Troubleshooting

There are three possible causes. The message on screen tells you which one applies.

• Too few purchases in GA4. GA4 needs at least 20 purchases in the last 30 days. Open the report again once more have come in.
• Transaction IDs don’t match. At least 90% of GA4 transaction IDs must match a Shopify order. Check that the property you chose is the one your store’s tag sends to. If it is, check that the tag puts the order number or order ID in transaction_id.
• Values don’t match. GA4 purchase values don’t match any of the order amounts GapFill checks (total, subtotal, with or without tax and shipping). Check whether your tag sends a value it calculates itself.

The Google account you signed in with probably has no access to that GA4 property. Disconnect Google under Settings and connect again with an account that has access.

The report is rebuilt in the background when you open Home. If the numbers haven’t changed, wait a moment and open it again. For stores with many orders, the first build takes a minute or two.

Approving creates a Measurement Protocol secret in GA4, which needs Editor access or higher to the property. Connect Google again with an account that has that access, then approve again.

The reason is shown under Status on Home. The two common ones are:

• Purchase IDs in GA4 don’t match your orders. If more than half of the purchases in GA4 match no Shopify order, GapFill holds back. This happens when the value your tag sends as transaction_id changes. GapFill detects the new format and resumes on its own once the IDs match. If it hasn’t resumed after a few days, check that your tag sends the order number or order ID as transaction_id. A high share of missing orders alone never stops sending.
• Double counting was detected. If too many of the purchases GapFill sent were counted twice in GA4, sending pauses automatically. Check whether your tag setup changed recently, then resume under Settings.

Find the order in History; the reason is shown there. Most often the buyer declined analytics cookies, the channel is turned off in Settings, the order is less than 26 hours old, or it is more than 70 hours old. See History and statuses.

Either the plan wasn’t approved after the free trial, or it was cancelled. Start the Standard plan from Billing.

GA4 takes 24 to 48 hours to show the source of a purchase sent from the server. Until then it can appear as direct. Check again two days after it was sent.

Standard GA4 reports take about a day to update. GapFill also sends each purchase with the time of the order, so it is counted on the day of the order, not the day it was sent. Make sure the order date is inside the report’s date range.

Each purchase GapFill sends carries the event parameter gapfill=1. Register it as a custom dimension in GA4 and you can filter by it in explorations.

On development stores GapFill sends only to GA4’s validation endpoint. That checks the format, and nothing is added to GA4 reports. This is by design, so tests don’t pollute real data.

You can choose a different property under Settings. When you do, the secret GapFill created in the old property is deleted, and the dry run starts again with the new one.

Use Pause under Settings. Orders that pass 70 hours while paused are not sent after you resume, so keep pauses short, for example only while you change your GA4 setup.

Sending stops immediately and the pixel is removed. Your store’s data is deleted 48 hours later, when Shopify asks apps to do so. Data already sent to GA4 stays in GA4.