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Next Week you Could Lose Some Google Analytics Data

May 17, 2018

On May the 25th, you could potentially lose a hefty amount of your Google Analytics data. Google has introduced data retention settings within analytics which allows you to automate how long it holds certain data. If you do not manually choose this it will automate to 26 months.

This will only affect user level data, as Google states

The retention period applies to user-level and event-level data associated with cookies, user-identifiers (e.g., User-ID) and advertising identifiers (e.g., DoubleClick cookies, Android’s Advertising ID, Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers).

So this won’t impact stuff like visits, referrals, goals etc. You may have seen the ominous bar lingering within GA:

Google Analytics Data Retention Bar

We’ll show you how to edit your data retention settings. It’s dead easy and straightforward.

Click on Admin within the Sidebar

Google Analytics Admin

 

Click Tracking Info under the Property

Google Analytic Tracking Info

Click on Data Retention Setting

Tracking Info Data Retention Setting

Choose an Option

Google Analytics Data Retention Options

This should be in-line with your data retention policy. Currently, the options are:

  • 14 Months
  • 26 Months
  • 38 Months
  • 50 Months
  • Don’t automatically expire

Click Save

Once this is done, the yellow bar should disappear and you’ll have nothing to worry about. If you need any more information head over to Google’s Data Privacy and Security section.

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