Tracking gone after an update
Updates are the most common reason tracking fails quietly. The website looks the same as before, but a tracking code is gone or no longer loads. Since there's no error message, people often only notice from the numbers, days or weeks later.
How you notice
- Numbers in GA4 or the ad account drop on the day of an update.
- The purchase event is missing on the order confirmation while the rest of the site tracks normally.
- Meta Pixel Helper or Tag Assistant finds less after the update than before.
Common causes
A theme update overwrites your edits
If tracking code was pasted straight into theme files, it's lost as soon as the theme is updated or switched.
Optimisation plugins
Plugins that delay, combine or offload JavaScript can break tracking tags or load them so late that they capture nothing.
Changes to the shop system
Shop systems move pages to new technology. Shopify, for example, moved the order confirmation to Checkout Extensibility, where old additional scripts no longer run.
How to check it yourself
- 01After every update, open your website in a private window and accept the cookie banner.
- 02Use Meta Pixel Helper and Tag Assistant to check that all tracking tags that were there before still load.
- 03Make a test purchase or send a test form and check that the conversion event arrives, in Meta for example via Test events in Events Manager.
How to fix it
- Don't put tracking code straight into theme files; use Google Tag Manager or your shop system's official integration.
- Exclude tracking scripts from delaying and combining in optimisation plugins.
- After every larger update, check the most important pages, especially the order confirmation.
Let it be checked automatically
Every 4 hours Trackneat checks whether all tracking tags from the last check still load and tells you as soon as one is missing, even if the update ran at night.
The free check shows you in about a minute which tracking tags run on your website and whether anything fires before cookie consent. No account needed.