We’ve had the Google YouTube App installed for a long time and were tracking data just fine. I went to check the analytics for our sale from the weekend and found data not only was not being tracked at all but data was completely deleted from September. Only about a month ago I was creating reports and pouring over data in GA4. And now that data is just gone! Has anyone else had this happen? I went into the Google YouTube app and re-added our GA4 ID and now it seems to be tracking again. But I’m devastated that I have no data from our biggest sale of the year.
Topic summary
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) data stopped tracking via the Shopify Google & YouTube app, with historical data from September missing—including the biggest sale weekend. The poster re-added their GA4 ID, tracking appears restored, but past data remains gone and they ask if others experienced this.
A mitigation strategy is proposed: a dual-property GA4 setup to ensure resilience. - Primary GA4 property: installed through the native Google & YouTube app. - Secondary GA4 property: redundant stream via a server-side Google Tag Manager (GTM) container.
Server-side GTM is described as offering superior reliability, tighter event tracking control, and improved data accuracy, while reducing issues from browser-based ad blockers versus native platform app tracking.
Attachments include screenshots of server-side GTM results and a 30-day conversion summary; helpful but not essential to understand the issue.
No method to recover the deleted historical data is provided. Immediate actions: re-add GA4 ID and consider implementing the dual-property with server-side GTM.
Status: unresolved; the cause of the data deletion is undetermined and guidance on recovery is still open.
It’s very frustrating to see your analytics data missing, especially for your biggest sale of the year.
To mitigate the risk of future data loss and ensure tracking resilience, we recommend implementing a dual-property configuration in Google Analytics 4 (GA4). This strategy involves maintaining two separate data streams:
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A primary property installed via the native Google and YouTube app within Shopify.
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A secondary , redundant property deployed through a server-side Google Tag Manager (GTM) container.
In our experience, a server-side GTM implementation offers superior reliability and control over event tracking compared to native platform apps. It provides enhanced data accuracy, mitigates issues caused by browser-based ad-blockers
Feel free to ask if you have any questions.
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