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Get User Last Logon Date in Active Directory

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Robert Allen

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active directory last logon

In this article, I’ll show you how to accurately get the last logon date in Active Directory for users or computers. The Active Directory last logon date is often needed for security audits and to track when a user last logged on to their computer or network.

In this article:

LastLogon vs LastLogonTimeStamp vs LastLogonDate

It’s important to understand the difference between the logon attributes as they are used for different reasons. When using PowerShell you will see three different lastlogon properties.

lastlogon attributes powwershell

LastLogon

When a user authenticates to the network this attribute is updated on the domain controller that performs the authentication and is not replicated.

When to use? You should use the LastLogon attribute to get an accurate report of a users last logon. The problem is you will need to get the LastLogon attribute from each domain controller to show the real Last Logon date. This is automatically done with the AD Pro Toolkit, examples below.

LastLogonTimeStamp

The LastLogonTimeStamp attribute also records the timestamp of when a user logs onto their computer or network. This attribute is replicated to all domain controllers but it has a delay (9-14 days behind the current date).

When to use? The LastLogonTimeStmap should be used to find stale accounts in Active Directory. Due to the delayed timestamp value, this attribute is not intended for creating last logon reports.

LastLogonDate

LastLogonDate is not an attribute its the calculated value of LastLogonTimeStamp when using PowerShell.

When to use? Use LastLogonDate when using PowerShell and you want an easy to read format of the LastLogonTimeStamp.

How to Find Last Logon and LastLogonTimeStamp in Active Directory

Step 1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers

Step 2. Browse and open a user account

Step 3. Click on the attribute editor tab

Step 4. Scroll down to view the lastLogon and LastLogonTimeStamp attributes

Option 1. Last Logon Date Report using AD Pro Toolkit

In this example, I’ll get all users last logon date using the AD Pro Toolkit.

You can download a trial of this tool and try the report for free.

Step 1. Click on “Logon Reports” then click “True Last Logon Report”.


Step 2. Click “Run” to get the last logon date for all users or click “Browse” to select an OU or group.

Step 3. Optionally, you can click the “Time” button to change the time range.

Step 4. Click “Run” to start the report.

Step 5. Click export to export the report to csv, excel or pdf.

    Note: If you have a lot of users and multiple domain controllers this report can take several minutes to complete.

    Below is an example Last Logon Report from the toolkit. You can click “Export” and save to CSV, Excel, or PDF file.

    ad last logon report

    You can see in the screenshot above the tool returns the users name, account name, domain controller name, and the last logon date. You can click on any column to sort the results in ascending or descending order.

    The AD last logon Reporter eliminates all the manual work of checking the lastlogon attribute for all users across all domain controllers. It would be very time consuming and difficult to return the real last logon time without this tool.

    Our Active Directory Reporting Tool includes over 200 built-in reports.

    Option 2. Last Logon Date Report using PowerShell

    In this example, I’ll use PowerShell to get the last logon date for all users in Active Directory.

    Tip: Keep in mind to get the TRUE last logon date with PowerShell you would need to run the script on all domain controllers as the value is not replicated. The AD Pro Toolkit automatically gets the real last logon date and time from all domain controllers.

    Step 1: Log into a Domain Controller

    If you don’t run this from a DC, you may need to import the Active Directory PowerShell modules.

    Step 2: Use Get-ADUser PowerShell cmdlet

    Open PowerShell and use the command below to get all domain users LastLogonDate.

    Get-ADUser -filter * -Properties "LastLogonDate" | select name, LastLogonDate

    You should get similar results to the screenshot below.

    The above example gets the last logon date for all users, for a single user run the command below. 

    Get-ADUser -identity robert.allen -Properties "LastLogonDate" | select name, LastLogonDate

    If you add the lastlogon date you may notice some users are blank. This is because lastlogon is not replicated and the user may have never authenticated against the DC. 

    Get-ADUser -filter * -Properties LastLogonDate,lastlogon | select name, lastlogon,LastLogonDate
    lastlogon powershell example with blank dates

    To accurately track user logins with Active Directory you would need to run the above commands on all domain controllers and display the most recent last logon value.

    Video Demo of Last Logon Date

    Get Last Logon 30 days

    To get users that have logged on in the last 30 days click the time button and select “Last 30 Days”

    ad last logon 30 days

    Summary

    In this guide, I walked through three methods on how to get the Active Directory Last Logon for domain user accounts.

    It is important to review the last logon date for user accounts on a monthly basis to find stale user accounts. This can also be used to check the last time a user authenticated to the network. The PowerShell get-aduser cmdlet works great to get user’s last logon details from a single domain controller. To automatically collect the last logon details from all Domain Controllers I recommend the AD Pro Toolkit.

    If you have questions or comments, please leave a comment below.

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    37 thoughts on “Get User Last Logon Date in Active Directory”

    1. Hi everybody, I am not an IT but an auditor. I am ckecking the last log in of an user (a former employee of my organisation) to our AD. I have used Method#1 that is explained in thia topic and the check shows that the user has logged in to the AD on 06.Nov.2022 but in fact she has left the organisation in August. Can I assume that the user account is compromised or the date of the last log in may show that a process or a system has been used the account for something? I am not sure I am explaining the situation well, but I will be grateful if you help me understand the meaning of this date!

      Reply

    3. Hi, Robert.

      The script worked, thanks.
      Now I can search by computer and I will get the user.
      Is possible to search by user and get the computer name?
      Get-UserLogon -All – this command took more then 30 minutes
      I would like to insert the name of the user and see the last computer logged.
      will be possible?

      Reply

    4. Hi, Robert.

      I need a simple help like the Eugene.
      Sometimes I need to identify by username the last computer used or still using.
      I tried a lot of scripts but I cannot find a simple one for that.

      Thanks for the help.

      Reply

          • This script is also running locally. It is running the command “Invoke-Command -ComputerName $u.Name -ScriptBlock {quser}” against each computer to see who is currently logged on. It will only report if someone is currently logged on.

            Copy the script into PowerShell ISE click the run button then you will be able to use the Get-UserLogon command.

            Reply

            • Hi, Robert.

              Sorry to bother you.

              Robert I tried but at ISE I got this;

              PS C:\Users\Administrator.GPRO> Invoke-Command -ComputerName $u.Name -ScriptBlock {quser}
              Invoke-Command : Cannot validate argument on parameter ‘ComputerName’. The argument is null or empty. Supply an argument that is not null or empty and then try the
              command again.
              At line:1 char:30
              + Invoke-Command -ComputerName $u.Name -ScriptBlock {quser}
              + ~~~~~~~
              + CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (:) [Invoke-Command], ParameterBindingValidationException
              + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.InvokeCommandCommand

              Thanks for the help.

    5. Is there a way to display the last logon date per user PER COMPUTER? for example, i login to multiple computers and want to know when the last time i logged in to a specific one.
      Thank you.

      Reply

    6. I have to know LastLogon I have the exported excel file in LastLogon Field it is Showing
      132635534097464000

      how can i know the time

      Reply

      • This should do it.

        Get-ADUser -Identity “username” -Properties “LastLogon” | Select Name, @{N=’LastLogon’; E={[DateTime]::FromFileTime($_.LastLogon)}}

        Reply

    10. Hi,

      This is a simple powershell script which I created to fetch the last login details of all users from AD.

      STEPS:
      ———
      1) Login to AD with admin credentials
      2) Open the Powershell in AD with Administrator elevation mode
      3) Run this below mentioned powershell commands to get the last login details of all the users from AD

      Get-ADUser -Filter * -Properties * | Select-Object -Property Name,LastLogonDate | Export-csv c:/lastlogon.csv

      This will create a CSV file in your C Drive with the name lastlogon.csv which will contain the information of last login time of all the users

      If you want to store the CSV file in different location, just change the path accordingly

      Regards,
      Shahul

      Reply

    11. Hi,
      this step is very help me thank you….

      Step 3: Run the following command

      Get-ADUser -Identity “username” -Properties “LastLogonDate”

      Replace “username” with the user you want to report on.

      Reply

    12. Hi Robert, the LastLogon attribute logs successful and unsuccessful logins?

      2. What is special about the Active Directory built-in account in relation to schema admin, enterprise admin and domain admin?

      Reply

    13. This advice seems very old fashioned and amateur (not “pro”), and I have no idea how this page is so high in Google rank.

      “LastLogon” queried in this way is only accurate for a domain where there is one domain controller. The LastLogon time attribute is not replicated between domain controllers, and it only applies to the DC where you’re reading the value from. If you query the user information on another DC, it can be completely different (and generally *is* different).

      You can use LastLogonTimestamp (which is replicated to all DCs) to find a last logon time that’s accurate to within 14 days (I don’t know why it’s this interval). That is, for a date that’s more than 14 days ago, that was the last time the user logged on at any DC in the domain. This is useful if you want to know accounts that last logged on a long time ago, such as more than 3 months ago or whatever.

      If you need to know the last time an account logged on within 14 days, you need to query the LastLogon attribute for the user on *every DC* in the domain and get the most recent time from those results. There are plenty of scripts available on the internet that will help you do this.

      Reply

      • TrixM,

        Thanks for the detailed explanation. You are correct, I failed to mention in my article that the LastLogon attribute does not get replicated between DC. I’ll update the post. The LastLogonTimestamp can be updated even if a user has not logged on. That is why it’s better to use the LastLogon attribute to accurately report a user’s last logon time.

        Reply

    14. To get this info for all users:

      Get-ADUser -Filter * -Properties Name,LastLogon,Displayname, EmailAddress, Title | select Name,
      @{Name=’LastLogon’;Expression={[DateTime]::FromFileTime($_.LastLogon)}},DisplayName, EmailAddress, Title | Export-CSV “C
      :\temp\Email_Addresses.csv”

      Reply

      • Last log on report comes like this “133135731765050000” Not sure how we can convert this to display properly, tried few methods in excel under number formatting but no luck, any help would be much appreciated.

        Reply

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