Admin log events

The audit log page has been replaced with a new audit and investigation page. For information about this change, go to Improved audit and investigation experience: What's new in Google Workspace

You can use the audit and investigation page to run searches related to Admin log events. There you can view a record of actions performed in your Google Admin console, such as when an administrator added a user or turned on a Google Workspace service. 

For a full list of services and activities that you can investigate, such as Google Drive or user activity, read through the data sources for 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.

Open the audit and investigation page

Access Admin log event data

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 investigationAdmin log events.

Filter the data

1. Access the Admin log event data as described above in Access Admin log event data.
2. Click Add a filter, and then select an attribute.
3. In the pop-up window, select an operatorselect a valueclick Apply.
4. (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.
5. Click Search.

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.

Attribute descriptions

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

Attribute	Description
Action(s)	Action(s) taken by the admin using the security investigation tool, or using an activity rule. For details about the actions an admin can take, go to Take action based on search results.
Actor	Email address of the user who performed the action. Instead of an email address, you might see:  License manager—If an admin action triggers a change to a user’s license Service account—If the action was performed by a service account admin Anonymous—If the action was performed by a service account admin
Actor group name	Group name of the actor
Actor organizational unit	Organizational unit of the actor
Additional information	Additional contextual information for the event
Begin date	Use Begin date and End date to filter events that include a specific begin and end date range, such as Chart Drilldown events. Note: To search for events within a date range, use the Date attribute.
Data source	The data source in investigation tool or alert source in alert center
Date	Date and time of the event (displayed in your browser's default time zone)
Device ID	ID of the device affected by this audit event. For example, if an admin wipes out a company-owned device, then this field captures the device ID.
Device type	Type of the device affected by this audit event. For example if an admin wipes out a company-owned device, then this field captures the device type
Domain name	The domain where the action occurred
End date	Use Begin date and End date to filter events that include a specific begin and end date range, such as Chart Drilldown events. Note: To search for events within a date range, use the Date attribute.
Event	The logged event action, such as Investigation Query or Activity Rule Creation.  Under Event value, the events are grouped by type, such as User Settings or Domain Settings. Most event values are self-explanatory. For example, Add Application, under Domain Settings, is a search value for an application that was added to your domain. You can search for events in the search box. Tip: If you have event values that you use often, pin those events to the top of the drop-down menu.
Google Workspace edition	Google Workspace edition for the admin (Actor) who performed the action
Group email	Email of the Google group affected by this activity
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.
Justification	If justification text was required for the action, explanation provided by the admin
Message ID	Message ID of the email message that's affected by this audit event
New value	New value of the setting in case it’s updated
Old value	Old value of the setting in case it’s updated
Resource ID(s)	ID(s) of one or more resources affected by the audit event
Resource name	Name of the resource affected by the audit event
Resource type	Type of the resource affected by the audit event
Search query	Query that is used to fetch or process data. For example, the query used in investigation tool search, when creating activity rules, or when creating email dump.
Setting name	Name of the updated setting
Setting org unit name	Settings in admin console can be scoped to an organizational unit. When a setting is updated and it’s scoped to an organizational unit, the organizational unit name is shown in this field.
Target	Target email address for the event. For example, the destination email address when creating an email monitor, or the verifier's email address when performing a bulk action in the investigation tool.
Total affected	Total number of entities that were affected by the audit event. For example, the number of users that were uploaded when bulk uploading users to a group, or the number of actions that were triggered as part of an activity rule trigger. This is a contextual field that depends on the event.
Total failed	Total number of failed operations. For example, the number of users that failed to upload when bulk uploading users to a group, or the number of actions that failed as part of an activity rule trigger. This is a contextual field that depends on the event.
User email	Email of the user who performed the action

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

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.

Create reporting rules

Go to Create and manage reporting rules.

When and how long is data available?

Go to Data retention and lag times.

Related topics

• Data sources for the audit and investigation page
• Chrome log events—Events and attributes