Looker Studio log events

Depending on your Google Workspace edition, you might have access to the security investigation tool, which has more advanced features. For example, super admins can identify, triage, and take action on security and privacy issues. Learn more

You must be a Looker Studio administrator to access data from this data source.

As your organization's administrator, you can run searches and take action on Looker Studio log events. You can view a record of actions to review actions taken on Looker Studio assets created by users in your organization. For example, you can see when a user viewed a report, created a new exploration, or shared a data source.

Creating an extracted data source also creates a data source export event for the data source being extracted.

For other services and activities, such as Google Drive and user activity, see the list of log events.

Note: The Looker Studio log events data source provides data for the previous 6 months. If you want to retain it for longer, you can export the log data.

Run a search for 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.

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 with an administrator account to the Google Admin console.

   If you aren’t using an administrator account, you can’t access the Admin console.

2. Go to Menu  Reporting > Audit and investigation > Looker Studio log events.

   Requires having the Reports administrator privilege.

3. Click Add a filterselect an attribute.
4. In the pop-up window, select an operatorselect a valueclick Apply.
   • (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.
   • (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

Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard and Frontline Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard and Education Plus; Enterprise Essentials Plus; Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your edition

To run a search in the security 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 with an administrator account to the Google Admin console.

   If you aren’t using an administrator account, you can’t access the Admin console.

2. Go to Menu  Security > Security center > Investigation tool.

   Requires having the Security center administrator privilege.

3. Click Data source and select Looker Studio 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.
6. Select 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 Save enter 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 give 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	Email address of the user who performed the action
Actor group name	The 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 appears. 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
Asset ID	ID of the asset where the logged action happened
Asset name	The name of the asset that was viewed or changed
Asset type	The type of asset where the logged action happened
Connector type	The type of connector used to fetch data for a data source asset
Current value	If settings are changed, this field shows the current value of the settings—for example, Can edit, Can view, Private, Public on the web, or Current team workspace ID. Note: This attribute will replace New value.
Data export type	The type or format of the data export in Looker Studio. Enter one of the following values: CSV CSV Excel (CSV in Excel format) Extracted data source Google Sheets
Date	Date and time of the event (displayed in your browser's default time zone)
Distribution content ID	The ID of the schedule or alert
Distribution content name	The name of the schedule or alert
Distribution content owner email	The email address for the owner of the schedule or alert. The schedule owner is its most recent editor. The alert owner is the alert creator.
Distribution content type	The type of content being distributed like schedule or alert
Embedded in report ID	ID of the report where the data source is embedded
Event	The logged event action, such as Create, Data Export, or Restore
IP address	Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the logged action. Usually reflects the user's physical location, but could be a proxy server or a virtual private network (VPN) address.
New value	If settings are changed, this field shows the new value of the settings—for example, Can edit, Can view, Private, or Public on the web.
Old value	If settings are changed, this field shows is the old value of the settings—for example, Can edit, Can view, Private, or Public on the web.
Owner	The owner of the asset
Parent Workspace ID	The team workspace for the asset.
Previous Value	If settings are changed, this field shows the previous value of the settings—for example, Can edit, Can view, Private, Public on the web, or Current team workspace ID.  Note: This attribute will replace Old value.
Prior visibility	Visibility of the Looker Studio asset before the activity
Project ID	The Google Cloud project ID that is associated with the Gemini in Looker enablement.
Setting name	The name of the Gemini in Looker setting. Select one of the following values: Gemini enablement Trusted Tester data use enablement Trusted Tester feature use enablement
Target	When changing user access, this field captures the target users or groups that this access change applies to
Target domain	If link visibility is changed, this field captures the domains that have access to the link. For example, enter the domain for your organization if the link is shared within your domain, or enter all if the link has public access.
Visibility	Visibility of the Looker Studio asset associated with the activity

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].

Export Looker Studio log event data to BigQuery

If allowed, you can export Looker Studio log events data to Google BigQuery. To export, you'll need to:

• Set up a BigQuery project for reporting logs
• Set up BigQuery logs in the Admin console

Learn more about reporting logs and BigQuery.

Set up email alerts

You can easily track specific Looker Studio activities by setting up alerts. For example, get an alert whenever someone creates or deletes a report.

1. Open the log events as described above in Open Looker Studio log event data.
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, go to Administrator email alerts.

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 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:

• The total results of the export are limited to 100,000 rows.
• Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard and Frontline Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard and Education Plus; Enterprise Essentials Plus; Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your edition

  If you have the security investigation tool, the total results of the export are limited to 30 million 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

• You can set up alerts based on log event data using reporting rules. For instructions, see Create and manage reporting rules.
• Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard and Frontline Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard and Education Plus; Enterprise Essentials Plus; Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your edition

  To help prevent, detect, and remediate security issues efficiently, you can automate actions in the security 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.

Take action based on search results

Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard and Frontline Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard and Education Plus; Enterprise Essentials Plus; Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your edition

After you run a search in the security 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 tool to delete specific messages, send messages to quarantine, or send messages to users' inboxes. For more details, go to Take action based on search results.

Manage your investigations

Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard and Frontline Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard and Education Plus; Enterprise Essentials Plus; Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your edition

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 & 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

• About the audit and investigation tool
• Chrome log events—Events and attributes

Related topics for security center

• 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 users across data sources