My Step-By-Step Blueprint For Learning and Mastering Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

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Last Updated: May 24, 2022

Have you experienced your real time reports not showing anything? No pageviews, no events, no conversions. You have set up Google Analytics tracking and still do not see any results in the real time reports. Let us look into this issue and solutions to fix it.

If you are noticing that there is no data in your real time reports, then it is most likely because of a GA tracking code issue or GTM configuration issue.

Google Analytics tracking ID misconfigured in wrong field in GTM

There are times when the Google Analytics tracking code is misconfigured in the wrong field in Google Tag Manager implementation, and this results in no real time data. 

Follow the steps below for correct implementation of tracking code in GTM

Step-1: Log in to your Google Tag Manager account.

Step-2: Click on ‘Tags’ in the left-hand menu.

Step-3: For checking the tracking code setup, let’s select the GA Page view tag which is applicable for all pages on your website.

Step-4:  Click on the pencil icon to edit the tag, if you are using a Google Analytics variable then it should be selected in Google Analytics settings as shown below:

Step-5: However, if you are using the tracking code (UA-XXXX-X) it should be entered in the tracking ID field as shown below:

Note that the tracking ID field supports only values in the format UA-XXXX-X

If the tracking code is entered correctly in the tags in Google Tag Manager, then it should track the data in real time reports.

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Check filters in the Google Analytics view

There are times when the filters assigned in your Google Analytics view could also be the reason for the real time reports not showing up. 

Let’s check the steps to view the filters that are affecting the real time data.

Step-1: Log in to your Google Analytics account.

Step-2: Click on the ‘Admin’ section on the left-hand side menu.

Step-3: Under ‘View’, select ‘Filters’ to check if there are any internal IP address exclusions added.

Step-4: Check if there are any exclude filters to filter out internal traffic or any specific IP addresses.

Step-5: If you notice that there are exclude filters, then create a new view without any filters applied and check if the real time data is captured in that view.

Filters in the real time reports not cleared

To dig deeper into the reports in the real time reports, you can click on any pageview or event. When you do, you are applying a quick filter in the real time reports. Let’s see how to apply quick filters in the reports.

Step-1: Log in to you Google Analytics reports.

Step-2: Click on the ‘Overview’ tab under ‘Real time’ reports from the left-hand menu.

Step-3: Now, click on first result from the top active pages as shown below:

Step-4: You will notice that the home page is applied as a quick filter in the real time reports. 

Step-5: Even if you navigate to other sections in the real time reports like events, the filter will still persist. It will not be cleared until you manually remove it.

Step-6: To remove the filter, manually click on the cross mark next to the filter applied.

So, when you notice that there is no data in the real time reports just make sure that there are no quick filters applied.

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Make sure that non interaction events are set to true

In some cases you may notice that there are active users but no data under the events reports. This generally happens when you are sending non interactions events to Google Analytics.

If you are using Google Tag Manager for tagging, then you will notice an option to set the events to non-interaction is true. 

Let’s see the steps to set the non-interaction events to true in GTM.

Step-1: Log in to your Google Tag Manager account.

Step-2: Click on ‘Tags’ on the left-hand menu.

Step-3: Now select any event tag that you have set up in your account.

Step-4: Click on the pencil icon to edit the tag and make sure that the non-interaction event is set to true as shown below:

Google Analytics data sent to different property ID:

Make sure that you are sending data to the correct GA property ID. Double check the property ID from your Google Analytics and check it matches the one on the website.

Also, make sure that the same tracking ID is used in Google Tag Manager Implementation.

Step-1: Log in into your Google Analytics account.

Step-2: Click on the ‘Admin’ section on the left-hand side panel.

Step-3: Under ‘Property’, click on ‘Tracking info’.

Step-4: Click on ‘Tracking code’ and make a note of it.

Step-5: Now, navigate to any browser and load your website URL. Check in the Tag Assistant extension that the tracking codes are matching.

Make sure that you are not checking real time data for user ID enabled views

Since real time reports don’t support user ID enabled views. If you are noticing that there is no data in the real time reports, check if it is a user ID enabled view.

Step-1: Log in to your Google Analytics account.

Step-2: Click on the ‘Admin’ section on the left-hand panel.

Step-3: Under ‘View settings’, check if the ‘User- ID reports’ are enabled or disabled.

Hopefully, all these solutions stated above should help you with no data in the real time reports. 

If you are still noticing that there is no data then make sure there are no extensions like Ghostery, or ad blockers that are blocking your data.

Related Article: Real Time Reports in Google Analytics Tutorial