5 ways how to turn off Google Tag Manager Preview mode

Updated: November 10th, 2020.

Google Tag Manager’s widget keeps popping up at the bottom of the screen, huh? If yes, you’ve come to the right place. In this guide, you’ll learn how to turn off Google Tag Manager debug mode (or, in other words, exit it), including common and not so common options.

 

Regarding the new preview mode in GTM

On October 16th, 2020, the GTM team introduced a new preview mode that works completely differently compared to the previous version.

If you are looking for a way how to revert to the previous version, I have some bad news. It is impossible to switch to the old version. The new preview mode is here to stay (this change was forced mainly because of the upcoming extinction of 3rd party cookies, and the old preview mode was using one 3rd party cookie).

This blog post is for those who have exited the preview mode but are still seeing this widget (or a similar one) at the bottom right corner of their website:

 

Option #1. Click the X in that widget

The easiest option (that works in most cases) is to click the X icon in that widget

However, in some cases (after you refresh the page), the widget appears once again. If that’s your case, read the next tips.

 

Option #2. Remove the “gtm_debug=x” from the URL

There are 3 ways for the widget/badge to appear:

1. The page URL contains the gtm_debug=x parameter, e.g. https://www.yourwebsite.com/?gtm_debug=x
2.  The referrer is tagassistant.google.com
3. You have a _TAG_ASSISTANT cookie

To resolve the 1st situation, simply try to remove the gtm_debug=x from the URL (if it is present). If your URL does not contain the parameter, then it means that the cause of your problem is either the referrer or a cookie. I explain how to resolve that in the next two chapters.

 

Option #3. Click on any internal link of your website (to change the referrer)

If you landed on your website directly from the tagassistant.google.com (the new GTM preview mode), the widget will appear. By clicking on any internal link of your site, the referrer will change to your own domain, hence the Preview widget will disappear.

If you still see the widget, you have a _TAG_ASSISTANT cookie and for some reason, the X in the widget was not able to delete it.

 

Option #4. Delete the _TAG_ASSISTANT cookie

The exact steps might differ depending on the browser that you use. I’m going to show how to achieve this with Google Chrome.

In the top-right corner click three dots and then go to More tools > Developer Tools.

Then go to Application > Cookies > [Your domain]:

And in the search field, enter _TAG_ASSISTANT. Once you find that cookie, click it and hit DELETE on your keyboard.

Refresh the page. This is the last resort and I hope that it helped you.

 

Option #5. Turn off GA Debugger Chrome Extension

The solution to this problem was reported by TienAnh (one of my readers). It was noticed that when the GA debugger extension is enabled and its icon contains the ON ribbon, then the Preview mode keeps popping up even. So if you are annoyed by that, click on the GA debugger’s icon to turn it off. Then the page will refresh and the preview mode’s widget will stop popping up.

I have reported this bug to the GTM team and hopefully, they will fix it soon.

 

How to turn off Google Tag Manager preview mode: Final words

There are 3 ways for the widget/badge to appear:

1. The page URL contains the gtm_debug=x parameter, e.g. https://www.yourwebsite.com/?gtm_debug=x
2.  The referrer is tagassistant.google.com
3. You have a _TAG_ASSISTANT cookie

If any of these conditions are met, the badge will appear. Usually, the X handles all of that but if it fails, you will need to manually remove the gtm_debug parameter, delete the cookie and further navigate on your website to lose the tag assistant referrer.

If you are having issues with the GTM preview mode in general (it’s not working for some reason), take a look at this guide.