How to Investigate Google Takeout Activity With the Google Workspace Takeout Audit Log

Quick and easy-to-follow guide for Google Workspace administrators

What is the Google Takeout Audit Log feature in Google Workspace

The Takeout audit log shows you actions performed by Google Workspace in Google Takeout in the past 180 days, such as starting or completing data exports.

When to use the Google Takeout Audit Log

When you want to investigate any Google Takeout activity

Google Takeout Audit Log data availability and retention

After an action is performed, the log updates and reflects it quite fast, almost in real-time, but can take up to 1-3 days.
In very rare cases, events may not be reported at all.
The log only shows data from the last 180 days.
Data older than 180 days gets permanently removed from the log.

How to use the Google Takeout Audit Log step-by-step with images

Step 1

Go to the Admin console https://admin.google.com and in the menu on the left, click Reporting > Audit > Takeout.

Step 2

Configuring the Google Takeout Audit Log to show what you need

By default, you will see all actions sorted chronologically from newest to oldest, under these columns:

Event description shows you general info, such as the user who started the export.
Products requested shows you what services data has been exported from
Job ID is the unique ID of the export.
Date shows the time of the event.
IP address shows the IP address from which the event took place. This column is hidden by default, so you must display it manually, as shown below if needed.

You can narrow down the scope of the filter to find something specific by clicking the Add a filter option on the left.

Step 3

Clicking Add a filter lets you only display events related to the type of thing you want to find.

Actor is the name or email address of the user who performed the event.
IP address is the internet ID of the user’s physical location, but it could also be a proxy server or VPN address, which hides the actual location.

Step 4

There are more filters on the top right.

Clicking the Organizational unit filter allows you to only view events related to users in a specific OU.

Step 5

Clicking the Group filter on the top right allows you to only view events related to users in specific Google Groups that you have set as filtering groups. To set a group as a filtering group, you can click the Filtering groups link.

Step 6

The Date range filter lets you display events that occurred in a specific time frame. Again, please note that it’s impossible to go further than the last 6 months.

Step 7

The gear icon Manage columns on the right lets you add or remove columns that show info in the report.

Step 8

You can also rearrange them by clicking and holding the left mouse button on the left of the column name and dragging it up or down.

Step 9

Exporting Google Takeout Audit Log data

The Download icon is for exporting data from the audit log.

Step 10

You can export to a Google Sheets file or a .csv file, and you can export All columns or only the Currently selected columns.

Unless you prefer or need .csv for a specific reason, you should select Google Sheets.

Step 11

When the export is ready, you’ll be able to see it under the Tasks icon on the top right. Click Open in Google Sheets to view the report in a spreadsheet.

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