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Entra / Microsoft 365 · Compliance & audit

Report audit recs file updates

Example of using audit records to find out who changed a file.

Connect & set up

Run these once per session. All scopes are read-only unless the script makes changes.

Connect-ExchangeOnline -SkipLoadingCmdletHelp

Run it

The main script. Copy it, or download the .ps1 and run it from your console.

param(
[int] $LookbackDays = 180
)
$Modules = Get-Module | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name
If ("ExchangeOnlineManagement" -notin $Modules) {
Write-Host "Loading Exchange Online Management module"
Connect-ExchangeOnline -SkipLoadingCmdletHelp
}
$FileName = (Read-Host "Enter file name to search")
[array]$Records = Search-UnifiedAuditLog -Operations FileModified, FileAccessed, FileUploaded `
-ObjectIds $FileName -ResultSize 5000 -StartDate (Get-Date).AddDays(-$LookbackDays) -EndDate (Get-Date).AddDays(+1) `
-SessionCommand ReturnLargeSet
If ($Records.Count -eq 0) {
Write-Host "No audit records found for file names beginning with" $FileName
Break
}
# Remove any duplicates
$Records = $Records | Sort-Object Identity -Unique | Sort-Object { $_.CreationDate -as [datetime]} -Descending
Write-Host ("Processing {0} audit records..." -f $Records.Count)
$Report = [System.Collections.Generic.List[Object]]::new()
ForEach ($Rec in $Records) {
$AuditData = ConvertFrom-Json $Rec.Auditdata
$ReportLine = [PSCustomObject]@{
TimeStamp = $Rec.CreationDate
User = $AuditData.UserId
Action = $AuditData.Operation
SiteUrl = $AuditData.SiteUrl
Site = $AuditData.SourceRelativeUrl
File = $AuditData.SourceFileName
IpAddress = $AuditData.ClientIP
App = $AuditData.UserAgent
}
$Report.Add($ReportLine)
}
Write-Host “All done”
$Report | Out-GridView -Title "File operation audit records"

Parameters

ParameterDefaultNotes
-LookbackDays180Number of days back to search the unified audit log.
Attribution