Generation 4 Analytics Missing Column to Create View

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If you’ve found an issue in Google Analytics Gen4 with a missing view column or that you can’t create view, read on to see how to create a new property where you can create views and set up goals for conversion tracking.

This month we created two new analytics accounts for different clients through our normal method. Since our approach is to have our clients “own” their own profiles and provide us with the necessary access, we setup a screenshare and walk them through the process to setup Google Analytics, Google My Business and other Google-related services. 

For the two accounts we setup this week, we used the new Generation 4 Google Analytics, Google analytics 4. These were our first for this beta platform. We did not even notice this critical difference when setting them up. The Google Analytics View column is missing!

In Universal Analytics, when you create a new Account and Property, the default View is automatically created. However, it looks like there is a bug in GA4 that not only doesn’t create a default view, but also makes it impossible to create a view manually. 

After reporting it a few times through the Feedback module, we finally chatted with Google Ads support and they confirmed the issue and made the suggestion below which worked fine. 

Here’s what you do to create a view in GA Gen 4 account:

  1. Create a new Property
    • Set the property name (I suggest adding Universal to it)
    • Set Timezone and Currency
    • Click Show Advanced Options
  2. Enable Universal Analytics. Google has recommended not using the combined option as of now, so when you arrive at this portion of the setup use the following settings.

  1. From here you have the option to fill in the About Your Business section, or skip it for now and click Create to complete the setup.

Once these steps are complete you will receive a new tracking ID and script to implement. Unfortunately, your previous data will not be available, but the View column will be back, Goals and all!

After our experiences dealing with Gen 4, I would recommend against upgrading to it at this time! 

If you are looking for assistance with Google Analytics for your business, check out some of our training services at GetAnalytics.Training!