diff --git a/src/backend/api/middleware/logging.py b/src/backend/api/middleware/logging.py
index 8f349cf..d696666 100644
--- a/src/backend/api/middleware/logging.py
+++ b/src/backend/api/middleware/logging.py
@@ -6,9 +6,14 @@ from fastapi import Request, Response
 from starlette.middleware.base import BaseHTTPMiddleware
 from sqlalchemy import insert
 
+from src.backend.api.middleware.rate_limit import RateLimitMiddleware
 from src.backend.database import async_session_factory
 from src.backend.models.orm.access_log import AccessLog
 
+# AccessLog.action is String(100): a long path (with query-string-like
+# segments) silently failed the insert before this truncation existed.
+_ACTION_MAX_LENGTH = 100
+
 
 class AccessLogMiddleware(BaseHTTPMiddleware):
     """Middleware that logs every API request to the access_logs table."""
@@ -30,11 +35,12 @@ class AccessLogMiddleware(BaseHTTPMiddleware):
 
         # Log asynchronously (don't block response)
         try:
+            action = f"{request.method} {request.url.path}"[:_ACTION_MAX_LENGTH]
             async with async_session_factory() as session:
                 await session.execute(
                     insert(AccessLog).values(
                         user_id=user_id,
-                        action=f"{request.method} {request.url.path}",
+                        action=action,
                         details={
                             "method": request.method,
                             "path": request.url.path,
@@ -42,7 +48,7 @@ class AccessLogMiddleware(BaseHTTPMiddleware):
                             "status_code": response.status_code,
                             "duration_ms": round(duration_ms, 2),
                         },
-                        ip_address=request.client.host if request.client else None,
+                        ip_address=RateLimitMiddleware._client_ip(request),
                         user_agent=request.headers.get("user-agent", "")[:500],
                     )
                 )
diff --git a/src/backend/tests/test_access_log_middleware.py b/src/backend/tests/test_access_log_middleware.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9b45a74
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/backend/tests/test_access_log_middleware.py
@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+"""Unit tests for AccessLogMiddleware (gitea#36 point 6).
+
+- action must be truncated to fit AccessLog.action (String(100)): an
+  untruncated long path used to fail the INSERT silently (swallowed by the
+  broad except in dispatch()).
+- ip_address must come from the same `_client_ip` the rate limiter uses
+  (proxy-aware), not the raw `request.client.host`, which behind
+  Nginx/Flask is always localhost.
+
+These stub out async_session_factory and inspect the compiled INSERT
+statement directly, rather than going through a real DB round trip: Core
+`insert()` against the test's in-memory SQLite has an unrelated
+autoincrement quirk (unrelated to this fix) that makes end-to-end
+assertions on the persisted row unreliable here.
+"""
+from unittest.mock import patch
+
+from starlette.requests import Request
+from starlette.responses import Response
+
+from src.backend.api.middleware.logging import AccessLogMiddleware
+
+
+class _FakeSession:
+    """Records the statement passed to execute(); no real DB involved."""
+
+    def __init__(self):
+        self.executed_stmt = None
+
+    async def execute(self, stmt):
+        self.executed_stmt = stmt
+
+    async def commit(self):
+        pass
+
+    async def __aenter__(self):
+        return self
+
+    async def __aexit__(self, *exc):
+        return False
+
+
+def _make_request(path: str, extra_headers: list[tuple[bytes, bytes]] | None = None) -> Request:
+    scope = {
+        "type": "http",
+        "method": "GET",
+        "path": path,
+        "query_string": b"",
+        "headers": extra_headers or [],
+        "client": ("127.0.0.1", 12345),
+    }
+    return Request(scope)
+
+
+async def test_long_path_action_is_truncated():
+    fake_session = _FakeSession()
+    long_path = "/api/files/" + "a" * 200
+
+    with patch(
+        "src.backend.api.middleware.logging.async_session_factory",
+        return_value=fake_session,
+    ):
+        middleware = AccessLogMiddleware(app=None)
+        request = _make_request(long_path)
+
+        async def call_next(_req):
+            return Response(status_code=404)
+
+        await middleware.dispatch(request, call_next)
+
+    assert fake_session.executed_stmt is not None
+    params = fake_session.executed_stmt.compile().params
+    assert len(params["action"]) <= 100
+    assert params["action"] == f"GET {long_path}"[:100]
+
+
+async def test_short_path_action_is_unaffected():
+    fake_session = _FakeSession()
+
+    with patch(
+        "src.backend.api.middleware.logging.async_session_factory",
+        return_value=fake_session,
+    ):
+        middleware = AccessLogMiddleware(app=None)
+        request = _make_request("/api/settings/")
+
+        async def call_next(_req):
+            return Response(status_code=200)
+
+        await middleware.dispatch(request, call_next)
+
+    params = fake_session.executed_stmt.compile().params
+    assert params["action"] == "GET /api/settings/"
+
+
+async def test_ip_address_uses_client_ip_resolution():
+    """trusted_proxy_count defaults to 1: the last XFF hop (our own proxy's
+    add) is trusted, not request.client.host (always the proxy itself)."""
+    fake_session = _FakeSession()
+
+    with patch(
+        "src.backend.api.middleware.logging.async_session_factory",
+        return_value=fake_session,
+    ):
+        middleware = AccessLogMiddleware(app=None)
+        request = _make_request(
+            "/api/settings/",
+            extra_headers=[(b"x-forwarded-for", b"203.0.113.7, 10.0.0.1")],
+        )
+
+        async def call_next(_req):
+            return Response(status_code=200)
+
+        await middleware.dispatch(request, call_next)
+
+    params = fake_session.executed_stmt.compile().params
+    assert params["ip_address"] == "10.0.0.1"
+    assert params["ip_address"] != "127.0.0.1"  # not request.client.host