User log events

As your organization's administrator, you can run searches and take action on User log events. For example, you can check critical actions carried out by users on their own accounts. These actions include changes to passwords, account recovery details (telephone numbers, email addresses), and 2-Step Verification enrollment. A login from an email client or a non-browser application is not logged in this report unless it’s a programmatic login from a session that was considered suspicious.

Note: If there’s no data for user log events during the previous 6 months, User log events might not be displayed in the left navigation menu.

Your access to log events

• Your ability to run a search depends on your Google edition, your administrative privileges, and the data source. You can run a search on all users, regardless of their Google Workspace edition.
• Your Workspace subscription provides access to the log events using either the Audit & investigation tool or the Security center. 
  • Premium Google Workspace editions (Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Standard, or Education Plus) provide access to the Security Center and the more advanced features of the security investigation tool. The investigation tool enables super admins to identify, triage, and take action on security and privacy issues. For details, see About the security investigation tool.
  • All other Google Workspace editions can access the logs using the Audit and Investigation tool. For details, see About the audit and investigation page.

Forward log event data to Google Cloud

You can opt in to share the log event data with Google Cloud. If you turn on sharing, data is forwarded to Cloud Logging where you can query and view your logs and control how you route and store your logs.

Run a search for log events

Audit and investigation tool

To run a search for log events, first choose a data source. Then choose one or more filters for your search.

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. On the left, click ReportingAudit and investigationUser log events.
3. Click Add a filter, and then select an attribute.
4. In the pop-up window, select an operatorselect a valueclick Apply.
   (Optional) To create multiple filters for your search:

   1. Click Add a filter and repeat step 3.
   2. (Optional) To add a search operator, above Add a filter, select AND or OR.
   • (Optional) To create multiple filters for your search, repeat this step.
   • (Optional) To add a search operator, above Add a filter, select AND or OR
5. Click Search.

6. Note: Using the Filter tab, you can include simple parameter and value pairs to filter the search results. You can also use the Condition builder tab, where the filters are represented as conditions with AND/OR operators.

Security investigation tool

Requires a premium Google Workspace edition (Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Standard, or Education Plus)

To run a search in the investigation tool, first choose a data source. Then choose one or more conditions for your search. For each condition, choose an attribute, an operator, and a value. 

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  SecuritySecurity centerInvestigation tool.
3. Click Data source and select User log events.
4. Click Add Condition.
   Tip: You can include one or more conditions in your search or customize your search with nested queries. For details, go to Customize your search with nested queries.
5. Click Attributeselect an option.
   For a complete list of attributes, go to the Attribute descriptions section (later on this page).
6. Click Containsselect an operator.
7. Enter a value or select a value from the list.
8. (Optional) To add more search conditions, repeat steps 4–7.
9. Click Search.
   You can review the search results from the investigation tool in a table at the bottom of the page.
10. (Optional) To save your investigation, click Saveenter a title and descriptionclick Save.

Notes

• In the Condition builder tab, filters are represented as conditions with AND/OR operators. You can also use the Filter tab to include simple parameter and value pairs to filter the search results.
• If you gave a user a new name, you will not see query results with the user's old name. For example, if you rename [e-mail] to [e-mail], you will not see results for events related to [e-mail].

Attribute descriptions

For this data source, you can use the following attributes when searching log event data:

Attribute	Description
Actor group name	Group name of the actor. For more information, go to Filtering results by Google Group. To add a group to your filtering groups allowlist: Select Actor group name. Click Filtering groups. The Filtering groups page displays. Click Add Groups. Search for a group by entering the first few characters of its name or email address. When you see the group you want, select it. (Optional) To add another group, search for and select the group. When you finish selecting groups, click Add. (Optional) To remove a group, click Remove group . Click Save.
Actor organizational unit	Organizational unit of the actor
Affected user	Email address of the affected user
Challenge type*	The type of challenge used to verify the user, such as Password or Security Key
Date	Date and time of the event (displayed in your browser's default time zone)
Domain*	The domain where the action occurred
Email forwarding address	Email address to forward the Gmail messages to
Event	The logged event action, such as 2-step verification enroll or Suspicious login Note: For the Logout event, even if the user signed in with login types other than Google Password, (such as Exchange, Reauth, SAML, or Unknown), the Login type for Logout events is displayed as Google Password.
IP address	IP address that the user used to sign in. Usually the address is the user's physical location, but it can be a proxy server or a Virtual Private Network (VPN) address.
Is second factor*	True if the user signed in with 2-factor authentication  False if the user didn't sign in with 2-factor authentication
Is suspicious*	True if the sign-in attempt was suspicious, otherwise false. Applicable only to the login_success event
Login time	Date and time the user signed in
Login type	Authentication method the user used: Exchange—When a user is authenticated by token exchange, such as via an OAuth login. It might also indicate the user was already signed in to a session when they signed in to another, and the 2 sessions were merged Google Password—Used a Google password. Includes sign-ins to less secure apps (if allowed) OIDC—Authentication by single sign-on OpenID Connect (OIDC). Reauth—User authenticated with a password re-authentication request SAML—Authentication by single sign-on Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) Unknown—User signed in using an unknown method
User	Email address of the user who performed the action

* You cannot create reporting rules with these filters. Learn more about reporting rules versus activity rules.

Note: If you gave a user a new name, you will not see query results with the user's old name. For example, if you rename [e-mail] to [e-mail], you will not see results for events related to [e-mail].

Manage log event data

Manage search results column data

You can control which data columns appear in your search results.

1. At the top-right of the search results table, click Manage columns .
2. (Optional) To remove current columns, click Remove .
3. (Optional) To add columns, next to Add new column, click the Down arrow  and select the data column.
   Repeat as needed.
4. (Optional) To change the order of the columns, drag the data column names.
5. Click Save.

Export search result data

You can export search results in the investigation tool to Google Sheets or to a CSV file.

1. At the top of the search results table, click Export all.
2. Enter a name  click Export.
   The export displays below the search results table under Export action results.
3. To view the data, click the name of your export.
   The export opens in Google Sheets.

Export limits vary depending on your Google Workspace edition:

• Premium edition (Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Standard, or Education Plus)—The total results of the export are limited to 30 million rows (except for Gmail message searches, which are limited to 10,000 rows).
• All other Google Workspace editions—The total results of the export are limited to 100,000 rows (except for Gmail message searches, which are limited to 10,000 rows).

For more information, see Export search results.

When and how long is data available?

Go to Data retention and lag times.

Take action based on search results

Create activity rules & set up alerts

Rules and alert features vary depending on your Google Workspace edition:

Premium editions (Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Standard, or Education Plus)—To help prevent, detect, and remediate security issues efficiently, you can automate actions in the investigation tool and set up alerts by creating activity rules. To set up a rule, set up conditions for the rule, and then specify what actions to perform when the conditions are met. For details and instructions, see Create and manage activity rules.

All other Google Workspace editions—You can set up alerts based on log event data using reporting rules. For instructions, see Create and manage reporting rules.

Take action based on search results

 Requires a premium Google Workspace edition (Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Standard, or Education Plus)

After you run a search in the investigation tool, you can act on your search results. For example, you can run a search based on Gmail log events, and then use the investigation tool to delete specific messages, send messages to quarantine, or send messages to users' inboxes. For more details about actions in the investigation tool, go to Take action based on search results.

Manage your investigations

 Requires a premium Google Workspace edition (Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Standard, or Education Plus)

View your list of investigations

To view a list of the investigations that you own and that were shared with you, click View investigations. The investigation list includes the names, descriptions, and owners of the investigations, and the date last modified. 

From this list, you can take action on any investigations that you own—for example, to delete an investigation. Check the box for an investigation, and then click Actions.

Note: Directly above your list of investigations, under Quick access, you can view recently saved investigations.

Configure settings for your investigations

As a super administrator, click Settings to :

• Change the time zone for your investigations. The time zone applies to search conditions and results.
• Turn on or off Require reviewer. For more details, go to Require reviewers for bulk actions.
• Turn on or off View content. This setting allows admins with the appropriate privileges to view content.
• Turn on or off Enable action justification.

For instructions and details, go to Configure settings for your investigations.

Share, delete, and duplicate investigations

To save your search criteria or share it with others, you can create and save an investigation, and then share, duplicate, or delete it.

For details, go to Save, share, delete, and duplicate investigations.

Related topics for security center

The following features require a  premium Google Workspace edition (Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Standard, or Education Plus)

• Start an investigation based on a dashboard chart
• Create a custom chart based on an investigation
• Start an investigation from the alert center
• Investigate reports of malicious emails
• Investigate file sharing
• Investigate a user across data sources