Google Analytics 4 Events Not Showing Up in Reports?

Here’s a situation. You have implemented event tracking with Google Analytics 4 but cannot see those events in reports. Or maybe you see the events, but some parameters/dimensions are missing? If this sounds familiar, you’ve come to the right place.

In this blog post, I will explain why Google Analytics 4 events are not showing up in your reports. So if you are wondering, “why is my Google Analytics not showing any data?”, let’s dive in.

 

Table of Contents

– Hide table of contents –

• #1. Not enough time has passed
• #2. Data thresholding
• #3. Incorrect date range
• #4. Internal/developer filter is active
• #5. Modify events rule
• #6. Longer delay in Admin > Events
• #7. Data is sent to the wrong GA4 property
• #8. Event parameters are not appearing in reports
• Other useful resources
• Final words

 

#1. Not enough time has passed

Google Analytics reports (excluding real-time and debugview) are pretty slow to process and display the data. It’s normal to wait 24-48 hours.

So if you have sent some events to GA4 reports and waited just for several hours, that is not enough. Check your data tomorrow. If that still does not work, wait one more day. If that does not help, then your GA4 events are not showing up because of some other reason (then check other tips in this blog post).

 

#2. Data thresholding

Data thresholding is a very common issue why you might be missing certain events (especially if you work with a smaller website/property).

At the top of your GA4 standard or exploration report (where you are looking for events), look for a green checkmark.

If you see it, data thresholding is not applied, and you should skip to the next chapter of this blog post.

However, if you see an orange exclamation mark, click it. Does the warning mention thresholding?

If yes, then I think we found out why you are missing some events.

In general, thresholds in Google Analytics 4 are caused by a feature called Google Signals. It is disabled by default, but if you turn it on, things might get weird.

If you are looking at the report and the property contains data from Google Signals, Google Analytics will hide rows in the reports with small numbers. I don’t know the exact number, but it looks like something below 50 users/events per row.

So if you have tracked a small number of events, thresholding kicked in and hid the event(s) from the reports. Don’t worry. The data is not lost (however, it is hidden).

One workaround will help you turn off thresholding – changing the default reporting identity. But there’s a caveat, too (learn more here).

You can change it by going to Admin > Reporting Identity. Here you will see two options (but actually, there are three). Click Show all.

Then select the Device-based reporting identity. Refresh the page, go back to your events report, and the missing data should be displayed.

You can change the reporting identity as often as you want (your data will not be modified).

I highly recommend that you read this article to understand better what thresholding is, how it works, and how to deal with it.

 

#3. Incorrect date range

We’re all human, and sometimes, we make mistakes. I recommend double-checking that you have selected the correct date range in your reports. Maybe you are looking at the date when the missing event was not tracked yet.

You can change the date range on the top-left corner (in Explorations) or in the top-right corner (of the standard GA4 reports).

 

 

#4. Internal/developer filter is active

In Google Analytics 4, you can exclude your internal traffic (that is coming from your employees/co-workers). That feature checks the IP address of the visitor, and if it matches the rules of internal/developer traffic, your events will be excluded. But that might be why you cannot see your events in the reports.

The first place to check is to go to Admin > Data settings > Data filters. If you see “Active” next to the Internal and Developer filters, this might be the reason.

But we are not done yet. In the Admin panel, go to Data Streams > Click your web stream > Configure Tag Settings > Show All > Define internal traffic.

This will open a list of rules that define internal/developer traffic.

• If you see no rules, your GA4 events are not showing up for another reason (in that case, continue reading this blog post)
• If you see some rules, click them and see what IP addresses are configured there. If one of them is yours, that might be why you don’t see your events in GA4 reports.

 

#5. “Modify events” rule

Google Analytics 4 allows you to modify incoming events straight from the GA4 interface. For example, it can add/edit/remove a particular event parameter. Or it can rename the event. Maybe that’s what’s happening in your case.

In Google Analytics 4, go to Admin > Events > Modify Event.

If you see an empty list, then “Modify event” is not why you are missing a particular event. But if you see some rules, click them individually and see what they are doing. Maybe one of them is looking for a specific event and then renames it?

To understand how this feature works, I recommend reading this chapter in another blog post.

 

#6. Longer delay in Admin > Events

Occasionally, I face a situation where (for some reason) the list of events in the GA4 admin panel is lagging behind other reports of Google Analytics.

I am talking about this list: Admin > Events.

Sometimes, it does not show particular events for days (even though other reports, like Reports > Engagement > Events work just fine).

So my tip is not to fully rely on the Admin > Events list. Instead, check other places for the events:

• Reports > Engagement > Events
• Or build a Free form exploration (with the Event name as a primary dimension and Event count as a metric)

If you see the wanted event there, you’re good.

If you’re still worried about the Admin > Events section because that’s the place where you can mark events as conversions, chill. You can configure conversions in Admin > Conversions. Go the, click New conversion event, and enter the event name manually there.

 

#7. Data is sent to the wrong GA4 property

Another mistake that can happen even to the best of us. The troubleshooting process for this issue depends on how you have installed Google Analytics 4.

First, go to Admin > Data Streams and check the Measurement ID there. It starts with “G-”

Now check either your GA4 tags in Google Tag Manager or the measurement ID in your GTAG (in the source code of the website. I talk more about this here).

If the measurement ID is not matching, that might be the cause of your problem.

Don’t know how to check how GA4 is installed on your website? Read this article.

 

#8. Event parameters are not appearing in reports

Maybe you have a different situation: you are seeing the incoming events, and you are sending additional parameters with them. But for some reason, you cannot see them in GA4 reports.

You go to Reports > Engagement > Events > click a particular event, and there you can see the parameters only from the last 30 minutes.

If you are sending custom event parameters to Google Analytics 4 (that are not mentioned in the documentation or here), they need to be registered as custom dimensions. Only then you will start seeing the parameters in the reports. However, remember that it will take up to 48 hours for the custom dimension to start populating data. Also, the custom dimension will not apply to the data collected before you created the dimension.

Learn more about custom dimensions in GA4 here.

 

Other useful resources

This is not the first (and probably not the last) troubleshooting article for Google Analytics 4. Here are two more blog posts that might help you with challenges:

• What to do if GA4 debugview is not working?
• What to do if GA4 real-time reports are not working?

 

Google Analytics 4 Events Not Showing: Final words

These were the main reasons why Google Analytics 4 events are not showing up in your reports. I try to keep this list updated, so if none of the tips helped you, please post a comment below and describe your situation. I might update the article and add more ideas in the future.

If you managed to troubleshoot the situation yourself and found a new solution/reason, please post a comment too. I might include that tip in this blog post as well.