You’ve always had insight into the buckets in your B2 Cloud Storage account, and now you can go deeper. With Bucket Access Logs, it’s possible to see a detailed record of operations performed against objects inside of a bucket. Whether you’re managing a growing archive, running audits, or troubleshooting automated workflows, these logs can provide the transparency needed to stay in control.
Starting today, Bucket Access Logs are available in limited preview. If you are interested, reach out to Sales for more information.
What you can track with Bucket Access Logs
Once enabled, Bucket Access Logs record a range of operations performed on the objects in a bucket. That includes:
- Uploads
- Downloads
- Deletions
- And more
Every log entry includes details like the timestamp, operation type, and the object involved. If you’ve ever wished you had a record of what happened—and when—it’s now within reach.
Easy to configure: User interface (UI) and APIs
Bucket Access Logs are fully S3 compatible. You can configure logging through the Backblaze B2 web UI or programmatically via the S3 API using standard tools or SDKs. This makes it easy to integrate logging into your existing workflows and infrastructure without needing to learn anything new.
Because B2’s Bucket Access Logs are S3 compatible, your existing S3 log management tools will work seamlessly with B2 Logs. This allows you to use the same tools and processes you already have in place for monitoring, analyzing, and storing logs.
Important: Don’t enable access logging on the same bucket that you use as the log destination. This can result in an endless loop of logs generating more logs.
Once configured, you’ll begin to see new log objects arrive in the destination bucket as activity occurs in the source bucket. From there, you can analyze, archive, or pipe the data into other systems for further processing.
Preview: Configuring Bucket Access Logs in the UI
Here’s a preview of how you will be able to configure Bucket Access Logs via the user interface:
This simple, intuitive interface lets you easily configure your logging settings, choose a destination bucket, and start tracking operations on your objects. Once enabled, you’ll have access to the logs directly in the destination bucket, with the details you need to monitor and analyze your data access patterns.
Use cases for Bucket Access Logs
Bucket Access Logs unlock a broad set of security, privacy, and operational workflows. Here are just a few examples of how you can use them:
1. Security and privacy monitoring
Organizations storing sensitive data—like security footage, personal files, or customer assets—often need detailed audit trails for compliance and accountability.
- Log object access activity through pre-signed URLs and correlate access with specific users.
- Track access times, IP addresses, and user actions to meet reporting requirements or identify suspicious behavior.
- Detect potentially compromised application keys by analyzing activity patterns without disrupting all keys in use.
- Enforce privacy policies by monitoring the source IP addresses of requests and verifying they match allowed sources.
- Analyze latency and bandwidth metrics across object access requests to optimize data delivery.
2. Infrastructure and traffic control
When storage access is tightly integrated with content delivery networks (CDNs) or other network layers, it’s important to confirm that traffic flows through the correct paths.
- Validate that object uploads originate only from approved CDNs or endpoints, not directly from unauthorized sources.
- Detect misconfigurations early by comparing traffic origins to expected network patterns.
3. Usage tracking and audit trails
Understanding how data moves through your system can help with cost management, client reporting, and internal transparency.
- Monitor object uploads and deletions that impact billing to better forecast and control storage costs.
- Maintain a historical record of object activity for clients or partners who require verifiable data access trails.
- Troubleshoot issues in automated workflows by reviewing the sequence of operations on specific objects.
Across these use cases, a common thread emerges: the need to know when, what, and where for activity happening inside your buckets.
Get started with Bucket Access Logs
Bucket Access Logs are available today in preview. To try it out, contact Sales for more information.
For more detailed instructions and guidance on configuring and using Bucket Access Logs, check out the official Bucket Access Logs documentation.
Whether you’re building for compliance, monitoring security, or just want better observability into your workflows, Bucket Access Logs give you the visibility you need—right where your data lives.
