Looker Studio log events

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.

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 investigationLooker Studio 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 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 (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	Email address of the user who performed the action
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
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)
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
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 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

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

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