# Receiving CloudTrail log files from multiple Regions
<a name="receive-cloudtrail-log-files-from-multiple-regions"></a>



When you create a multi-Region trail, CloudTrail logs events from all Regions enabled in your account. CloudTrail delivers log files to the same S3 bucket and CloudWatch Logs log group. As long as CloudTrail has permissions to write to an S3 bucket, the bucket for a multi-Region trail does not have to be in the trail's home Region.

Although most AWS Regions are enabled by default for your AWS account, you must manually enable certain Regions (also referred to as *opt-in Regions*). For information about which Regions are enabled by default, see [Considerations before enabling and disabling Regions](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/accounts/latest/reference/manage-acct-regions.html#manage-acct-regions-considerations) in the *AWS Account Management Reference Guide*. For the list of Regions CloudTrail supports, see [CloudTrail supported Regions](cloudtrail-supported-regions.md). 

After you enable an opt-in Region, CloudTrail creates an identical copy of each multi-Region trail in the opt-in Region that you enabled. For more information, see [What happens when you enable an opt-in Region?](cloudtrail-multi-region-trails.md#cloudtrail-multi-region-trails-optin).

If you later disable an opt-in Region, the copy of the multi-Region trail in that Region will remain. Because your account may have activity in the Region you disabled, such as actions by AWS services to remove resources, CloudTrail will continue to capture activity and attempt to deliver events to the S3 bucket for any trails that are not deleted before the Region is disabled.

To convert an existing single-Region trail to a multi-Region trail, you must use the AWS CLI.

To change an existing trail so that it applies to all enabled Regions, add the `--is-multi-region-trail` option to the [**update-trail**](cloudtrail-create-and-update-a-trail-by-using-the-aws-cli-update-trail.md) command.

```
aws cloudtrail update-trail --name my-trail --is-multi-region-trail
```

To confirm that the trail is now a multi-Region trail, verify that the `IsMultiRegionTrail` element in the output shows `true`.

```
{
    "IncludeGlobalServiceEvents": true, 
    "Name": "my-trail", 
    "TrailARN": "arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:trail/my-trail", 
    "LogFileValidationEnabled": false, 
    "IsMultiRegionTrail": true, 
    "IsOrganizationTrail": false,
    "S3BucketName": "amzn-s3-demo-bucket"
}
```

For more information, see the following resources:
+ [Understanding multi-Region trails and opt-in Regions](cloudtrail-multi-region-trails.md)
+ [Creating a trail for your AWS account](cloudtrail-create-and-update-a-trail.md)
+  [CloudTrail FAQs](https://aws.amazon.com/cloudtrail/faqs/)