Recently GA4 made a change to their reporting. Now you will start to see "(data not available)" value in certain GA4 reports.
If you are seeing "(data not available)" and don't know what it means then this post if for you.
Why is "(data not available)" showing up in GA4?
As per Google Analytics' official source: "The value "(data not available)" appears in your reports when data in Google Analytics is unavailable or hasn't been processed for the source and medium traffic-source dimensions."
In simple terms it means that your data is still being processed and is not yet available for you to use in your reporting and analysis.
This "(data not available)" values just makes that message clear so that you don't accidently end up using that data that is still being processed.
Reasons for "(data not available)" value
The most common reasons for "(data not available) value are:
Processing time
GA4 has previously mentioned in their official documentation that it can take up to 24 hours for all the data processing to be completed and numbers displayed in your reports can change during that time. The "(data not available)" value can appear while traffic-source dimension values are still being calculated. When processing time is the is the cause, event level data will be updated later with the right values. The session or user values won't be impacted.
Processing failures
No system is ever 100% fault proof and data processing failures can occur. When that happens it will cause "(data not available)" value to show up.
Over represented User ID
As per GA4 official documentation" You may have data errors because your setup allocates the same User ID to too many events. This typically occurs when your property incorrectly assigns a canned User ID to your users. Analytics will treat these many users as a single user attributed to the Direct channel. You may also experience other adverse effects throughout Analytics such as under-reported user counts."
This is the most confusing reason of all and hardest to understand.
If you have setup user_id tracking in GA4 then you should send user_id for every event associated with a signed in user (one with user_id). So if you are doing what you are suppose to do then you should not get this message. Maybe if your user_id tracking is not setup correctly then this will affect your data. If you are seeing (data not available) and everything seems right then we can help investigate and resolve it.
Need Help with GA4?
Fill out the contact us form or email us at support@optizent.com for a no obligation consultation.