned entity, you will not see the option.
CRM Version
Check if your CRM version supports Activity Feeds. Most new versions of Microsoft Dynamics 365 have this feature. If you use an old version, you may need to update your system. You can check your version in the About section in CRM settings. If you see the Activity Feeds option, you are ready.
Checking your version first saves time and helps you avoid problems during setup.
Enable Activity Feeds
Access Settings
First, you need to find the right spot in Microsoft Dynamics 365. Open your CRM and go to the main menu. Look for Settings. Under Settings, find Activity Feeds Configuration. This is where you pick which records show updates in your activity feeds.
Tip: If you cannot find Activity Feeds Configuration, you may need more permissions. Ask your system administrator for help.
Select Entities
Next, you choose which records, or entities, will show updates in the feed. Here is how you do it:
Make sure the entity you want is set up for activities. Activity feeds only work if activities are turned on.
Save and publish any changes you made to custom entities before starting.
In Activity Feeds Configuration, you see a list of entities. If your entity is missing, use the Refresh button.
Find the entity you want. If it is not active, select it.
Click Activate to turn on activity feeds for that entity.
Say yes when the system asks if you are sure.
Wait for the activation to finish.
Publish all customizations again to make sure your changes work.
Note: You cannot turn on activity feeds for organization-owned entities. Only user-owned entities, like Account or Case, can use this feature.
Activate Feature
After you pick your entities, you need to turn on the features that make activity feeds work. Here is what you do:
Check that Notes and Activities are turned on for your chosen entity in the Customizations area.
In Activity Feeds Configuration, pick your entity again.
Turn on the Posts and Follow/Unfollow features. This lets users follow records and see updates.
Open the main form for your entity. Publish it to save your changes.
Edit the form properties to make sure posts show up on the timeline.
Create a dashboard and add the timeline control. This shows all activities and posts for records you follow.
When you open a record, look for the Follow and Unfollow buttons on the ribbon. These buttons mean activity feeds are working.
If you know more about CRM, you can check the msdyn_PostConfig entity and the StateCode attribute to see which entities have activity feeds turned on.
Configure Rules
You can make your activity feeds better by setting up some rules and options. Here are some ways to change your setup:
Add important entities like Appointment, Email, Phone Call, Task, and any custom activity types you use.
In the widget settings, set the title, pick how users add or edit activities (popup or new page), and choose the main activity type.
Decide which activity types show up. You can turn some on or off and even pick icons for each type.
Set permissions so users can create, edit, or delete activities as needed.
Let users filter activities by type with a dropdown checklist.
Choose if activity descriptions show as plain text or HTML for richer content.
Link forms for adding, editing, or deleting activities to the widget, so users have the right tools.
Use Rules Manager or custom scripts to control when the activity feed widget appears.
Tip: For big teams, plan your security and data retention early. This keeps your system fast and easy to use as your business grows.
When you turn on activity feeds and set up these rules, you help your team stay organized and informed. Everyone can see updates, comment, and work together in real time.
Verify Activity Feeds
Check Feed Visibility
After you turn on Activity Feeds, you need to check if they work. Here is how you can see if the feeds show up in Microsoft Dynamics 365:
Turn on the 'Follow' feature for your custom entity. Make sure it says 'Active'.
Click 'Activate' in the popup window to confirm.
When asked, publish changes to the entity form wall.
Go to the entity you changed, like 'Staff'. You should see new views made by the system.
Open a record in that entity. Look for 'Follow' and 'Unfollow' buttons in the command bar. If you see these, your activity feeds are working.
Tip: If you do not see the buttons, check your permissions. Also, make sure you published all your changes.
Test Posts and Notifications
Now, you should test if posts and notifications work for your team. Here is an easy way to do this:
Add the Activity Feeds solution from the Dynamics Marketplace if you do not have it.
Publish your customizations. This step turns on the 'What’s New' menu in your CRM.
Go to Settings, then Activity Feeds Configuration. Make Post Configuration records for each entity you want to use with activity feeds.
Use the logical name of the entity, like 'systemuser', when you set up these records.
Check the box to turn on walls for this type of record form. Publish your changes.
If your entity has more than one form, add the Record Wall web part to each form.
Set up Auto Posts rules in the Activity Feeds Rules menu. This lets the system make posts when certain things happen, like qualifying a lead or routing a case.
Note: For custom Auto Posts, you might need to use workflows or plug-ins. You cannot make new Post Rule Configuration records through the user interface.
You can see how well your activity feeds work by tracking some important numbers. Here is a table to help you:
When you turn on Activity Feeds and test them, your team can stay connected and informed. If you see posts and notifications show up, your setup worked.
Troubleshooting
Feed Not Showing
Sometimes, you might not see activity feeds where you want. This can happen for a few reasons:
The timeline control in Dynamics 365 can only handle a certain number of link entities. If you add too many custom activities or use card forms for custom activities, you might reach this limit. When this happens, the feed will not show, and you might see an error.
Adding extra activities with customizations can make you go over the limit. Try taking out custom activities you do not need from the timeline.
If you need more link entities, you can ask Microsoft support to raise the QueryLinkEntityLimit for your organization.
Turning off card forms for custom activities can also help lower the number of link entities.
Tip: Always check if your entity is set up right in Activity Feeds Configuration. Make sure you published all changes after you turn on Activity Feeds.
Access Issues
If you or your team cannot get to activity feeds, try these steps:
Check if the activity monitor for automatic record creation is turned on. This helps you see if rules are working.
Make sure rules for automatic record creation are set up and active. Use Power Automate flows for new rules and old workflows for older setups.
Check that records go to the right owner’s queue, especially for emails.
Do not add customizations to Customer Service Hub site maps, as these can cause problems.
Run health checks with the Solution Health Hub app. Look at the results and fix any issues it finds.
Note: Security roles are important. Users need the right privileges, like 'Append To' rights, to follow records and see posts.
Notification Problems
You might see that some users get notifications but others do not, even with the same settings. This can happen because of user settings or system problems. Sometimes, notifications do not show up because:
Auto-post workflows are not set up for important events.
Users are not following the right records or people.
Mentions are not used, so important messages get missed.
Too many notifications can make users miss key updates.
Notification settings may not be the same for everyone.
Try checking notification settings and ask your team to follow important records and use mentions. This helps everyone stay updated.
You can turn on Activity Feeds in Microsoft Dynamics 365 by doing these steps: First, go to Settings and find Activity Feeds Configuration. Next, refresh the list and choose your entity. Then, activate the feature and say yes to confirm. After that, publish your changes and clear your browser cache. If you have problems, use the troubleshooting tips above or look at your CRM documentation. Activity feeds let your team share updates, add notes, and work together right away. This helps everyone know what is happening and make fast choices.
FAQ
How do I know if Activity Feeds are working?
You can check for the "Follow" and "Unfollow" buttons on your record’s page. If you see posts showing up in the timeline, your Activity Feeds work. Try following a record and watch for updates.
Can I turn off Activity Feeds for just one entity?
Yes! Go to Settings > Activity Feeds Configuration. Find the entity you want, then click "Deactivate." This stops Activity Feeds for that entity only. Other entities keep their feeds active.
Why can’t I see the Activity Feeds option in my CRM?
You might not have the right permissions. Ask your system administrator to check your security role. Sometimes, your CRM version may not support Activity Feeds. Look in the About section to confirm your version.
What should I do if notifications are missing?
Tip: First, make sure you follow the right records. Check your notification settings. If you still miss updates, ask your admin to review workflows and auto-post rules. Sometimes, a quick refresh or publishing changes helps.