This article is for administrators. To manage your own groups, visit the Google Groups help.
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, removal, and banning—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 or banned, the audit log also shows who removed or banned them and when.
- User invitations and join request approvals—You can verify whether a user received an invitation to join a group and whether the invitation was accepted or denied. You can also track whether a user’s request to join a group was approved or denied.
- 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.
- Other settings—When other settings are changed, the audit log provides details about the changes.
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.
Open the Groups audit log
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Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).
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From the Admin console Home page, go to Reports.
- On the left, under Audit, click Groups.
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(Optional) To customize what you review, on the right, click Manage columns
, select the columns that you want to see or hide, and click Save.
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(Optional) Review ways to filter and export log data and create alerts.
Data you can view
| Data Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Event name | The action that was logged, such as adding or deleting calendars, events, guests, or subscriptions to event reminders and notifications. |
| Event description | Details of the event described in the Activity name field. |
| User | User who triggered the logged action. |
| Date | Date the logged action occurred. |
Event names
At Add a filter, select an Event name to filter data for that event. The audit report shows log entries for each time the particular event occurred during the time range that you set. Most event names are self-explanatory.
When and how long is data available?
Go to Data retention and lag times.
