February 16, 2019
Is Google Tag Manager Preview Mode Not Working? 16 Quick Ways To Fix It.
Updated: February 16, 2019. Is Google Tag Manager Preview Mode not working? I’m pretty sure we’ve all been there at least once. This issue has caused some serious headache in the very beginning when I started using it. Does this sound familiar to you? – GTM Preview and Debug mode is enabled but does not appear on your website (or appears, but does not function properly). Just don’t rage quit and read the following tips on how to fix Google Tag Manager Preview and Debug mode. I’m sure at least one of them will apply to your issue.
#1. GTM Snippet is Not Added to the Website
Here’s an example: you asked a developer to follow Tag Manager’s instructions and add container snippet to the website. After some time he completes the task but something’s not right here – Preview and Debug console still does not appear after you enable it. Turns out the snippet was never published to the live version of your website – a developer made a gawky mistake and somehow failed to publish changes.
There are two ways to verify whether GTM snippet implementation:
- Use Tag Assistant Chrome extension which checks for Google pixels on the page (e.g. Google Analytics, Adwords, Google Tag Manager) and provides real-time feedback.
- Check website’s source code. Click Ctrl + U (I guess it’s CMD + U for Mac users?) in your browser and look for GTM container code there.
#2. Wrong Container Snippet Added to the Website
Although this tip might sound silly, you should not ignore it. In order to verify, open your GTM account and check the upper right corner of the screen – see GTM container ID?. Compare it with the one which is added to your website’s source code.
Compare it with the one which is added to your website’s source code. Tag Assistant will help you do that.
#3. You Have Enabled GTM Preview and Debug Mode in the Wrong Container
The more Google Tag Manager accounts and containers you have, the bigger chance you’ll eventually make this mistake. I have been there more than once and it keeps getting more and more frustrating every time. So do not forget to double-check whether the container is right. You can follow the method described in tip #2.
#4. You Need To Use the Same Browser
When Preview and Debug mode is enabled, GTM sends your browser a special cookie that allows you to preview without changing your actual site. You’ll get to see your site with your changes as if they were deployed. That’s why both Google Tag Manager account interface (which sets the cookie) and website with P&D mode enabled (which reads cookie’s data) must be opened in the same browser.
Here are few examples what might and might not work:
- Will work – Both Google Tag Manager account and your website are opened in Chrome’s regular tab.
- Won’t work – GTM account is opened in Chrome’s regular tab, but your website is opened in incognito (a.k.a. private) tab.
- Won’t work – GTM account is opened with Firefox and your website is opened with Chrome.
#5. Make Sure Your Browser Accepts 3rd Party Cookies
Some users are really concerned about their online presence and security, so they’ve decided to disable 3rd party cookies. In some occasions, browser’s default settings might have 3rd party cookies disabled. Remember that “special” cookie mentioned in tip #4? Yup, that’s also a 3rd party cookie. Without it, Preview and Debug mode will not appear on your website. You have two options here:
- Enable 3rd party cookies in your browser’s settings. Here’s a list of instructions how to start accepting those cookies in various browsers.
- Keep 3rd party cookies disabled, but add an exception to www.googletagmanager.com
#6. Using Tag Manager Injector? Leave No Empty Space
If you haven’t used Tag Manager Injector chrome extension before, you definitely should. It makes the transition to Google Tag Manager as quick and painless as possible. The extension gives you the ability to run/preview a GTM container on your site without needing to add any JavaScript to your pages. You just open the extension and paste your GTM container’s ID into the predefined field. 
However, there is one bug. You need to paste that ID precisely without any blank spaces before or after, otherwise TagManajerInjector will not work => Preview and Debug console will not appear in your browser. Examples:
- ” GTM-XXXXX” is incorrect (because there is a blank space before GTM container’s ID)
- “GTM-XXXXX ” is also incorrect for the same reason – blank space, but this time it’s after container’s ID.
- “GTM-XXXXX” is the only correct option.
Unfortunately, this extension does not strip unnecessary blank spaces in the ID field (well, at least for now), so you should bear that in mind.
#7. Using Tag Manager Injector? Check its settings.
Another awesome feature of TagManagerInjector is the ability to inject Google Tag Manager snippet only on certain websites – just use include settings and define a domain or regular expression.
However, there’s also a room for mistake. Leave this setting unattended and you might end up blocking the right website from displaying Preview and Debug Console. So make sure you’ve added correct rules or leave the field blank (which is a default setting for “Include all websites”).
#8. Enabled Preview and Debug mode? Then Refresh the Website
Not much to add here, actually. Whenever you enable P&D mode, refresh the website where you expect it to appear. This is a very rare but still possible mistake among beginners.
#9. Preview and Debug Mode Is All White?
I haven’t faced this problem myself but noticed few folks on the internet trying to cope with it. My suggestion here is to put the blame on browser extensions/plugins. Try disabling them one-by-one and check whether it helped (by refreshing the website with Preview and Debug console enabled).
Update: Apparently I am not the only one who faced this problem. In my case disabling plugins in browser helped. The issue might also be caused by the conflict between your website’s CSS and GTM.
According to Simo Ahava, when GTM loads the Preview and Debug panel on the website, style conflicts might arise if they share the same namespace. In other words – if particular elements on your website use the same style class (e.g. div class=”gtm-some-class”), then problems might occur while debugging.
If this happens, your best bet is to contact the developer team via the Send Feedback link in the UI, or by posting the issue in the Product Forums.
#10. Preview Panel Appears Only After ~10 Minutes And Multiple Refreshes
Update #2: Several people in the comments have complained that Preview and Debug panel randomly did not appear in the website, although both container and webpage had been refreshed. It usually took them about 10 minutes of wait until Google Tag Manager P&D panel started working again. P.S. No Javascript errors were logged in the browser’s console.
I am still not sure what’s the reason behind it (looks like the issue with cookies), but I noticed that clearing/temporarily disabling cache helped. I am sure that you really don’t want to clear cache several times a day.
Update #3: Brian Kuhn has explained what caused this issue:
Chrome has recently changed the way its location.reload() API works. This has broken GTM’s ability to clear out the old (non-preview) gtm.js from your browser cache. The result is that you won’t see the preview-version of gtm.js until that cached value expires (~15 minutes).
No worries, I have a pretty convenient way of solving it.
The following step-by-step tutorial is for Chrome users. If you’re using another browser – search for similar features. I am pretty sure other browsers offer similar functionality.
- In Chrome, open Developer Tools (Press F12 on Windows or Cmd + Opt + I on Mac, or simply go to Chrome Menu > More tools > Developer Tools and a panel will appear.
- Click three dots located in the right corner (1) and then choose Settings (2).
- Find the Network section and hit the Disable cache (while DevTools is open) checkbox.
- Now, refresh both browser tabs – with GTM user interface and your website (leave the Developer tools opened).
In my case, it helped and the Google Tag Manager P&D panel appeared. Now you can close the Developer tools panel.
If the issue resurfaces, just open Developer tools and refresh browser tab. That should do the trick.
Did it help? Let me know in the comments.
#11. Cannot Resize Preview and Debug Console?
I am not sure what the exact reason behind this bug is, but it’s pretty annoying when appears. Google Tag Manager P&D console can be easily resized by dragging the top border up or down. It’s a basic but very useful feature. However, sometimes I face the problem when I try changing P&D console’s height, but it doesn’t adjust. Clearing browser cookies and the cache was the solution that helped me.
#12. Your AdBlocker or Other Similar Extension Is Blocking GTM
Call it a feature or symptom of today’s web browsing behavior, but ad and content blockers are making the life for web analysts difficult. Firefox, for example, offers Tracking Protection out-of-the-box, and it blocks Google Analytics by default.
Popular browser extensions like Ghostery and AdBlock Plus make it easy to block Google Tag Manager, too. So if you’re using one of the blockers, try disabling them and see, whether it helped. The same problem applies to extensions which block trackers, e.g. Avira Browser Safety, Ghostery, or DuckDuckGo Privacy. So if you want to see the debug panel, you’ll need to disable the extension.
This does not happen too often, but there’s still a chance.
#13. CloudFlare Is Altering the Way GTM.JS Is Loaded
This tip comes from our reader Chris.
A Content Delivery Network or CDN is designed to cache the static content on sites through a wide geographic network. The end result of using the CDN is that the static content will be delivered faster to the visitor from the network node in closest proximity to the visitor, thereby shortening the amount of time it takes the page load for your site’s visitors.
CDN also affects how JavaScript is pulled and gtm.js (Google Tag Manager’s JS library) isn’t an exception. If you’re using CloudFlare (a very popular CDN solution), make sure you have the feature called Rocket Loader disabled. I highly recommend consulting your developer about this issue.
#14. Content Security Policy Is Blocking GTM Scripts from Loading
A Content Security Policy (CSP) is something your developers might configure a web server with to add an additional layer of protection. Once you have a CSP in place, all resources loaded and executed by the web page need to pass the CSP directives (including Google Tag Manager’s script).
If Preview and Debug mode does not appear at all or appears without its usual styles, and you see errors in developer’s console saying something like “Refused to load […] because it violates the following Content Security Policy directive ….“, then you’ve just found the reason why GTM isn’t working.
What’s the solution? A developer will have to modify the CSP and Simo Ahava has explained it in greater detail.
#15. You’re Working with Firefox Private Mode
Unfortunately, Firefox private mode blocks Google Tag Manager. So in this case, you should quit the private mode and browse with a regular mode.
#16. GTM code was accidentally modified while copy/pasting it to the developer
This situation happens when you want to send the GTM container code to a developer, copy it from tag manager’s interface, then paste it to some word file (maybe Google Docs or some other text editing tool) and then send the code to a developer.
Little did you know that the text editing tool “fixed” the container code according to certain grammar rules, maybe removed or added some spacing, changed apostrophes, etc.
Even though the code looks the same (at first sight), it won’t work (meaning that your Preview and Debug mode also won’t appear).
Here’s an example. On a website, a developer added GTM container snippet. However, if you take a closer look at apostrophes (in the screenshot below), they look wrong.
In JavaScript, apostrophes must be ‘ ‘, but in the screenshot below they are ‘ ’. Similar, but not the same.
A solution for this? Copy the GTM container code in the GTM interface and paste it to the .txt file (e.g. via Notepad), save the file and then send it to a developer. An alternative solution would be to copy the code and paste it to pastebin.com. Save the paste and then forward the link to a developer. When a dev opens the link, he/she will see the raw/unmodified code.
GTM Preview Mode Not Working: Conclusion
Google Tag Manager’s preview mode allows you to browse a site on which your container code is implemented as if the current container draft was deployed. Sites with preview mode enabled will display a debugger pane below the website content so that you can inspect which tags fired and in which order. A thorough previewing and debugging process will help you avoid the risk of compromising your live site with tagging issues.
Is Google Tag Manager preview mode not working for you? In this blog post, I outlined 16 quick tips how you can make the preview and debug mode start working right away – from checking your cookie settings to using Tag Assistant.
If Google Tag Manager Preview mode is still not working for you (even after reading this blog post), post a comment below and we’ll come up with a solution.
I have also published a post on most common Google Tag Manager mistakes (some of which were mentioned in this post as well). I might save you some time in the future 🙂
144 COMMENTS
Hi,
Good article! I've also noticed that if you have a custom html tag that's also is in the sourcecode of the page the debug window does not show. E.g. Zopim Live Chat script.
BR Daniel
Haven't noticed that before. I will try to reproduce this bug and add it to the list, in case the test is successful.
Thanks for the idea, Daniel!
Daniel... i was breaking up my head trying to find out why im facing this problem. Now you mention "Zopin" and everything makes sense... :|
thanks.
Hi,
It seems like I've been experiencing more and more issues with the preview and debugger mode lately-- most recently, it will randomly chose when to work. I am not a beginner in this space and have several active accounts. This is definitely a new issue for me, but I've found when I first attempt to use P&D, refreshing both pages, it won't work the first time around... in fact, I usually have to give it a solid 10 minutes, then refresh the page and it will magically work. I've done hard refreshes, looked for JS errors, nothing. Strange!
Interesting. I haven't faced similar issues. But your situation is worth to be added to the list.
I noted it for the future updates.
Thanks!
Hi Teresa, thanks for this. Unlike you I am a complete beginner to GTM and technical stuff like it. When you try and open it up fresh it doesn't work for at least 10 mins or so... good to know its not just me this is happening to... bloody annoying though.
I have just faced this very exact issue and found a workaround. Check tip #10 and let me know if it helped.
#10 is genius. Saved me a bunch of time!!
You are welcome!
#10 was my issue.
Thanks SO much for the help!
Glad to help
Thanks a lot. Disabling the cache on dev tools worked!
You're welcome!
#10 saved me. Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
Wow, looks like there are some serious problems with Preview and Debug mode in GTM, since a lot of my readers had to use solution #10.
Anyway, glad to help.
Hi,
I have been facing this problem, As Both the Preview & Publish options are now in separate boxes,
secondly when I choose Preview option, I can't see the Preview Mode working on Website. I remember a few months back I sought to look into the preview mode but now it's not working, I am unable to view tags. I have also gone with #10, but it's not working.I hope you can help me here.
Thanks
Hey,
1. What browser are you using?
2. After you click the Preview button, does the orange bar appear?
3. What browser extensions are you using?
4. Are you sure your browser accepts 3rd party cookies?
Hi Julius,
1- Using Google Chrome
2- No orange bar is seen on the page
3- Tag Assistant is the major extension apart from Moz and some more
4- Yes It accepts 3rd Party cookies
Try enabling Preview and Debug mode with a different browser. If it works, the problem is with your chrome. Maybe you're using a plugin like adblock or ghostery?
just found that our website has a whitelist of scripts that are allowed access and the gtm debug script was not on the list so didn't appear....
hope this helps someone
Thanks for the update!
Hi there. I had a problem with Preview and Debug mode. It did not work. Because I have a lot of experience with GTM I was sure I have installed it correct but did not work. Now I`ve found I have to accept the "Data Processing Amendment". Now it works. Maybe this helps to somebody.
Interesting... "Data Processing Amendment" is related to Google Analytics, not GTM, as far as I know.
Could you elaborate how did Preview and Debug mode not work for you?
Thanks it saved me hald a day, in my case that was an exception to add as a third party cookie on Chromium
Great list of trouble. You helped me a lot!! Thanks
We have knowledge bank section on our website, where a user fills up registration form and then lands on a thank-you page and simultaneously the file gets auto-downloaded which the user has requested. Surprisingly, In Tag Assistant GTM tags are getting vanished right after they get fired... what could be the problem? please help.
Could you share a link to that registration form?
Thanks a million times! :) Solved with #10. Great blog!
NOTE: The thing that fixed it for me was to turn off my ad-blocker.
Thanks for the update. I updated the post accordingly.
Hi! When I try to open GTM preview it shows for about two seconds then disappears. I tried step 10, do you know of anyone who has this issue?
Hey, you're the first one to contact me regarding this issue. But I have noticed another related bug. When I enable/refresh Preview mode in GTM, browser tab refreshes (with GTM account opened), a P&D console appears for two seconds and then disappears.
Normally, P&D console should not appear in GTM tab at all. I will keep an eye on your issue and will update this blog post if I find anything.
So none of my tips (in this blog post) helped you?
I've tried all of your tips and none of them solved the problem. I have the same issue as Ethan Kramer and I simply cannot get things to work.
Well, for that I need more information:
- what browser are you using?
- what website are you working on? I need the URL in order to see how the container is implemented.
- is there anything else you think is valuable for debugging?
Hi. I just had this issue with Google Tag Manager (preview mode not working). Your tip #10 solved it. Thank you so much for your precious help and proactivity ! I could not imagine to find an answer so quickly.
You're welcome!
Thanks Mate!
#10 got me everytime and I never found a solution.
Worked like a charm, thanks for putting this solution online!
#10 rocks my world. Thank you for saving me a lot of headache!
Yep, #10 was the winner....eventually.
I've tried everything including tip#10. I'm still unable to go to preview & debug mode. Please help. Thanks.
Hi, could you give me more details in order to reproduce the bug?
- What browser are you using?
- What exactly happens when you try to enable Preview and Debug mode? Does it flash and disappears? Does it simply stays hidden?
- What is your browser's console saying?
- What browser plugins/extensions do you have? They may be causing this issue.
Google Tag Manager Not recognizing the GA property and reporting traffic to GA.
Very important, multiple sites launching this week.
To Replicate
Browser - Chrome Version 58.0.3029.110 (64-bit)
Device - MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) OSX El Capitan, v10.11.16
GTM Injector is working and claims to be reporting to GA, but no results.
Any thoughts?
Thanks!
I didn't have that issue myself.
First, I'd check Google Analytics filters. Sometimes it happens that by accident I filter out my own traffic.
Second, I'd check the data I send to Google Analytics via GA Debugger
By the way, Tag Manager Injector cannot claim to be reporting to GA. Its only feature is to inject GTM container, it has nothing to do with Google Analytics (I've just double checked it myself). Unless you're talking about Analytics Pros' DataLayer Inspector.
Thanks guy, for now #10 solved my problem, I'll share this article to everyone
Thank you! Tip #10 worked
Nr 10 worked for me, disabling cache then hitting the CLEAR symbol on the upper left while in preview mode.
Hey,
Nr. 10 worked perfectly. And the description of the problem also applied. Thank you!
I have another problem, though, that you might know the answer to..?
Since last Friday the GTM website itself runs super slow and it takes up to 30+ seconds to open Tag/Trigger/Variable setup. Is this maybe related to the change you mentioned in Nr. 10? Also see this thread:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/tag-manager/M6Mq3lIAU24;context-place=forum/tag-manager
Not sure if that issue is related to tip #10. To be honest, tags, triggers, etc. work fine for me. So it's difficult to say, what's causing your problem.
Hi!
I have no Quick-Preview in my DEV System. I only have the Quick-Preview with new implemented Tags in my Live environment .
Only when i publish the new Tags to DEV, i can see in the Preview Mode - in the right corner is the Container-Version Number & the GTM-ID but no Quick-Preview...
I want to have the Quick-Preview in the DEV-System not in the Live-System... Do you have any idea?
Hi, it's difficult to debug and offer a solution when I have no access to both of your environments.
Tip 10 worked a charm. Thanks for the advice :-)
Just tried Tip 10 and its not working. Not at all. No preview pane displaying in my Chrome browser - not in the regular version nor in the Incognito mode. I tried clearing cache, cookies, history, etc. - no luck.
Win 10 Pro/Chrome Version 58.0.3029.110 (64-bit)
Works fine in FF btw.
1. Check Chrome's console - maybe there are some clues.
2. Try disabling Chrome's extensions one by one. See if that helps.
3. Have you tried other tips from this blog post?
Now it's working! Thanks for Tip #10.
Thank you!!!!
I was having a really bad time, but tip #10 fix it.
#10 Works... Thanks Boss
Hello,
I tried all the tips, but nothing seems to work. Can you help me, please? Here is some additional info:
– What browser are you using? Chrome (first I tested preview mode on Firefox)
– What exactly happens when you try to enable Preview and Debug mode? Does it flash and disappears? Does it simply stays hidden? I have never seen it
– What is your browser’s console saying? I opened it, but I don't know where to look
– What browser plugins/extensions do you have? They may be causing this issue. Tag assistant and Tag Manager Injector
Thanks!
Hey,
1. Have you tried other tips (mentioned in this blog post)?
2. Another reader of mine noticed this issue:
>I’ve also noticed that if you have a custom HTML tag that’s also is in the source code of the page the debug window does not show. E.g. Zopim Live Chat Script.
I recommend double-checking whether there are no HTML tags which are duplicates of hard coded scripts.
Hello Julius,
Yes, unfortunately I tried all the tips you mentioned in the article and I double-checked the html tag thing. Any other ideas?
Thank you very much!
It's hard to debug when I have no access to the project you're working on. If you want me to take a closer look, drop me an email to newsletter [at] analyticsmania.com
Hey! Tip #10 does not work for me. Using Chrome, I have Analytics, Tag Assistant and Moz plugins installed. The GTM preview panel does not appear at all.
Have you had a successful case so far?
Very frustrating as I am currently migrating from old GA code to GTM and I need the debug mode to get on to the next stepts -.-.
Greetings from Berlin.
GOT IT! DANIEL SJÖGREN comment from before worked for me. Did the same, and then in preview mode hti refresh on the page. Strange because I closed Chrome completly after doing tip #10, so the browser was refreshed, but only the page refresh button made it responde...
Glad to hear that you resolved the issue.
I still cannot reproduce your issue.
As for successful cases, looking at the comments and direct feedback, I'd say 95-98% of readers find Tip #10 useful.
Have you tried other tips mentioned in this blog post?
yes yes, everything else is ok. I just started the preview mode again and same thing. Now only works when I refresh the page and then it pops up. Although normally it was open straight away when I opened the page.
But good that it works for most then haha :D
Hi Julius, #10 solved the issue for me too.
Thank you so much for sharing this.
Best,
Mariana
Hi there,
I am writing as Step #10 did not resolve my issue. GTM is still not loading in my browser. I am using Google Chrome, and I have a T1 pixel debugger extension. Please let me know if you need any additional details.
Thanks,
John
Hi John,
1. Does preview console appear with other browsers, e.g. Firefox?
2. Have you tried other tips in this blog.
3. Do you have any custom HTML tags which contain scripts that are also hardcoded on your website?
First comment on this blog post mentions this issue.
I followed the tutorial #10, it helped me. Thank you so much.
Hi,
Great list, would like to suggest one more. There was a new version of Chrome available and I just noticed it this morning. Updating and relaunching was the simple fix.
Thanks,
Jeremy
Hey, GTM preview all of the sudden stopped working, I suspect it was after the last update. Nothing is happening when entering into preview mode. Used it loads before so no rookie mistakes. Tried #10 but it didn't do the trick, unfortunately. Using latest version of Chrome, doble checked. Hope you'll find a way to fix it. :) Cheers, Rie
Hey, I still cannot reproduce your bug. But I noticed that the number of complaining GTM users has dramatically decreased.
So I guess that Google implemented a solution for this issue. Please check if you see the Preview and Debug console.
Im in the same boat and I have tried all the tips, hope this gets fixed soon.
Turns out my problem was related to Cloudflare as this changed how the JS snippet was being pulled in. I changed to setting to optimise JavaScript and the preview mode started working.
Awesome tip! I'll include it in the blog post. Could you tell me where can I find this setting within CloudFlare (or what exact changes did you do)? Thanks!
I am using the W3ToalCache WordPress plugin and there is an integration with Cloudflare. The setting is within the W3ToalCache plugin in WP under extensions -> W3TC Settings -> Content Processing -> Then turn off "Rocket Loader". Having this setting on caused the GTM script to be surrounded in an alternative tag that affected the GTM preview mode. More information on this feature can be found here: https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200168056-What-does-Rocket-Loader-do-
Unfortunately I couldn't get rocket loader working in tandem with GTM by following their instructions as this should improve page performance. If anyone else can get it working I am sure it will help a lot of people.
Thanks! This is incredibly helpful. I'll update the blog post asap.
hello, I have a problem.
If I go to the home page. The Debug Mode open without problem, but if I go to signup page the debug page doesn't work, I don't now why could happen these.
Are you sure that GTM Container snippet is also added to your Signup page?
Hi,
The GTM preview is loading BUT when I click, it refreshes, so I cannot inspect which triggers were fired (or why not). Basically, the 'summary' panel on the left-hand only shows three lines; if i click something else, it refreshes.
Not sure if it has to do with the Google Chrome update; no I have not tried it in other browsers.
Thanks for any help
Hey,
I haven't noticed anyone else here facing the same problem. So I guess that is a browser-or-website-related issue.
1. Try with a different browser, to see whether the issue persists. The problem also may be caused by browser extensions/plugins.
2. Send me a shared preview link to your container to julius @ analyticsmania.com . I could take a closer look at your issue.
Cheers
Thanks for the response Julius. I've tried with different browsers (IEs mainly). Sending you a link to the address above.
Regards,
#12 for me
I just want to add, none of tips worked for me, but it gave me an idea to disable Avira Browser Safety on Chrome, it blocks Trackers, so that was the reason. Thanks for the post and add this to the list to help others.
Cheeeeers
Thanks, Matas! I have updated the post.
Cheers
Julius
When I go into preview mode it won't let me navigate through my site (i.e click on anything). Can you tell me why this might be happening and if there is any way to fix this?
Thank you
Could you give me a link to that website you're currently working on? If you don't want to share it publicly, go ahead and send it to julius [at] analyticsmania.com
Thank you so much for this My adbolck was blocking it thank again very helpful
Hello,
Thanks for this wonderful block. I can´t see more then 3 events in my event timeline, when I click links and more. I activate all variables, refresh and more. I try this before, but usually i work after some time. What can I do to activate this?
Thanks in advance
Hey, in order to track more than pageviews, you need to enable triggers first. Enabling variables is not enough. If you want to track link clicks, you must have at least one Link Click trigger enabled. The same rule applies to all triggers in Jira.
Cheers
Julius- thanks for posting. I was having the same issue as #9 but it was not resolved from your solution. I did some digging around the chrome developer tools and I figured out that my website security policy was blocking the GTM css. I downloaded a chrome extension called "disable-content-security-policy", refreshed GTM in preview & debug mode, and the panel displayed fine.
Thanks for letting me know!
Hi JULIUS FED
Hope you are doing good. I am working on IOS App development in Swift . I am successfully Implemented the GTM in App. All events i.e Add to Cart , Product Detailed View & Transaction Events etc etc are triggering perfect . I am facing a big issue when I place a order from App means let suppose I placed a 100 orders from App only 75 Orders exist in Dashboard on website 25 is missing from Analytics where as they all are showing in my app logs.
Hi JULIUS FED
I have an ecommerce application for iOS that is reporting transactions to Google Analytics. When I compare the analytics each week with the data from the sales system, Google Analytics is always missing 25% of the transactions.
Hey Aftab,
Unfortunately, I have no experience with mobile app development and how GTM works there. I'm sorry, but I cannot help you here.
I believe Duracell Tomi's plugin adds code to turn off Rocket Loader for GTM.
https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200169436-How-can-I-have-Rocket-Loader-ignore-my-script-s-in-Automatic-Mode-
With that, I'm still not seeing GTM load on a "wp-content/uploads" page. Any suggestions for troubleshooting that?
I've tried adding GTM directly to the theme with the code to turn Rocket Loader off, but no luck.
it was the damn adblocker
I've found another thing to try.
I had the dev tools of chrome opened, and then I checked the mobil version of my website, and don't why the preview mode appeared... After one hour of tries...
Hope this will help others...
Thanks very much for this article! My problem was Cloudfare Rocket Loader, who knew! Never would have found this myself.
Hi! JULIUS
I spend my 8 hours to resolve 'GTM PREVIEW MODE NOT WORKIN' before I read your article. This is very knowledgeable and steps 10 and 13 is my solution.
Thanks for your Contribution.
#12 ----- Solved. Thank you. The Ghostery extension was the culprit!!!
I think this article is great! Sadly, my problem is a bit different. Debug mode works on my homepage but the moment I navigate to a page where I want to test tags, the debug mode goes white.
Anyone else having this problem?
This means that page's CSS is conflicting with Preview and Debug console's CSS. You should inform GTM support regarding this issue by clicking "Send feedback" in the top right corner of the GTM account.
Thank you!!! Most helpfull!! Problem solved!!! ♥♥♥
Thanks, you rock... Adblocker for me (#12)
I Have tried the different things - But I still didnt solve my GTM issue.
Debug Panel Shows on 2 out of 5 pages.
I would appreciate help - Im getting crazy here - Thx
Are you sure that GTM is installed on all 5 pages? You can check that with Google Tag Assistant Chrome extension.
When I use assistant:
The pages that shows the debug panel, also shows GTM in assistant.
And same the other way around. Pages that doesnt show debug doesnt show GTM in assistant.
Im wondering - This is a subdomain - Could this mean something?
Because I did the GTM for the subdomain here.
Im on thin Ice, as I dont understand - So any help is really appriciated
I took the subdomain out and now only the root - This added one more page to the funnel.
So now I have 3 out of 5 working.
Even though I put the body and head tracking into the pages - They are not working, and they are not showing GTM in google assistant.
Please let me know what you advice to do
Well, you identified the problem yourself - no gtm code on the page = no preview mode.
You need to find out why those 2 pages do not have the gtm container code. I'm not familiar with clickfunnels. If I were you, I'd contact their support and ask, why you custom js codes (gtm container) are not available in 2 pages).
Greatly appreciated the help. I'm a #10 for the win.
Hi,
I had the same problem and struggled with it for like 2 days and later came to know the GTM console was blocked but pop-up blocker extension installed for chrome.
Aaahh, after 2 days struggling with this problem, your comment helped me to solve this. Just disabled 'DuckDuckGo Privacy' Chrome extension and Debug started to work properly.
Thanks Omkar!
good tips. i disable Ghostery extension, and then the preview and debug model does work! Thank you.
#10 just literally saved my life thanks!
Thanks for the article. I am accessing multiple accounts from the same email ID for Google Tag Manager. I could n't see the preview and debug mode open for any of the websites I am working on. I open them in the same browser, google chrome, I tried hard refresh, i tried step 10 and 12 to see if that works. I still could not get the preview and debug pane. Can you advise me on this?
Try logging in to GTM account and trying to replicate the issue in Chrome's Incognito mode. Maybe some browser extension is interfering.
Thank you very much. u-block origin extension was blocking it. But I am curious to know something. When I tried to replicate the process in incognito mode, I did not find any of my accounts after in log in. Is that normal? I did not know how to proceed in incognito mode without seeing any of my accounts.
What do you mean by saying "I do not find any of my accounts after I login"?
Oops. I was just using a different google ID in the incognito window and wondering where all the stuff went. I am sorry for that. Everything works fine. Thanks for the support.
Julius, when I'm Preview mode in GTM, should I be able to see those changes reflected in GA? Or do my GTM edits need to be published first?
The specific GTM change I'm trying to preview and follow in GA is the cookieDomain set to auto for the main domain and all subdomains. All also have domain.com added to the referral exclusions. I'm expecting that setup to carry the referral source from the main domain to a subdomains so I can properly attribute conversions. Currently when someone come from Google to the main domain and clicks over to a subdomain where the conversion forms are, we lose the Organic attribution and everything is recorded as Medium of None and a Source of Direct.
1. You should see the cookieDomain auto in the Preview and Debug mode once you have refreshed it.
2. Referral exclusion list is not a part of GTM thus you won't see anything.
3. Don't use real-time GA reports to check your campaign source because the 2nd pageview is always displayed as (direct)
Awesome, thanks Julius. If I don't use real-time GA to see if the referral source is passed from the main domain to the sub, how do I go about verifying that I've set things up properly? Again, I want to see a visitor tracked as one user/session across my domain and it's subs. I want to know that if someone came in from Google to domain.com, clicked over to the subdomain and downloaded an ebook that the conversion came from Google, not direct.
You'll need to wait for data to appear in the actual source/medium or referral reports.
I'm assuming that in those reports I'd be looking for a big shift from direct to organic (and other referral sources) if things were setup correctly? Also, why wouldn't that show up in the real-time report? Lame!
I have the same issue as Marybelle above.
My Event Timeline (datalayer history) refreshes all the time, when I click a link on my page that brings me to another page of my website. The Preview goes away during load of new page and then reappears with only those 4 events that are there for all pages.
I activated a "generic click trigger" to test my clicks.
I deactivated ALL chrome extensions, I deactivated wprocket and I tried it in Firefox and Chrome. All the same.
Any ideas?
Best regards
Joachim
Ok, now I got it. This is exactly how the preview and debug mode works (including the Data layer). Read the tip #6 here https://www.analyticsmania.com/post/google-tag-manager-debugging-tips/ to learn more.
Hey Julius,
I do not really understand your parallel between my problem and your #6 tip.
I did what you said and implemented the plugin of tip #6. But nothing really changes.
Maybe I dont understand the concept of clicks concerning links to other internal/pages.
I feel lost currently...
In your previous comment you said that when you click the link, the page refreshes and the Preview and Debug mode refreshes. The tip #6 in that guide (here's the link -> https://www.analyticsmania.com/post/google-tag-manager-debugging-tips/) explain that when the page reloads, the preview refreshes as well and all events that were tracked disappear. This is expected behavior. Also, tip #6 gives ideas how to prevent events from disappearing (for example, click links with CTRL key pressed).
Here's another one - if your page is AMP, then debug doesn't work. Took me a while to discover that! Preview does work, but the debug panel doesn't come up.
Wow!! Thanks so much for taking the time to present all of those options.
So I had quite a bit of trouble figuring out why neither my Facebook pixel helper was picking up a pixel that I knew was working on my site, nor my Google Tag Manager inspector in debug mode was working on my sites. I had updated Chrome, went through several blogs and forums. Thanks for Tip #9! Ultimately, it was my duckduckgo browser plugin that was blocking it for privacy reasons. Funny enough, Pixel Helper was still working on 3rd party sites, including Analytics mania, but none of my own properties. Anyone know why this would be the case?
Tip #10 was a life saver ... thanks for the great content
This article is absolutly priceless!
I had more then one thing to fix. After No 8, preview finally appeared on my site.
Very happy that I found your article at first try to solve my issue!
Thank you so much Julius for sharing all this
Julius, In the last few weeks, GTM stopped showing me when tags are firing. The only tag that fires is Google Analytics- All pages. But I can see the other things like outbound links and contact form submission on Google Analytics Real time conversions. What could be the reason for this?
Thank you,
Kiruba
Triple check if you are looking at the preview mode of the same container.
Hello, At the company I work they use this plugin for Wp "https://es.wordpress.org/plugins/simply-static/" for security reasons and when I play debugger mode from GTM doesn't work properly. I follow some recommendations with third-party cookies but steel the same I configure an Event but doesn't fire. My question is have anybody else had the same issue, and how can I fix it. Because I working blind.
Sorry for the late reply. Yes, I have been checking. It is the same container. It is still on and off. But i can see the conversions on GA.
Julius, I have another issue. When I try to add a new account I see an error at the bottom "Invalid input. You may have stale data; refresh the page and try again". I tried creating accounts for different clients but i get the same error. What do you think is the reason for this? Thank you
Hi Julius, our GTM stopped working this morning and I keep getting this notification "Invalid input. You may have stale data; refresh the page and try again." I've refreshed and it's still not working. Are you getting the same? I got this notice when I tried to publish an update to a tag or use preview mode.
Brian, I had the same notification when I tried to create new accounts. I waited for a day and it is working now. I don't know what went wrong.
Point#14 was the reason I was getting a white Preview window, thank you so much for this detailed blog, you are awesome.
Cheers. Turns out the idiot dev had installed the GTM code on all pages but the home page. As soon as I visited an internal page, the debug console loaded.