Note: This extension is no longer supported. Use the new Tag Assistant and its companion extension for troubleshooting. Learn more about Tag Assistant debug mode announcements.
This article describes the main alert messages you might receive from Google Tag Assistant Recordings, along with suggested courses of action should receive a particular alert message.
| Alert message | Meaning/action |
| This hit was preceded by an identical pageview hit. It's likely that this hit is a duplicate. If you have consecutive duplicate pageview hits, your bounce rate and pageview numbers could be inaccurate. |
Meaning: This page is sending duplicate consecutive pageview hits. This can inflate your site statistics. Action: Check the pageview tags on the page and remove duplicates. Learn more about troubleshooting common tracking setup mistakes. |
| This hit had an invalid value for parameter X. |
Meaning: The hit is sending an invalid parameter value. Action: Check the tags on the page and provide an appropriate value for the specified parameter. See the Measurement Protocol Parameter Reference for more details on tracking code parameters. |
| This hit did not include a value for required parameter X. |
Meaning: The hit is missing a value for a required parameter. Action: Check the tags on the page and provide the missing parameter. See the Measurement Protocol Parameter Reference for more details on tracking code parameters. |
| This hit had an out-of-bounds value for parameter X. The value might be too low or too high. |
Meaning: The parameter indicated is sending an unacceptable value. It might be too low, too high, or the wrong data type. Action: Check the tags on the page and make sure the indicated parameter is sending the appropriate data. Consult the The ga Command Queue Reference for more info. |
| Analytics did not recognize the parameter X sent with this hit. |
Meaning: The hit is sending an unrecognized parameter. Action: Check the tags on the page and make sure all the parameters are correct. See the Measurement Protocol Parameter Reference for more details on tracking code parameters. |
| This hit had the out-of-bounds parameter X. The parameter might be referring to an object with a limited number of instances, such as a custom dimension or metric, content grouping, etc., and this parameter goes beyond the limit. |
Meaning: The hit is sending an unacceptable parameter. It might be referring to an object with a limited number of instances, such as a custom dimension, custom metric, content grouping, etc. Action: Check the tags on the page and make sure the indicated parameter is within the limits for that object. See the Measurement Protocol Parameter Reference for more details on tracking code parameters. |
| This hit had parameter x, but the Analytics backend modified its value prior to recording it. Most likely, the value was very long and was truncated. |
Meaning: The Analytics backend has modified a hit parameter value prior to recording it. Action: Review the page code and adjust the parameter as necessary. See the Measurement Protocol Parameter Reference for more details on tracking code parameters. |
| This hit did not include parameter X, so Analytics will use the parameter's default value. |
Meaning: The hit is missing a parameter value. Analytics will use the default value for this parameter. Action: Review the tag and make sure the default value for that parameter is what you want. If not, modify the tag to send the appropriate value. Consult the The ga Command Queue Reference for more info. |
| This hit used custom dimension index X, but this index is not used in the specified property. |
Meaning: The hit is sending a custom dimension index that isn't in use in the specified property. Action: Check the custom dimensions for the specified property and make sure to use the correct index number. |
| This hit used custom metric index X, but this index is not used in the specified property. |
Meaning: The hit is sending a custom metric index that isn't in use in the specified property. Action: Check the custom metrics for the specified property and make sure to use the correct index number. |
| This page took a long time to send a pageview hit to Analytics. Users could be clicking away from your site before it records a pageview. |
Meaning: This can occur when the page sending the hit is slow to load, or when the tag is not properly placed on the page, or both. Action: Have your webmaster or developer make sure the page view hit tag is properly placed on the page. Take steps to optimize the page load performance. |
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This hit starts a new session. This hit might have a different attribution than other hits, the previous session may have timed out, or cross-domain tracking may be set up improperly. |
Meaning: Google Tag Assistant Recordings noticed a new session being started by the hit. This may throw off your reporting. Action: A number of situations can account for new session starts, such as not excluding referrals from your own domain. Learn more about how a session is defined in Google Analytics. |
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This hit starts a new session, most likely because the session timed out between the previous hit and this hit. |
Meaning: Analytics sessions can expire if there's no hit before the timeout expires. The timeout may be set too low, or this may be expected if your user journey had a large gap between actions. Action: Adjust the timeout setting or record a shorter flow. |
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This hit starts a new session, most likely because the journey crossed the midnight boundary. |
Meaning: Analytics sessions are unconditionally ended at midnight. If your user journey crosses midnight, it will always start a new session. Midnight is determined by the timezone in view settings. Action: Avoid recording flows that span midnight. |
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This hit starts a new session, most likely because the client ID changed. This is caused by an improper tracking code implementation. |
Meaning: Google Tag Assistant Recordings noticed a new session being started by the hit, possibly because the hit is coming from a new domain. Action: Be sure you're implementing proper cross-domain tracking on your sites. Learn more about cross-domain tracking in the Google Developers Guide. |
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This hit starts a new session, most likely because the campaign changed. |
Meaning: Analytics starts a new session if it receives a hit with new attribution, like a new referrer. Action: Double-check that your new attribution is intended. |
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This page did not send a hit, but other recorded pages on the same domain did send hits. Most likely, this page was not properly tagged with the Analytics tracking code. |
Meaning: Google Tag Assistant Recordings wasn't able to find any Analytics tags on the page; however other recorded pages in the same domain did send hits to Analytics. Action: Have your webmaster or developer edit the page and add the appropriate tag, as necessary. |
| Event hits must be sent after a pageview hit, but this event hit was not preceded by a pageview. |
Meaning: Every page should send a pageview hit; a Pageview hit should be sent prior to sending Event hits. Otherwise, you may see (not set) values in the Landing Page report. Action: Have your webmaster or developer edit the page and ensure the Event hit is placed properly. |
| This page was requested with the Google Ads auto-tagging GCLID parameter, but redirects corrupted the parameter's value. Analytics will not have correct attribution for sessions started on this page. |
Meaning: A GCLID is a URL parameter assigned to your auto-tagged Google Ads advertising campaigns. This page is sending the GCLID but the redirect is changing it. This will negatively impact your Google Ads reporting. Action: Have your webmaster or developer edit your web server redirect configuration and ensure that the GCLID parameter is passed through intact. |
| The Google Ads auto-tagging GCLID parameter was missing from this hit, but the parameter was present in this page's URL. Analytics will not have correct attribution for this session. |
Meaning: A GCLID is a URL parameter assigned to your auto-tagged Google Ads advertising campaigns. This page is sending the GCLID but the JavaScript on the page is changing it. This will negatively impact your Google Ads reporting. Action: Have your webmaster or developer edit the script and ensure that the GCLID parameter is passed through intact. |
| This page has two interaction hits within a short time window. The page might have two hits that always fire on page load, which can cause an artificially low bounce rate. |
Meaning: Analytics received two interaction hits very close together. Most likely, these are not user-generated interactions, but are being sent by code on the page. This may prevent Analytics from accurately recording bounce rate for this page. Action: Review the page source. If you find duplicated tags, remove one of them. If you are sending an interaction Event hit on page load, change the code to set the non-interaction parameter to true. |
| This hit has a custom variable with the same name as other custom variables in this session, but this variable's scope differs from the others. |
Meaning: You are using duplicate custom variable names, but the scope of those variables are not the same. Action: Ensure that the custom variables you send with your hits have consistent scope. |
| This hit has a session-scoped custom variable with the same name as other custom variables in this session, but it has a different value from the other variables. |
Meaning: Session-scoped variables should have the same value for the duration of the session. Action: Ensure that the custom variables you send with your hits have consistent scopes and values. Learn more about scope. |
| This hit's tracking code library does not match the tracking code library used in the other hits to this property. |
Meaning: The hit is using a different version of Analytics tracking code than other hits for the property (for example, ga.js, instead of analytics.js). Action: Make sure you are using only one version of the Analytics tracking code on your site. Learn more about installing multiple tracking code instances. |
| This hit is missing the hostname in the URI. |
Meaning: This hit is not providing the hostname. Analytics will not be able to properly attribute traffic on this site. Action: Edit your tracking code and ensure the hostname is being sent properly. |
