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August 13, 2021

Still Running tags in Google Tag Manager: Here’s how to fix it

Updated: August 13th, 2021

Here’s a problem: you enable Google Tag Manager Preview and Debug mode and see that a certain (or maybe multiple) tags are displayed as “still running”. You refresh the page but the problem still persists.

ga tag is still running in gtm preview and debug mode

Why are your tags in Google Tag Manager “Still running”? There are several reasons:

  • You have entered Google Analytics settings variable incorrectly
  • Google Consent Mode is preventing certain tags from succeeding
  • You have entered an incorrect Google Optimize container ID
  • The tag does not have enough time to be properly processed before page redirect/reload

Let’s take a closer look at each one of them (and what can you do about it).

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Reason #1: GA Settings Variable is inserted in the wrong field

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

  • You can enter the tracking ID (UA-XXXXXX-XX) in the Tracking ID field
    Tracking ID field
  • 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 Settings Drop-down

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.

GA Settings var in GA ID field

Tracking ID field supports only values of the following structure: UA-XXXXXXX-XX. However, GA Settings Variable is an object that contains multiple data points and settings (custom dimensions, GA tracking ID, cookie settings, cross-domain tracking configuration, etc.).

Google Analytics Settings Variable must be inserted ONLY in the GA Settings drop-down. No other field in the Universal Analytics tag template will support it, especially Tracking ID.

GA settings variable in the dropdown

 

So go back to the Google Tag Manager interface, open the tag that is always “still running” and check where have you inserted the GA settings variable.

 

Reason #2: Google consent mode is preventing some tags from succeeding

If you have implemented Google Consent Mode (GCM) on your website, it affects how your tags behave and send data to Google (by the way, if you want to learn how to properly implement GCM, I have ~45 minutes of video instructions in my GTM course for beginners.

In a nutshell, GCM is a global setting that you can configure on a website. If a visitor does not give consent for analytics_storage, then Google Analytics tags still fire but their data is anonymized. If consent is given, then the request (with all data) is sent to Google as usual.

But when it comes to ad_storage and marketing tags (like Google Ads), their behavior is different. If a visitor does not agree to be tracked for marketing purposes (read “ad_storage is denied”) and Google Ads tag fires, it will be displayed as “still running”.

Even though the tag is not displayed as “Succeeded”, it sent the request to Google Ads nevertheless (it is anonymized). But if the visitor agrees to marketing tracking on the same page, then the tag sends one more request (this time, without anonymization) and then tag’s status changes to “succeeded”. This is normal behavior if you have configured Google Consent Mode.

How can you know whether you are dealing with Google Consent Mode?

You will have to check the developer tools of your browser. In Chrome, click three dots > more tools > developer tools and open Network Tab.

Refresh the page and check the outgoing requests. If you use Google Ads with GCM, enter “googlesyndication.com”. No requests are found? Enter “doubleclick.net”.  When one of those requests are shown in the Network tab, click it and check if their URLs contain a parameter gcs.

If yes, you are dealing with Google consent mode. This means that marketing tags like Google Ads will be displayed as “Still running” in the GTM preview mode until a visitor gives consent for marketing tracking (by interacting with your cookie consent popup).

That is expected behavior and there isn’t much you can do about it.

If on the other hand, Google Ads tag remains “Still running” even after giving consent to marketing tracking, then your Google Consent Mode is not properly configured. That could be a very lengthy blog post to explain all the details (but as of the moment of writing this blog post I don’t have one). However, I have very detailed ste-by-step instructions and video tutorials about GCM setup in my GTM course for Beginners.

In a nutshell, you have to make sure that when a visitor clicks “I agree with marketing tracking” in your cookie consent popup, Google Consent Mode must be updated with “granted” permissions for ad_storage.

 

Reason #3: Incorrect Optimize Container ID

When you install Google Optimize on your website (e.g. via Google Tag Manager), it acts like a plugin of Google Analytics (in this situation, I am talking about Universal Analytics (GA3)).

The problem starts if you enter an incorrect Optimize container ID in the Optimize tag (regardless of whether it is added via GTM or hardcoded in website’s source code).

If Optimize snippet (with non-existent ID) is loaded on a page, all subsequently loaded Universal Analytics tags on that page will never succeed. You will see them as “Still running”.

Thus you should very carefully check whether you have entered a correct container ID. Older container IDs start with GTM-XXX (this is super confusing because that’s the same structure as GTM container snippet). Newer container IDs start with OPT-XXX.

Login to your Google Optimize account (at optimize.google.com) and verify container ID. I have seen some situations where people paste Google Tag Manager container ID in the Google Optimize tag’s settings. Don’t do that.

Also, don’t enter gibberish like this one:

 

Reason #4. The tag does not have enough time to be properly processed before page redirect/reload

If you fire tags on when a visitor clicks a link (and that link then redirects a visitor to another page (or maybe just refreshes the page)), sometimes you might notice that GA tags will be displayed as Still running. This won’t happen always but you might notice some random behavior when, say, 1 out of 5-10 times, the tag will stay as “still running”.

The reason why this happens is that the tag might not always have enough time to be properly processed by GTM before the page reloads or a user is redirected.

To add even more randomness, sometimes, you will still see that the event (sent by the “still running” GA tag) will be visible in GA real-time reports nevertheless. That’s because the tag might have had enough time to send the request to Google but GTM did not have enough time to finalize tag execution to change its status to “succeeded”.

If you are facing this situation and it is very important to you that the click-related event is tracked by Google Analytics as accurately as possible, you might want to consider using “Wait for tags” option in the Just Links click trigger. Giving an additional 1 second (1000 milliseconds) or 2 seconds can increase your accuracy.

In GTM, open your Just Links trigger, click Wait for Tags and add 1000. Then a new section will appear that asks you “on which pages do you want to activate this trigger”. If you answer is “all pages”, then Page Path contains / is what you should enter.

An example of the Just Links trigger configuration might look like this:

Save the trigger, refresh your GTM container’s preview mode and see if this reduced the number of times when GA tags are displayed as “still running”. If that did not help, try entering 2000 in the trigger.

 

Final words on this “still running” issue

From my experience, these 4 reasons are the most common ones why your tags are displayed as still running in the Preview mode. But if none of the tips worked, let me know in the comments. Maybe you will stumble upon something new that could be used to update this article.

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Julius Fedorovicius
In Google Tag Manager Tips
12 COMMENTS
Derek LeDoux
  • Jun 20 2019
  • Reply

This isn't entirely true. You don't have to manually input the GA property ID in the "Tracking ID" field in "UA-XXXXXXX-XX" format. You can use a custom variable for your GA property ID in the Tracking ID field as long as the variable is set up as a "Constant" and not set up as a "Google Analytics Setting Variable". :)

https://www.simoahava.com/analytics/google-analytics-settings-variable-in-gtm/

    Julius Fedorovicius
    • Jun 21 2019
    • Reply

    But the constant variable will still output the UA-XXXXXXX-XX in that field, therefore I'm not wrong :)

      Derek
      • Jun 23 2019
      • Reply

      I didn't mean you were wrong, it's just the way it's explained here could be confusing to some people new to GTM/Google Products if they don't yet know to make the connection that a "Variable" like {{GA Property ID}} will send a set "Value" like "UA-XXXXXX-XX" to Google Analytics.

      I bring this up coming from the perspective of someone who learned GTM with 99% of my info from sites like yours and Simo Ahava's (thank you both). Learning how to use products on the Google platform can be soul-crushingly confusing with the endless number of terms we have to learn. It's easy for experienced users to jump from term to term (rightfully so) and skip out on seemingly obvious pieces of information when offering great info like this. Just lookin' out for my n00b GTM brothers and sisters in the trenches just starting out.

      Thanks for all you do! Seriously you have been a life saver when I was on the brink of tears (on several occasions) a few years ago learning GTM for the first time. <3

Vincent Luk
  • May 18 2020
  • Reply

Hi thanks for this, it solved my problem big time!

I was wondering if you could put out the steps for adding the Vimeo Video views as a goal? I can't seem to make it work! What would the Category, Label, and Action be? I matched it to the GTM tag but get no results!

    Julius
    • May 18 2020
    • Reply

    I already did something similar https://www.analyticsmania.com/post/google-analytics-goals-not-working/

Vincent Luk
  • May 18 2020
  • Reply

Hi thanks! I actually figured it out by reading some other blogs (that don't tell you directly either). I found the trick to know how to setup Goals in Google Analytics that work 100%!

Just sharing what I found to work:

After setting up the GTM to work as Event in GA go to Real-time view and execute the Event on the website. Watch how the Real-time view logs the Event Category and Event Action as you trigger the event on the website. Whatever it says in Event Category and Event Action, use those as the Goals setup!

This saved me from a very bad day. Thanks for your help!

TM
  • Aug 13 2021
  • Reply

I have this issue (but it only happens intermittently) and the four options did not work for me. I am 100% sure the tag is setup correctly and using a GA variable for the container ID. Initially going to the site it will ask you to consent (Ga tag says it's 'still running'), click to accept cookies, refresh, and tag still says 'still running'. Checked in the Network tab in Dev Tools and do not have anything related to 'googlesyndication.com'. The site is connected to clickdimensions and there is a known issue when GA is hardcoded and the two have a conflict over the 'ga' global variable, but I am using GTM to control G-Analytics instead of hardcoding it into the sight. Any thoughts?

Keshan
  • Oct 5 2021
  • Reply

Hi Julius,

Always find your articles really helpful.

However on the above, what if my GTM Trigger is a All Clicks trigger, where I've set it to fire on some clicks. Unlike in the Just Links trigger this doesn't provide an option called 'wait for Tags.

Thanks in advance

Kasia
  • Oct 19 2021
  • Reply

Hi Julius,

I hope you can give me some hints.
My Google Ads conversion tag is still running. I guess it's because of bad? consent mode implementation. Even though consent is given tag is not being fired. After granting consent, the page is reloading, so consent mode is set before pageview.
Any ideas why the tag might not work?
(The Facebook tag with ad_storage consent set works perfectly fine)

Alberto
  • Jan 20 2022
  • Reply

Hi Julius, Thank you very much for this interesting article. I am having a Firing Status problem too with a Google Ads tag. However, I dont think is there any solution for it in your article. Actually, for the same event, the analytics Tag status is normal but not the Google Ads one, that is "Failed" .. Do you have any idea why? Could it be a cookie related problem in the website? I already search for the google consent mode words in the network tab and didn't find anything, so I suppose is not related to that..
Thank you 🙏

    Julius Fedorovicius
    • Jan 26 2022
    • Reply

    Difficult to tell the solution without doing an audit of the setup.

Daniel
  • Jul 6 2022
  • Reply

Hi Julius,

thanks as always for your information. I believe I'm having an issue with "The tag does not have enough time to be properly processed before page redirect/reload"

The problem is, the trigger is a 'Custom event' (it's picking up a custom event from a form submission) which doesn't have the 'wait time' option.

How can I get round this issue?

Thanks

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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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