Admin log events (original) (raw)

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Admin log events

View administrator activity in the Admin console

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

Important: Google Workspace is updating the schema and event modeling for several log events. The improvements aim to make the logs more understandable, detailed, and precise.

If you are using any legacy events, some of the updates might require changes to your existing queries, alerts, and reports. Both the new and old events will continue to be available for you to make the necessary changes. For details, go to Admin Log events changes.

As your organization's administrator, you can run searches and take action on security issues related to Admin log events. For example, 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.

Forward log event data to Google Cloud

You can opt in to share 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.

The type of log event data you can share with Google Cloud depends on your Google Workspace, Cloud Identity, or Essentials account.

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. In the Google Admin console, go to Menu and then Reporting and then Audit and investigation and then Admin log events.
    Requires having the Audit & Investigation administrator privilege.
  2. To filter events that occurred before or after a specific date, for Date, select Before or After. By default, events from the last 7 days are shown. You can select a different date range or click to remove the date filter.
  3. Click Add a filter and then select an attribute. For example, to filter by a specific event type, select Event.
  4. Select an operator and then select a value and then click 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.
  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.

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. In the Google Admin console, go to Menu and then Security and then Security center and then Investigation tool.
    Requires having the Security center administrator privilege.
  2. Click Data source and select Admin log events.
  3. To filter events that occurred before or after a specific date, for Date, select Before or After. By default, events from the last 7 days are shown. You can select a different date range or click to remove the date filter.
  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 Attribute and then select an option. For example, to filter by a specific event type, select Event.
    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 the steps.
  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 and then enter a title and description and then click Save.

Notes

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 application name You need to add this column to the search results. For the steps, go to Manage search results column data. Details about the application used to perform the action. To review the following information, click the name in the search results: Actor application name—Name of the application used to perform the action (populated for third-party apps and for some first-party apps, such as Gmail) Actor OAuth client ID—Identifier for the third-party app used to perform the action Impersonation—Whether the app was impersonating a user If you export the information to a comma-separated values (CSV) file or Google Sheets, the information is saved as a single block of text within a cell.
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
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.
IP ASN You need to add this column to the search results. For the steps, go to Manage search results column data. IP Autonomous System Number (ASN), subdivision, and region associated with the log entry. To review the IP ASN and subdivision and region code where the activity happened, click the name in the search results.
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
Resources List of resources associated with the action. Click a resource to view the following details: Resource ID—The resource identifier Resource title—Title of the resource Resource type—Google Drive item, email, alert, rule, and so on Resource relation—Relationship of the resource to the event Resource label—List of classification labels for a resource, including Resource label ID, Resource label title, and Resource label field. The Resource label field contains the: Label field ID Label field name Label field type—The data type of the label field, such as: Text Number Selection—Included: ID, Display name, Is badged Selection list User—Included: Email User list Date If you export the information to a comma-separated values (CSV) file or Google Sheets, the information is saved as a single block of text within a cell.
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 Category Category of the updated setting
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

* You cannot create reporting rules with these filters. Learn more about reporting rules versus activity rules.

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 OldName@example.com to_NewName@example.com_, you will not see results for events related to_OldName@example.com_.

Manage log event data

Manage search results column data

Export search result data

You can export search results to Sheets or to a CSV file.

  1. At the top of the search results table, click Export all.
  2. Enter a name and then 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 Sheets.

Export limits vary:

For more information, go to Export search results.

When and how long is data available?

Take action based on search results

Create activity rules & set up alerts

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: You can view your saved investigations under Quick access, directly above your list of investigations.

Configure settings for your investigations

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Last updated 2026-04-09 UTC.