Google Site Kit plugin shows Data error in Analytics The response is not a valid

Thanks for reaching out and providing details of the troubleshooting efforts already undertaken. In previous cases there were hosting related firewalls resulting in this notice. Before we perform any such checks please attempt the steps below in order to connect the Analytics module:

1. Login to your site from a browser incognito window
2. Install and activate the Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin.
3. Navigate to “Plugins > Health Check & Troubleshooting > Troubleshoot”.
4. From the same screen click on the “Available Plugins” tab at the top right and then click on the “Enable” option next to “Site Kit by Google”
5. Attempt to connect Analytics module within Site Kit once more

You can exit troubleshooting mode afterwards. Let me know how you get on after attempting the above.

After proceeding with the steps you provided, I checked and followed them and it worked in troubleshoot mode, also I would like to add that the issue started with the latest update I did, Please guide me further to solve it asap, Ty

Interesting, it sounds like there may be a plugin or theme conflict of some type. It may have even been third party plugin or theme updates which may have resulted in the error, in particular if you performed multiple updates at the same time.

As you were able to proceed using the steps suggested can you confirm that the Analytics dashboard is working when you disable troubleshooting mode (Using the Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin)? If so there may be no further requirement with Analytics working as expected.

It may also be useful to try and determine the conflict. If you want to share your Site Health information privately via this form I can inspect your setup. Should we be able to determine the conflict this may help others who may also be impacted.

The analytics portion in the “Analytics” section of the plugin is completely working fine with and without Health Check & Troubleshooting Mode, but the analytics portion in the “Dashboard” section at the top of the Site Kit plugin shows the error which is shown resolved only in troubleshooting mode.

Regarding sharing the info, I have done it to the form privately and the data is not allowed from my side to be shared, even not mistakenly as I don’t permit it to be with people.

Thanks for the update. Understood in relation to you not being able to share data, no problem. I’ve checked your provided details, very useful indeed. Can you check whether the same issue occurs with the Thrive Architect plugin temporarily disabled, as this plugin can provide a separate theme for your sites homepage, which requires users to manually insert their Analytics snippet.

You’ll find a previous similar support topic here.

Yes, the same issue still occurs with Thrive Architect plugin temporarily disabled, still give me details, and will also try once manually inserting Analytics Snippet and re-verify you but the same issue still occurs with Thrive Architect Plugin disabled on site.

Thanks for the update. Please do share whether the same issue occurs when using a manually placed snippet (with Thrive once again temporarily deactivated). You’ll need to disconnect the Analytics module first in order for the plugin to recognize your manually placed snippet.

I also once again checked your Site Health information and I’m wonder is it possible there are some security or optimization plugin configurations resulting in this error, with WP Hide & Security Enhancer, iThemes and other plugins active. We can troubleshoot this should the issue occur once more.

Yes, the same issue still occurs after trying all the twerks like adding analytics manually in the header while Thrive disabled and disconnecting analytics module, add Analytics code manually while Thrive enabled into the page header, adding it to header.php, etc, but the issue still persists.

It persists only under –

Site Overview
Your Traffic at a Glance
How people found your site.

Data error in Analytics
The response is not a valid JSON response.

and not in the Analytics section on the left panel of WordPress above settings option.

Hello James,

After reading your suggestion about checking plugins in Wp Hide & Security or iThemes Security which might be causing the error, I gave efforts in A/B Testing with both plugins and its settings and found that iThemes Security was making the problem, then I checked each and every option of the entire plugin spending hours in frustration and found out the problem finally in “Long URL Strings” option of “System Tweaks” setting of iThemes Security and was supposed not to be filtered and disabling that option makes the issue solved. Hope this will help the community too!
A big thank you for your huge help, I really appreciate it a lot.
Keep supporting, Thanks a lot!

You can reply if you want and mark the topic as resolved.

Many thanks for sharing your experience and testing. That’s great to know the specific configuration should other users encounter this same issue, I’ll highlight this on our side. In the plugins early release we were aware of a particular iThemes configuration which resulted in Site Kit users experiencing issues.

Given time I’ll test out the same configuration you applied, I’m particularly interested in testing this out with just iThemes activated and no additional plugins.

If you have a moment free please share how you’re finding the plugin so far. We’d love to hear your honest feedback.

Interesting – had the same issue “Data error in Analytics”

So followed through this thread. Went into troubleshooting mode – enabled just Site Kit – and it worked. Enabled iThemes security next – it still worked. Exited troubleshooting mode – guess what – it still works….

Therefore I’m not sure why it wasn’t working before, but going through that procedure seemed to fix things.

@pt44 Many thanks for sharing your experience. I’ve set some time aside to check the iThemes configuration this week. I’ll keep an eye out for this after connecting the Analytics module.

In the meantime get in touch if you happen to encounter any notices or non standard behavior.

James – just so you have full information.

I got it to work. But then it broke again :'(

So, I just tried deactivating iThemes Security, Site Kit works. Reactivate iThemes Security, Site Kit still works. But it does still say “Analytics Gathering Data” and “Search Console Gathering Data” which seems odd, since the site has been running a few days now. So it would appear that for some reason, it’s not properly linking to the site. But I do get the All Users, Traffic at a Glance graph.

It’s very odd. It’s as if over time, it gets stuck on something. But it does seem to be iThemes that’s causing the clash.

@pt44 Certainly worth investigating if you’re encountering these issues. If you could share any findings in a new support topic we can investigate this individually, while possibly also opening a GitHub issue. I’ll perform some additional tests on my side.

Within the topic please share any findings in relation to the “Long URL Strings” configuration