Using legacy universal analytics tags
Tag Diagnostics found pages that still use Universal Analytics tags to load GA4 or other tags, which can block Google tag features such as Enhanced measurement. Open the live version of the container and list every Universal Analytics tag. Search the page source for any the container does not show. Replace each one with the Google tag or a GA4 tag, check it fires, then publish.
At a glance
- Where it shows
- The Diagnostics tab in the Google tag settings.
- What stops
- No ad stops. The pages that load the old tags miss features the newer setup would measure.
- How serious
- A diagnostic, not a penalty. The cost is measurement narrower than the reports suggest.
What it means
Universal Analytics tags are the earlier Google measurement tags. The message appears when some pages still use one of them to load GA4 or other tags, instead of the Google tag. Google says this can prevent some Google tag features from working, such as Enhanced measurement.
The fix starts with an inventory of what visitors actually load. A workspace can differ from the live version, and a tag can be placed in the page outside Tag Manager altogether, so the container alone is not enough.
What actually triggers it
A Universal Analytics script added outside Tag Manager
Not on Google's help page
A plugin or a template that places the old script directly in the page does not appear in the container. Search the page source for the analytics script address. A match with no matching tag in Tag Manager is this cause.
Old and new tags in the same live container
A container can hold a Universal Analytics tag and a GA4 tag together, and both can fire. Check each tag's type in the list before you remove anything, because the GA4 tag may be loading through the old one and stop when it goes.
Fix it in this order
- Open the live version of the container, not the workspace, and list every tag whose type is Universal Analytics.
- View the page source of a key page and search for the analytics script address, to catch any old tag that sits outside Tag Manager.
- Replace each Universal Analytics tag with the Google tag or a GA4 tag that does the same job. Keep the old tag until the new one fires in Tag Assistant.
- Create a version of the container and publish it, then check the status again in Tag Diagnostics.
Often confused with
Google tag has stopped sending data
The tag is present and sends nothing. The legacy message is about tags that still load and send the older set of measurements.
Missing Google tags
Event tags in the container have no matching Google tag. The fix there is to add a Google tag, not to remove an old one.