Methods and systems of logging detected protection system related events affecting a protection system are disclosed. A determination is made as to whether a detected event itself or in combination with a previous detected event provides information relating to both a protection switching operation and a cause of the protection switching operation, and if so, a further determination is made as to whether the information relating to a protection switching operation indicates that the protection switching operation has occurred. If both of these conditions are satisfied, a log entry associated with the protection switching operation, or possibly an alarm for the protection switching operation, is recorded in an event log. In one embodiment, an event log entry is created for a detected protection switching operation and then updated to include information related to a subsequently detected event associated with the protection switching operation.