Access Log

The Access Log answers three questions every file owner eventually asks: Is anyone actually using this? Who? And did anyone try and get turned away? It logs every view, download, and denied attempt to your own database — nothing leaves your site.

Privacy first. Log data lives in your WordPress database. It’s not sent to wpmediaguard.com or anywhere else.

Where to find it

Go to Media Guard → Access Log in your WordPress admin.

What gets logged

Three event types:

view — someone opened the protected viewer for a file (PDF in-page, image, or video player).
download — someone downloaded the actual file.
denied — someone tried to access a file but Media Guard turned them away (not logged in, wrong role, not in the right group, no matching purchase).

Each row records: date/time, user (email), file path, action, and IP address.

Stats at the top

The dashboard summary shows Total events and Today‘s count — a quick pulse-check of activity.

Reading the table

The table is paginated, newest events first. Each row tells you exactly who did what, to which file, from where. Use it to:

Confirm a delivery. “Did Sarah download the contract?” — search by file or user.
Spot blocked access. A run of denied events for one user usually means they’re logged in but missing a role/group/purchase. Troubleshooting guide.
See what’s hot. If one file dominates the log, you’ve found your popular content.
Audit unexpected activity. Unusual IP addresses or off-hours bursts are easy to spot.

Privacy & retention

Log data is stored in a dedicated table (wp_mediaguard_access_log). Because it includes user emails and IP addresses, it’s personal data for GDPR/CCPA purposes. A few practical notes:

Mention the log in your privacy policy if you operate in a regulated region.
If a user requests data deletion, remove their rows from the log along with their WordPress user.
Uninstalling Pro drops the entire log table via the bundled uninstaller — so export it first if you need to keep it.

Common questions

My log is empty. Have you actually opened a protected file as a logged-in user? Try it yourself in an incognito window after logging in. Each view/download writes a row.
I see denied events for “Unknown” users. That’s an unauthenticated visitor (no WordPress session). Usually a bot or someone with a direct file URL but no login.
Can I export? Yes, via WP-CLI or a direct database query against wp_mediaguard_access_log. A CSV export button is on the roadmap.

Next steps

Troubleshooting — what to do when “denied” events shouldn’t be happening.
Groups & Users — fix access by adding a user to the right group.