Groups audit log

You can track changes to groups, group memberships, and group messages for users in your organization using the Google Groups audit log. You can also troubleshoot when users in your domain notice discrepancies and unexpected changes to their group activities. Entries usually appear within half an hour of the user action.

Types of changes you can track

• Group creation and deletion—You can verify that a group exists and was not recently deleted.
• Member addition and removal—If a user didn't receive a group message, you can check the audit log to see if the user is a group member. If the user was removed, the audit log also shows who removed them and when.
• Group posting permission changes—Users may unexpectedly receive a bounce message saying that they're not permitted to post. The audit log shows any changes to the posting permissions that would prevent the user to post.
• Spam moderation settings—If messages are sent to the moderation queue instead of being posted, the audit log will show if message moderation was a recent settings change.

The Groups audit log is only for the Google Groups interface. It logs both user and admin actions executed using the Google Groups interface. Google Groups actions performed by administrators using the Admin console or the Admin SDK directory API are only logged in the Admin audit logs.

Step 1: Open your Groups audit log

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

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

2. From the Admin console Home page, go to Reports.

   To see Reports, you might have to click More controls at the bottom.

3. On the left, under Audit, click Groups.
4. (Optional) Next to the columns, click Manage columns and select the columns that you want to see or hide.

Step 2: Understand Groups audit log data

Step 3: Customize and export your audit log data

Filter the audit log data by user or activity

You can narrow your audit log to show specific events or users. For example, find all log events for when users created or deleted a group, or find all group activity for a particular user.

1. Open your Groups audit log as shown above.
2. Click Add a filter.
3. Select and enter the criteria for your filter and if needed, click Apply.
4. (Optional) To filter by organizational unit, at the top right, click Organization filter, select the organizational unit, and click Apply.
5. (Optional) To specify a date range to search, click Date range and select a period from the list or enter a start and end date and time. If needed, click Apply.

Filter by organizational unit

You can filter by organizational unit to compare statistics between child organizations in a domain.

1. Open your Groups audit log as shown above.
2. At the top, click Organization filter.
3. Select an organizational unit and click Apply.

Filter by date

1. At the top, click Date range.
2. Select a period from the list or enter a start and end date and time.
3. If needed, click Apply.

You can only filter the current organizational unit hierarchy, even when searching for older data. Data before December 20, 2018 will not appear in the filtered results.

Step 4: Set up email alerts

Track specific Groups activities by setting up alerts. For example, get an alert whenever someone creates or deletes a group.

Note: To get alerts on group-related actions performed in the Admin console, set up a custom alert in your admin audit log.

1. Open your Groups audit log as shown above.
2. Click Add a filter.
3. Enter or select the criteria for your filter and click Create Alert.
4. Enter a name for the alert.
5. (Optional) To send the alert to all super administrators, under Recipients, click Turn on .
6. Enter the email addresses of alert recipients.
7. Click Create.

To edit your custom alerts, see Administrator email alerts.