Starting the week of July 1, 2024, Google permanently deleted all Universal Analytics data. Universal Analytics stopped collecting new data in July 2023, and this final step wiped the historical records too, cutting off access to years of past traffic, conversion, and audience numbers for millions of websites. GA4, which Google launched in 2020 and made the default in 2023, is now the only analytics history you have.
If nobody exported your old data before the deadline, those past years are simply gone, and you can't get them back.
For a small or mid-size business, the lesson outlasts this one deadline: the data a vendor holds is only as safe as your own copy of it. Confirm GA4 is installed and actually recording, then make a habit of exporting the reports you care about on a schedule. The same thinking applies to email lists, customer records, and reviews. Own a copy of anything you would hate to lose, because platforms change their terms on their timeline, not yours.
Further reading: original source ↗
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