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November 2, 2022

Google Analytics Real-time Reports Not Working? Here’s How To Fix It

Updated: November 2nd, 2022. Here’s a situation. You have just set up Google Analytics tracking, opened GA Real-time reports, and nothing. You don’t see anything. No page views, no events, nothing. Sounds familiar? Relax. You’re not alone.

In fact, this issue is getting more and more popular these days as people have been contacting me through various channels (Facebook messages, comments, emails) with pretty similar issues: I’ve set up GA tracking, but no events are displayed in the real-time reports or just My Google Analytics Real-time reports are not working, etc.

To save you (and others) some time, I’ve decided to compile a list of the most common mistakes in why Google Analytics real-time reports are not working.

Quick side note: if you’re also struggling with Google Tag Manager, check this list of most common GTM mistakes.

Also, keep in mind that this article refers to Universal Analytics (GA3).

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No data in Google Analytics realtime reports at all?

If you don’t see any data at all in your Real-Time reports, the most likely cause is either in the Google Analytics tracking code or GA/GTM misconfiguration. You should check your tags in Google Tag Manager, and Google Analytics filters, and also use browser extensions for debugging.

 

#1.  Google Analytics Settings Variable is inserted in the wrong field

This one is related to Google Tag Manager. When you create a Universal Analytics Tag, you need to set the destination GA property that will receive those events/pageviews/hits. There are two options for how to do that in GTM:

  • You can enter the tracking ID (UA-XXXXXXX-XX) in the Tracking ID field
    google analytics real time not working
  • Or you can set that ID in the Google Analytics Settings Variable and then pick that variable in the designated field within Universal Analytics Tag.
    google analytics real time not working

Both options are correct and will work fine. However, some people tend to mix them and, therefore, break the tracking implementation. Usually, they insert a Google Analytics Settings Variable in the Tracking ID field and that will never work.

google analytics real time not working

The tracking ID field supports only values of the following structure: UA-XXXXXXX-XX.

Google Analytics Settings Variable must be inserted ONLY in the GA Settings drop-down.

google analytics real time not working

Remember, the fact that the Universal Analytics tag was fired with Google Tag Manager does not mean that the data was actually sent to a 3rd party tool.

This issue is especially common among those who download GTM Recipes, don’t follow the instructions and just insert GA Variable in the Tracking ID field. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to update all the recipes to include GA Settings Variable by default but I guess this will have to be tackled sooner rather than later.

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#2.  No data in the Real-time reports at all? Check GA filters

By saying Internal Traffic, I mean your own traffic. It might be your company’s IP address, your home IP address, and other addresses which indicate that it’s you or your colleagues. Since nobody wants to distort their tracking data with fake/useless traffic (of their own), it’s common sense to filter it out.

However, sometimes people forget about this configuration and desperately seek answers to why their interactions are not displayed in Google Analytics Real-time reports.

In order to check this hypothesis, go to Google Analytics Admin settings, choose the view you’re currently working on, and click Filters. Keep looking for a filter that excludes traffic, and its title is related to the “internal traffic”, “home IP address”, or something else.

Once you find your suspect, click it and double-check. Usually, the Internal Traffic filter looks like this:

google analytics real time not working

If you found it, keep it. My suggestion would be to create a new Google Analytics view with no filters or with a filter that includes only traffic from your IP address. You can call such views Sandbox. Feel free to test your interactions there.

 

#3. Real-time report’s quick filters are not cleared

When you’re analyzing real-time data, you might want to dig deeper and check only its subset. How can this be done? Simply by clicking any link in the report, e.g. a page URL, a blue bubble appears at the top of the page.

google analytics real time not working

This is a quick filter that indicates that you’re now currently monitoring a particular segment of users that are on your website.

Even if you go to another section of the Google Analytics Real-time reports, that filter still persists. Sometimes this causes a misunderstanding when people simply forget about it. Correspondingly, GA users might think that event/pageview tracking is not working even though everything is fine. The events are being received without any issues. They’re just not displayed due to quick filter configuration.

Allow me to illustrate this with an example: you’re checking Real-time event reports and click the Event Category Click. After that, you decide to check another event, Form Submission. You try to submit a form multiple times on a website, but events do not appear in the RT report. Why?

This has happened because your Real-time filter is set to display ONLY events of the Click category and form submission does not meet this criterion (it belongs to the Form Submission Event Category).

The solution is pretty simple, keep an eye on the top bar of the Google Analytics Real-time report and, if needed, remove unused/unnecessary filters by clicking the white X icon.

Close quick filter

Are Google Analytics Real-time reports still not working for you? No worries. Maybe other tips will help you. Let’s continue.

 

#4.  Are pageviews and events not showing in the Real-Time reports? Maybe Opt-out Extensions’ fault?

Another option how website owners who want to exclude their own traffic is the Google Analytics Opt-out add-on, Block yourself from analytics, or other browser extensions which tell the Google Analytics JavaScript not to send information to Google Analytics.

In order to start seeing your events/pageviews/etc. in GA Real-time reports, you’ll need to either temporarily remove the extension or disable it (depending on the extension’s functionality).

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#5.  Events are set to “non-interaction hit: true”

Sometimes people ask why they are seeing pageview real-time data but no events. It turns out, the non-interaction hit setting causes this “problem”.

Firstly, let’s remember what a bounce is in web analytics. A bounced session is a single-interaction session when a visitor lands on a page, did nothing, and then left. In very basic Google Analytics tracking, only a pageview is an interaction. But if you implement GA event tracking, you start sending more interactions to Google Analytics. Therefore, your bounce rate will be lower.

When a visitor lands on a page, submits a form (which is tracked as a GA event), and then leaves, this session will not be counted as a bounce because there were two interactions, page view, and form submission. You can learn more about the bounce rate here.

However, not all events should be treated as actual interactions. Therefore, not all events should affect the bounce rate—for example, scroll tracking. A person can land on a page, scroll down for a second, realize that there’s nothing useful for him, and leave.

If you treated the scroll event as an actual interaction, your bounce rate would be distorted and unrealistically low. Google Analytics has a solution for such events. You can set them as non-interaction hits. This means that events will be tracked and displayed in Google Analytics event reports, but they will not affect the bounce rate.

Anyway, a fun fact is that non-interaction hits are displayed a bit bizarrely in real-time event reports. They are visible as little dark blue lines in the right section of the real-time report. However, you’ll not see them in the Active users tab.

google analytics real time not working

On the other hand, you can see those events in the Events (Last 30 minutes) tab of the real-time event reports. So some people get confused and don’t know that non-interaction events are hidden a bit deeper in the report.

google analytics real time not working

How can you check if your events are sent as non-interaction hits?

If you’re using Google Tag Manager, open a Universal Analytics event tag and start looking for a non-interaction hit drop-down. If it’s set to Yes, this event will not affect your bounce rate and will not be visible in the All users tab of RT event reports.

google analytics real time not working

The default value of all newly created Universal Analytics event tags is non-interaction hit: false.

Another option to check this configuration is by using a GA Debugger browser extension. Download it, enable (by clicking the icon), then go to the browser tab where you’re currently working, open browser’s JavaScript console, and refresh the page.

You should see something like that.

google analytics real time not working

That’s the data that was sent to Google Analytics. If the nonInteraction parameter is set to 1, this means true. If you cannot find the parameter at all, this means that its value is 0 (false).

google analytics real time not working

 

#6.  Ghostery or other tracker-blocking extension is preventing GA data from being sent

Another reason why Google Analytics Real-time reports are not working might be browser extensions. Are there any related to ad-blocking or web-tracking-blocking (e.g., Ghostery)? If yes, try disabling them, refresh the page that you’re currently trying to track, and check GA real-time reports.

 

#7.  Google Analytics Events are sent to the Wrong GA property

Sometimes sh*t happens and I’ve caught myself several times committing this “crime”, especially when I have 50+ open browser tabs across multiple screens. We are all mortals, we do mistakes.

So double-check your Google Tag Manager settings and compare the Google Analytics tracking ID to the actual property you’re monitoring in the GA Real-time reports.

If you don’t use GTM, use the aforementioned GA Debugger plugin and look for trackingId parameter in the JavaScript console.

google analytics real time not working

That’s the ID of the Google Analytics property that you’re actually sending data to.

 

#8. Is Google Analytics installed at all?

I know this might sound like a stupid question, but Are you sure Google Analytics tracking code is installed at all? If you’re not sure, it’s pretty easy to check. One of the options is to install Google Tag Assistant browser extension.

By default, Tag Assistant is in “sleep mode”, meaning that it does not check anything that’s happening on a page. In order to activate it, click the blue tag icon and then Enable.

google analytics real time not working

Now refresh the page. If any Google’s products (including GA) are implemented on that page, you’ll start seeing a particular number within that blue tag icon which represents the count of tags found. In fact, the Tag Assistant’s icon works like a litmus, its color changes according to the context.

When Google Tag Assistant is enabled and the page is refreshed, the color of its icon can change to one of the following 4 options:

  • Red
  • Yellow
  • Blue
  • Green

Red color means that at least one Google Tag (let’s say, Google Analytics) has a major issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible. Click the red icon to find out more, about what the issue is and how to fix it.

Yellow color means that at least one Google Tag has a minor issue, and the issue should be addressed, otherwise, you might face some tracking discrepancies.

Blue icon means that some non-standard implementation is found. While usually, such issues are not as serious as major (red) or minor (yellow) problems, you still might want to take a look at your implementation.

Green is the color you should be looking for. It means that all tags highlighted with green color are working perfectly.

Now, let’s try to diagnose your GA implementation. First of all, check if Google Analytics Tag is visible in the list of Tag Analysis. If not, try to find the reason why there’s no GA Tracking Code on the website. Maybe the developer forgot to push changes to the website? Maybe you’re working with the wrong GTM container?

google analytics real time not working

If Google Tag Assistant found Google Analytics, what is the color of that tag icon next to it?

google analytics real time not working

If it’s red or yellow, click the tag for further inspection. Tag Assistant is pretty good at providing answers or at least giving hints what’s wrong.

google analytics real time not working

If you’re not sure what a particular error means, google it. Chances are pretty high that you’ll find the answer in Google Forums or another place.

You can learn more about Google Tag Assistant in this guide.

 

#9. You’re checking the User-ID view in GA but not passing the actual User-ID to GA

This one came up in one of the discussions in our GTM community on Facebook. In case you did not know, a User-ID view is a special reporting view that only displays data from sessions in which you send unique ID and related data to Analytics. User-ID views include a set of Cross-Device reports, which aren’t available in other reporting views).

If you carefully re-read the previous paragraph, you’ll notice that this view displays only those pageviews/events/transactions, that contain a User ID. By default, the User ID is not some default dimension in Google Analytics. You need to do additional configurations to send it to GA.

How can you check if you’re looking at the User-ID view (and not a regular view?).

Go to GA Admin > Choose the View that you’re currently working on and go to View Settings. If you see User-ID Reports: Enabled, this means that the view is indeed only for analyzing data with User ID.

google analytics real time not working

What options do you have here?

  1. Switch to another view in that property. There should be at least one other regular view.
  2. Or do additional configurations in your GTM container to start sending the User ID as a {{variable}} to GA.

 

#10. Only the first page view is tracked? Or maybe not all parts of the URL are visible in real-time reports?

This is, most likely, happening because you’re tracking a single-page application. Such applications/websites mean that whenever a visitor navigates from one page/view/state from another, the page, technically, is not reloading.

Visually it might look like it is reloading, but actually, it does not. And that is the problem because, by default, Google Analytics tracks the page view only once when the page loads. All the subsequent interactions must be configured/tracked additionally.

This is why only the first page view is tracked by GA.

  1. The page loads
  2. Google Analytics is loaded, meaning that the page view is tracked
  3. The visitor continues to browse pages, but GA does not catch such interactions, and no subsequent page views are tracked (unless the visitor actually refreshes the page with his/her browser.

So what should you do? In such a case, you should send virtual page views every time a visitor navigates to another page. I’ve published a guide on this topic if a website’s URL contains the hashmark (#) and it is changing.

If your single-page app/website does not utilize #, then read this guide.

One more thing that you should know is that if your website’s URL contains a hash mark (#), Google Analytics will not display that. Just like in the screenshot below.

no hash mark in google analytics reports

What’s the solution here? Send the value of the hash mark as a page parameter with all Google Analytics hits. Like in the screenshot below.

google analytics real time not working

In my guide on how to track single page applications, you’ll learn how to do that precisely.

 

Bonus: Are Google Analytics goals not appearing in the real-time reports?

If you are trying to debug GA goals in real-time reports but for some reason, they do not appear there, take a look at this guide with a bunch of possible reasons.

 

Google Analytics Real-time Reports Not Working: Final words

GA Real-time reports are a great feature that enables you to check if the data from your website is passed correctly to Google. However, sometimes analysts and marketers fall into a trap when tracking data (or a part of it) is missing.

There are many reasons why Google Analytics real-time reports might not work and in this guide, I’ve listed the most common mistakes which can cause that. Obviously, this list is far from complete (and I’m sure I’ll update it in the future) but these bloopers are the ones I deal with the most often.

Did I miss anything? Got anything to add? I’d be more than happy to hear your thoughts/experiences.

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Julius Fedorovicius
In Google Analytics Tips Google Tag Manager Tips
30 COMMENTS
Daniela
  • Jul 23 2018
  • Reply

Hi Julius, thank you for the great tips! Becaus of your article I found out that it was a beginner's mistake =) I finally got GA working again since I switched to GA deployment via Tag Manager.

Cheers

    Julius
    • Jul 23 2018
    • Reply

    Great! Glad to help!

Jan Wencel
  • Sep 26 2018
  • Reply

Great piece. Many thanks for posting. The Tag Assistant extension proved valuable.

Arindam Moitra
  • Jan 30 2019
  • Reply

Hi,

Can't thank you enough for this article! I had get up some non-interaction events with gtag.js for my blog. It was showing up with Tag Assistant and Wasp extension. But the event hit was not reflecting on Active users tab in Real Time Reports. I got confused and felt that it was caused by some syntax error or js conflict. Now I know the issue. Thanks a ton and hope to get many more insights from you on such common pitfalls.

Tyler
  • Feb 21 2019
  • Reply

The only google code injection I have is the required one in the top of header and the noscript in the body, i've deleted all other tracking codes from google to start fresh. I then connected my google analytics property with a tag and used my ID as a variable.

It worked but I decided to use a new view and start fresh due to the amount of unnecessary goals in the analytics view, making conversion tracking confusing. The old view still tracks properly but the new view isn't picking up any data but is firing properly as i can tell, it does have a pageview request when I use Tag assistant but that is it

    Julius Fedorovicius
    • Feb 25 2019
    • Reply

    Hi, Can you give me more information about this? I don't quite follow you without a proper context.

Mark
  • Apr 25 2019
  • Reply

Was trying to find here if Real Time stats reports still work when the website connection Google Analytics has is only from Google Search Console (Analytics connection to Search Console property).

This would certainly qualify as an error to resolve.

I am still researching, but so far it seems the real time stats will not show when the only connection Google Analytics has to the website is through the Search Console property connection. - can you confirm that?

If my above impression is correct, that means I would need to insert the Analytics GA tag to get real time stats - but - if I do that, will that cause issues with the data flow connection between Search Console and Analytics?

Looking forward to your answer.

    Julius Fedorovicius
    • Apr 25 2019
    • Reply

    Yes, search console data is not displayed in real-time. And it never will be because it is imported once a day with a 2 or 3 days delay.

    If you implement GA tag, in real-time reports this will not make your search console data to appear in real-time. You'll just start seeing people who are on your site right now and have loaded your GA tag (but, once again, this is not related to the Search console data). Those are different reports and data sets.

      Mark
      • Apr 25 2019
      • Reply

      Sorry, did not see your post, seems I posted my reply just as you posted yours :)

      Yep, your reply confirms what I found, much thanks!

      I guess using the GA tag won't harm anything, so I will do that.

      Much thanks for the quick reply :)

    Mark
    • Apr 25 2019
    • Reply

    I just found the answer here:

    https://medium.com/@mrlevyelad/using-google-analytics-and-search-console-data-to-identify-low-hanging-fruit-queries-b83d92db0b0

    ...that article said, "Its downside is that this data isn’t coming in real time as Google maintains a 3 day delay on the reported data. And yet, a topic trending can definitely be identified by this."

    Ok, now I see that I do have to add the Analytic GA tag for any real time stats. Still, I do not know if this double type connection will screw up the overall results

Jahanzaib
  • Apr 26 2019
  • Reply

Thanks A Lot For Help.

Ricky Ventaglio
  • Apr 26 2019
  • Reply

Hi Julius!
Great article! Very helpful.
I do have a question though: I am trying to track 5 different button clicks on the same page, the home page of fivep.com.au (it’s like a carousel with 5 different CTAs).
I have used GTM to set up the first button to be tracked (GA RT report showed my test fired correctly only under LAST 30mins EVENT and then I can see the data under BEHAVIOR>EVENTS>TOP EVENTS).
However, when trying to do the same for the second button, it looks like the tag is firing correctly as I can see it the the RT report only under LAST 30 MINS EVENTS, but I can’t see it under BEHAVIOR. I’ve tried to refresh the report multiple times. I don’t know what I am doing wrong. Please help.
Thank you
Ricky

    Julius Fedorovicius
    • Apr 26 2019
    • Reply

    Hi, you need patience. Standard GA reports are not real-time. It might take minutes or even hours for the data to appear there.

      Ricky
      • Apr 26 2019
      • Reply

      Hi Julius, thanks very much for your swift reply. So, why the first hit appeared in the standard BEHAVIOR report almost straight after and the hit on the second button didn’t?
      I’ve downloaded two of your guides! So good.
      Thank you

        Julius Fedorovicius
        • Apr 26 2019
        • Reply

        Most likely luck and coincidence :)

Marcel van Vugt
  • May 24 2019
  • Reply

Wow, you nailed it ... it was as simple as the GA Filter where we filtered our local IP address.

Thank you SO much!

Ilan Perez
  • Nov 5 2019
  • Reply

40 minutes laters I read your post and realise I have installed an ad blocker! While I am not 100% sure it is at fault, changing browsers and running the hit URL...and now everything is working.

Thanks for the post.

Jay
  • Nov 20 2019
  • Reply

Julius,

I read the article twice, a great article but I didn't find any solution to my problem.
My GA is showing good number of traffic in real-time overview, where when I check Real-Time -> Content, the number drastically changes. I already excluded bots.
Can you help me why this is happening?

    Julius Fedorovicius
    • Nov 20 2019
    • Reply

    Maybe the majority of your users are just sending events without pageviews? If I recall correctly, content just displays pageview data

Marianne Moe
  • Mar 24 2020
  • Reply

Never thought it could be a forgotten opt-out extension that would cause my tracking work so much trouble. Great article. Helped me from losing my wits. Thanks a bunch!

Ilan
  • Apr 24 2020
  • Reply

Hi,

Great tips, in my case I'm still having an issue. I can see custom events sent. but I do not see timing events. There are no filter and not exclusion of any bots. I'm sending all events from server side to log job times and performance. But no timing events show up. What am I missing?

    Julius
    • Apr 25 2020
    • Reply

    Timing is not displayed in real time reports. Wait for the data appear in standard site speed reports.

    If you also don't see the timing in standard reports, then validate your timing hit in GA hit builder (google that and you'll find it)

claudia
  • Oct 6 2020
  • Reply

I have a question.
when i start the preview mode in tag manager and then submit a form it does show in analytics, as an event, as well as a conversion.
But when i close the preview mode and submit a form it doesn't show in analytics.
Who can help me?

    Julius
    • Oct 6 2020
    • Reply

    Hi, publish a container

ClaudiaC
  • Oct 6 2020
  • Reply

Hi Julius, great work! I was very proud of myself these last few days when I created my first tags & triggers thanks to your online videos, thank you! Today though I realised mobile sessions are not being tracked. Do you have a specific solution for this? I went through the list but couldn't find it.

    Julius Fedorovicius
    • Oct 6 2020
    • Reply

    There is a chance that your mobile version does not have GTM installed. Consult with your developers about this.

Karla
  • Nov 29 2021
  • Reply

Hi Julius,

I have a brain puzzle for you: we are tracking a "click URL" - a button on several pages, via an Analytics goal. We made sure the URL is the same on all pages. The problem: the goal is activated only upon clicking on some buttons, but not all. I.e. the one on the homepage does not trigger a goal, but the one on the HR page does, and so does the one on the News page. We verified how the goals are set up in UA, we checked the tag and trigger in GTM. We checked the setting you mention to see if anything was amiss. Nothing. We are lost. What could be the issue?

    Julius Fedorovicius
    • Dec 1 2021
    • Reply

    Difficult to tell without doing an audit. A support for this kind of scale of issue would be included if you enroll in my GTM courses https://www.analyticsmania.com/courses/

sasikumar
  • Apr 1 2022
  • Reply

Hi, Im focusing on pageviews for my website. In GA4 realtime report, I can get pageviews but very late for sometimes. why???

    Julius Fedorovicius
    • Apr 13 2022
    • Reply

    Probably there is some delay. I very rarely rely on real-time reports

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Hi, I'm Julius Fedorovicius and I'm here to help you learn Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics. Join thousands of other digital marketers and digital analysts in this exciting journey. Read more
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