Why is my GA4 custom exploration missing data after 2 months?
The Short Answer
Your data hasn't been deleted, but by default, GA4 sets its Data Retention policy for user-level data to 2 months. You must manually change this to 14 months to run historical explorations.
The Context
This is the number one most common complaint with Google Analytics 4. You go to build a custom Funnel Exploration or Path Analysis for Q4 of last year, and the report turns up entirely blank, even though the standard overview reports show traffic.
Google did this for privacy compliance (GDPR), but it severely limits analysis out-of-the-box. Your standard reports use aggregated, anonymized tables, which is why they still work, but Explorations rely on user-level data, which expires in 60 days unless changed.
How to fix it:
- 1
Log into your GA4 Property.
- 2
Navigate to the 'Admin' gear icon in the bottom left.
- 3
Under 'Data collection and modification', click on 'Data retention'.
- 4
Change the 'Event data retention' dropdown from '2 months' to '14 months'.
- 5
Note: This fix is not retroactive! It will only save data moving forward.
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