article How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows in Official Support Articles

How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows

Sonja_Bauernfeind — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 07:20:09 GMT

Qlik Sense Audit logging allows tracking of additional information, such as user actions in the Qlik Sense Management Console.

Audit logging can be enabled individually on services and audit logs are stored in the \Audit log subfolder.

Example: AuditActivity_Repository.txt log, located by default in %ProgramData%\Qlik\Sense\Log\Repository\Audit

Enabling Audit logging can significantly increase resource consumption. Monitor resource usage if you plan on auditing over a long time period or only enable it for troubleshooting purposes.

Environment

To enable (by service):

Open the Qlik Sense Management Console
Navigate to the Service
Open the node to configure
Select Logging from the Properties menu on the right-hand side
Choose your desired Audit logging level

Additional logging levels

In addition to default audit logging, you can increase the Engine logging level to include user selection capture.

Stop the Qlik Sense Engine service
Navigate to C:\ProgramData\Qlik\Sense\Engine\
Open the settings.ini file
Edit the file to add:
[Settings 7] AuditLogAllSelection=1 AuditLogMessageLimit=10000 MaxCurSelEntries=6

You need an empty row after a setting in settings.ini for it to take effect. i. e. press enters after the last line. The parameter MaxCurSelEntries is optional but can be used to increase the number of actually selected entries to be captured in the log. The default value is 6.
Restart the Engine service and Service Dispatcher.
Make selections on an application in the hub.
Go to C:\ProgramData\Qlik\Sense\Log\Engine\Trace and look for a ServerName_Audit_Engine.txt.

Re: How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows

AdamBS — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 14:17:11 GMT

Hi Sonja

Are there any other switches - I was hoping to see sheet selection too.

Cheers, Adam

Re: How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows

Sonja_Bauernfeind — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 07:48:55 GMT

Hello @AdamBS

Let me look into this for you!

All the best,
Sonja

Re: How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows

DavidFosterVF — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 08:42:47 GMT

Hi @Sonja_Bauernfeind

Is there documentation on what audit logging captures during a user session?

Re: How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows

Sonja_Bauernfeind — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 08:57:04 GMT

Hello @DavidFosterVF

Can you clarify what you mean by "user session"?

The audit log in question here logs back-end work, see the available fields here: Audit activity log.

All the best,
Sonja

Re: How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows

DavidFosterVF — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 09:03:37 GMT

similar to what @AdamBS was asking.

Sheet navigation
Filter selections
AppObject interactions

Re: How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows

Sonja_Bauernfeind — Tue, 22 Mar 2022 11:05:06 GMT

Hello @DavidFosterVF and @AdamBS

Patricia has put together information for you on this! See Qlik Sense: Working with audit logs to check user activity on sheet/app level.

All the best,
Sonja

Re: How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows

DavidFosterVF — Tue, 22 Mar 2022 15:36:09 GMT

Thanks @Sonja_Bauernfeind

Re: How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows

Huiying — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 08:11:22 GMT

will this log bring heavy load to engine? Our customer facing engines are alreayd pretty busy, that's why I'm concerned. From another hand, this log might be useful...

Re: How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows

Sonja_Bauernfeind — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 08:16:50 GMT

Hello @Huiying We cannot anticipate the exact extent of additional load that you will see (as this depends on the environment and user activity). But as with any audit logging (and trace/debug logging), it will generate an additional workload for the services.

While the impact of the audit log is usually negligible, I would recommend running a test in your environment for a few days to observe user impact.

All the best,
Sonja

Re: How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows

JHuis — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 07:36:35 GMT

@Sonja_Bauernfeind ,

Is it not possible to edit the engine settings? Because in the QMC you could edit a lot of settings.

Or does this has to happen on the server side?

Re: How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows

Sonja_Bauernfeind — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 14:43:44 GMT

Hello @JHuis You can change the logging level in the Management Console, yes. However, you cannot bump the level all the way up to include these for the engine:

AuditLogAllSelection=1
AuditLogMessageLimit=10000
MaxCurSelEntries=6

That needs to be done in the settings.ini file.

All the best,
Sonja

Re: How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows

JHuis — Thu, 13 Oct 2022 06:26:17 GMT

@Sonja_Bauernfeind ,

thanks!

Re: How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows

stijn_verhoeff — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 14:43:23 GMT

Hi @Sonja_Bauernfeind,

Is there any way to further specify the Audit Activity log level, beyond 'Basic' and 'Off'?

We have about 38gb of Engine AuditActivity log files for 2023 alone. Below is a summary of the amount of records per command for a single day (19 log files).

While we would definitely like insight in most of these commands, the 'Get layout' command just generates an absurd amount of records.

Re: How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows

Sonja_Bauernfeind — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 13:39:08 GMT

Hello @stijn_verhoeff, I assume you mean specifically the activity log, correct?

This would mean these settings:

AuditLogAllSelection=1
AuditLogMessageLimit=10000
MaxCurSelEntries=6

Please confirm if that's the one you mean. In the meantime, I will see what I can find for you.

All the best,
Sonja

Re: How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows

stijn_verhoeff — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 13:55:29 GMT

@Sonja_Bauernfeind well, yes and no. I did mean the audit activity logs, yes. However, my question is whether we can decrease the logging level, not increase it further.

The 'Basic' level generates a ton of log files, but we don't want to turn it 'Off' entirely either.

Re: How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows

Sonja_Bauernfeind — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 15:01:09 GMT

Aha! Thanks for clarifying, @stijn_verhoeff

In this case, the answer is a relatively simple "currently not possible". There is no setting between off and basic for the audit log levels.

This feedback is great though! I'd like to invite you to put together an idea and to post it here (Suggest and Browse Ideas) so our product teams can review it.

All the best,
Sonja

Re: How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows

stijn_verhoeff — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 15:21:56 GMT

@Sonja_Bauernfeind got it, thanks for the confirmation.

I submitted it as an idea 🙂

article How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows in Official Support Articles

How to enable Audit Logging in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows

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