Hotjar has a built-in verification system that will check if your tracking code is installed and working correctly. In this article, you'll find the steps for verifying your tracking code installation. These steps can be different depending on your Site's current tracking code status which you can check from your Sites page:
- How to verify when the tracking code status says "Not installed"
- How to verify when the tracking code status says "No data received" or "Collecting data"
- How to verify the tracking code using browser developer tools
- FAQ for tracking code verification issues
How to verify when the tracking code status says "Not installed"
Go to your Sites page.
Click on Install tracking code for the relevant Site.
Click on Add code manually.
Click on Verify Installation.
On the Verify installation tab, click on Verify installation.
This button will open a browser window and display a message telling you if Hotjar is installed correctly.
A message saying "Installation successful" should appear. If you're seeing any other messages, visit the tracking code FAQ at the end of this page for further help.
How to verify when the tracking code status says "No data received" or "Collecting data"
Go to your Sites page.
Click on View tracking code for the relevant Site.
On the Verify installation tab, click Verify installation.
This button will open a browser window and display a message telling you if Hotjar is installed correctly.
A message saying "Installation successful" should appear. If you're seeing any other messages, visit the tracking code FAQ at the end of this page for further help.
How to verify the Tracking Code using browser developer tools
Manually checking to see if Hotjar is loading on your site is the most reliable method of verification, because it allows you to see the Hotjar script loading directly in your browser on a live webpage. The steps below will guide you through the process:
Open your browser’s Developer Tools and click on the Network tab.
- To do this in Chrome, on the menu bar click View > Developer > Developer Tools
- To do this in Firefox, on the menu bar click Tools > Browser Tools > Web Developer Tools
With the Developer Tools open, select the Network tab.
Type hotjar in the Filter search field to only show Hotjar’s requests.
Visit your website, then refresh the page and wait for it to finish loading.
After following the steps above, check the Network tab for the following:
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You see multiple requests, but only one Hotjar Site ID appears among the requests
It looks like your Hotjar tracking code is correctly installed! If you see any of these requests appear in 'red', that could point to an error with the script or something is blocking Hotjar.
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You see requests and more than one Hotjar Site ID appearing
If you see more than one Site ID in the Network tab, this means that more than one Hotjar Tracking Code is installed. This will cause issues with tracking. To fix this, you will want to remove all Tracking Codes and then re-install only the correct one.
For more information on how to remove a Hotjar Tracking Code from your site, check out our article: How to Uninstall your Hotjar Tracking Code.
Once both Tracking Codes are removed, you can then get the correct Tracking Code for your site on the Sites & Organizations page by clicking on the Tracking Code button next to the site URL. Using this Tracking Code, you can follow the steps on How to Install your Hotjar Tracking Code.
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You do not see any requests
If you don't see any requests, this means that the Hotjar tracking code was not successfully installed. To fix this, follow the instructions on How to Install your Hotjar Tracking Code.
Some text editors will change the Tracking Code
If you paste the Tracking Code into a text editor first, some programs will alter the syntax of the Tracking Code slightly. This will result in a failed installation. To avoid this issue, copy the Tracking Code directly from your Sites & Organizations page by clicking on the 'Tracking Code' button next to the site URL.
FAQ for tracking code verification issues
- Why am I seeing "Tracking code not found"?
- How come I'm seeing data from a different site?
- Why has Hotjar suddenly stopped collecting data?
- Why is Hotjar not tracking all pages?
- Why am I not getting Recordings after verifying the Tracking Code?
Why am I seeing "Tracking code not found"?
There are 3 common reasons why the verification is not working properly:
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The tracking code hasn't yet been added to your website or is being blocked by a browser extension
Double-check that the tracking code has indeed been added to your site. To help install the tracking code, follow one of our installation guides.
Ensure any browser extensions that block network requests (e.g. ad blockers) are turned off during the verification process.
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The tracking code was added incorrectly
To find out if the tracking code was added to your site properly, follow the steps above for How to verify the Tracking Code using browser developer tools
If you're not seeing any requests in the developer tools, the tracking code has not been added properly. Try adding the tracking code once again. We also suggest avoiding pasting the code in word processors and other text editing programs before pasting the tracking code on your site as these programs tend to automatically alter the content of the code for styling.
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No traffic to your site
Hotjar verifies tracking as being active if it detects at least one visit in the past hour. If your site hasn’t had any visitors within the past hour(s), this could be due to low traffic to your site or perhaps that the tracking code isn’t installed.
If you didn't block your IP in your Hotjar account and you don't have Do Not Track enabled in your browser, you can browse the pages of your site to trigger the activation. Once you do that, refresh Hotjar after 2-3 minutes to see if you’ve triggered the activation.
If it’s still not working, follow the steps above in How to verify the Tracking Code using browser developer tools to make sure that your tracking code is installed on your site.
How come I'm seeing data from a different site?
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The tracking code from a different site has been added
It's possible that the incorrect tracking code has been added to your site. You can find the correct tracking code for your site on your Sites page by clicking on the View tracking code link next to the site URL.
Compare the tracking code, specifically the hjid number, that’s present on your website to the tracking code you’ve just copied. If the hjid number is different, then you can confirm that the wrong tracking code has been added. Remove the tracking code that is present on your site by retracing your installation steps, then add the correct tracking code on your website.
Why has Hotjar suddenly stopped collecting data?
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The tracking code was accidentally removed during an update to your site
Sometimes during website changes, the tracking code is accidentally removed. Check whether the tracking code is still present on your site by following the steps in How to verify the Tracking Code using browser developer tools
If the verification fails, you can re-add the tracking code to your site by following one of our installation guides.
Has Hotjar suddenly stopped working with Google Tag Manager?
Check that you have published the version of your Google Tag Manager script with the Hotjar tracking code installed. For more information, take a look at our Google Tag Manager Installation Troubleshooting guide.
Why is Hotjar not tracking all pages?
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Hotjar is tracking some pages, but not all
To check if Hotjar is installed on a specific page, follow the steps in How to verify the Tracking Code using browser developer tools to check for network requests to Hotjar from your site. If you're not seeing any requests to Hotjar in the developer tools, the tracking code is not installed. To install the tracking code, you can use our installation guide.
Why am I still not getting any Recordings data, after confirming the Tracking Code is added?
If you have confirmed that the Hotjar Tracking Code is installed correctly, but you still aren't collecting session data in your Hotjar Site, it could be that Hotjar is being blocked due to a Content Security Policy (CSP) on your site.
Follow the steps below to see if a CSP related error is the cause of the problem:
Open your browser’s Developer Tools on the Console tab.
- To do this in Chrome, on the menu bar click View > Developer > JavaScript Console
- To do this in Firefox, on the menu bar click Tools > Browser Tools > Browser Console
Visit your website, then refresh the page and wait for it to finish loading.
Check for any errors on the Console tab that mention a Content Security Policy.
If there is a Content Security Policy issue, you’ll see something similar to the error in the image below (the wording may differ slightly, but Content Security Policy in relation to Hotjar will be mentioned).
To fix this issue, follow the steps in our Content Security Policies article.
If your Tracking Code is still not working after running through the above, reach out to our Support team by clicking the Contact us button below.