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View usage reports in SharePoint Server

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The Analytics Processing Component generates two reports that are based on usage event types:

  • Popularity Trends shows usage event statistics for a site collection, a site, or an individual item in a library or list.

  • Most Popular Items shows usage event statistics for all items in a library or list.

The reports are broken down per usage event type. The default usage event types are as follows:

  • Views. The number of views for a single item, page, or document.

  • Recommendations Displayed. The number of times a single item, page, or document was displayed as a recommendation.

  • Recommendations Clicked. The number of times a single item, page, or document was clicked when it was displayed as a recommendation.

If you have added any custom usage event types, these types will also be displayed.

For more information about the Analytics Processing Component and usage events, see Overview of analytics processing in SharePoint Server. For information about search reports — for example, Number of Queries or Top Queries by Day — see "Usage reports" in View search diagnostics in SharePoint Server.

Note

Usage reports are only available for Document Libraries and Product Catalog lists.

Learn about Viewing usage data for your SharePoint site in Microsoft 365.

The Popularity Trends report is an Excel report that shows daily and monthly hits and unique users per usage event type. The report shows the daily count for the last 14 days and the monthly count for the last three years.

Important

In a cross-site publishing scenario, the procedures below are performed on the authoring site collection.

To view the Popularity Trends report for a site collection

  1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is a member of the Site Collection Administrators group.

  2. In the site collection, on the Settings menu, click Site Settings.

  3. On the Site Settings page, in the Site Collection Administration section, click Popularity and Search Reports.

  4. On the View Usage Reports page, in the Usage Reports section, click Usage.

  5. In the message box, click Open to open the report in Excel, or click Save or Save as to save the report.

  6. Click the tabs to view the usage report for the different usage event types.

    Note

    The daily count for Unique Users shows the number of unique users per day. The monthly count for Unique Users shows the sum of unique users per day within the month ( SUM(UU/Day))

To view the Popularity Trends report for a site

  1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is a member of the default Owners group.

  2. In the site collection, on the Settings menu, click Site Settings.

  3. On the Site Settings page, in the Site Administration section, click Popularity Trends.

  4. On the View Usage Reports page, in the Usage Reports section, click Usage.

  5. In the message box, click Open to open the report in Excel, or click Save or Save as to save the report.

  6. Click the tabs to view the usage report for the different usage event types.

    Note

    The daily count for Unique Users shows the number of unique users per day. The monthly count for Unique Users shows the sum of unique users per day within the month ( SUM(UU/Day))

To view the Popularity Trends report for a library or list item

  1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is a member of the Visitors group.

  2. In the site collection, browse to the library or list that contains the item for which you want to view the Popularity Trends report.

  3. Select the item that you want to view the Popularity Trends report for, and then do one of the following tasks:

    • For a library, click the FILES tab, and then, on the ribbon, click Popularity Trends.

    • For a list, click the ITEMS tab, and then, on the ribbon, click Popularity Trends.

    Note

    If you select more than one item, the Popularity Trends report will only display statistics for the View usage event type. To see statistics for all usage event types, select one item only.

  4. In the message box, click Open to open the report in Excel, or click Save or Save as to save the report.

  5. Click the tabs to view the usage report for the different usage event types.

    Note

    The daily count for Unique Users shows the number of unique users per day. The monthly count for Unique Users shows the sum of unique users per day ( SUM(UU/Day)) for a given month.

The Most Popular Items report lists the most popular items per usage event type for all items in a library or list —for example, the most viewed items in the library or list. The report can be sorted by the time periods Recent or Ever. By default, the Recent time period is set to the last 14 days, but you can change this setting to be any value from 1 to 14 days. For information about how to change the Recent time period, see "To change the Recent time period for a usage event" in Configure recommendations and usage event types in SharePoint Server. The Ever time period is from the first time that the item became available up to present day.

Important

In a cross-site publishing scenario, the procedures below are performed on the authoring site collection.

To view the Most Popular Items report for all items in a SharePoint library or list

  1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is a member of the Visitors group.

  2. In the site collection, browse to the library or list for which you want to view the Most Popular Items report, and then do one of the following tasks:

    • For a library, click the LIBRARY tab, and then, on the ribbon, click Most Popular Items.

    • For a list, click the LIST tab, and then, on the ribbon, click Most Popular Items.

  3. By default, the report lists items in the library or list that has most views for the Recent time period. To view other rankings, do the following tasks:

    • To view a report that lists items for a different usage event type, select a usage event type from the menu at the top of the page.

    • To view a report that list items for the complete time period the item was available, click Ever.

    • To search within the report list, type a search word in the search box on the top of the page.

    Note

    The usage event Most Views by Unique Users shows a ranking based on the sum of unique users per day ( SUM(UU/day)) within the specified time period.

    To view the Popularity Trends report for a specific item in the list, click the Popularity Trends link located under the item URL.

See also

Concepts

Configure recommendations and usage event types in SharePoint Server