Delete and restore your Google tag

When you trash or delete your Google tag, it means the tag is no longer sending data from your website to the associated Google destination. Tags are recoverable for 30 days from the date they were trashed before they are permanently deleted.

This article explains how to delete your Google tag and how to recover your deleted Google tag.

Note: If all users and admins are deleted from the Google tag, it will no longer send data from your website to the Google destination. You can recover that tag following the steps below. Administrators on product accounts configured as destinations of the Google tag can choose to connect the destination to an existing Google tag or new Google tag.

Delete your Google tag

Note: A complete list of your Google tags appears in Google Tag Manager under the "Google tags" tab. You can only delete your Google tag when viewing it in Tag Manager.

1. On the Tag Manager "Accounts" screen, click on the "Google tags" tab.
2. Select the Google tag you’d like to delete. 
3. Go to the "Admin'' tab.
4. In the  "Manage Google tag" section, select Delete from the 3 dot menu. 
5. Click the checkbox that you understand, then click Delete. 

Your Google tag will be moved to the Trash Can and permanently removed after 30 days. You can view your deleted Google tag from the Trash Can at the bottom of the “All accounts” page. 

Restore your Google tag

You can restore a deleted Google tag in two ways:

• From the Trash Can of your Google Tag Manager account
• From your Google Ads or Google Analytics account

You can restore a Google tag if your Google tag is still installed on your website, for data to flow to the desired destination. To restore a Google tag, you need Administrator access to the tag and users who had access to the tag previously will be granted access again. You can update access levels and configuration once the tag has been restored.

Restore your Google tag from the Trash Can of Google Tag Manager 

1. From your Tag Manager account, click Trash Can at the bottom of the "Accounts" screen.
2. Select the Google tag you want to recover.
3. A list of items marked for deletion will appear.
   Note: The Trash Can will only appear if it contains 1 or more items.
4. Click the Google tag to be restored, and then click Restore. 

Restore your Google tag from your Google Ads or Google Analytics account

1. Access your Google tag screen.
2. If your Google tag has been trashed, you'll see the "Trashed Google Tag Details" page. 
3. Click Restore.
4. In the pop-up, click Restore Google tag.

Move the destination from a deleted Google tag to another Google tag

If you don’t have the permissions to recover the deleted tag, you can move the destination from the deleted tag to another tag if you have the Administrator role.

You'll need to install the new Google tag for data to flow to the desired destinations.

1. Access your Google tag screen.
2. On the "Trashed Google Tag Details" page, select Choose an existing tag.
3. Click Continue.
4. Click Connect to an existing tag.
5. You can now add a new destination to your tag.

Troubleshoot your deleted or trashed Google tag

Your Administrator has lost access to the account but the tag continues to operate

As long as your tag has tag Administrators, the tag will continue to work and you don’t need to recover it even if you’ve lost access. If all tag Administrators leave the company and you no longer have access to the tag, an Administrator user on the destination can remove the destination from the current tag and connect it to another Google tag.

Example: A tag has two destinations (one Google Ads account and one Google Analytics property) and the Google Analytics admin has lost access. When the Google Analytics property is restored, you won’t need to recover the tag.

Your tag is in trash state for more than 30 days 

After 30 days the data from your tag and destinations will be removed. Destination administrators can create a new tag that they will need to install on their website or connect the destination to an existing tag.

“No tag ID” found

It's possible for a destination to get in a state where it is not attached to a Google tag. In order for that destination to receive data, it must be connected to a Google tag.

If your destination is not connected to a tag, you will be notified when you open the Google tag page. You can choose to connect the destination to an existing Google tag or to create a new Google tag.

Conflicting on-page code

In addition to the destinations and settings you configure in the Google tag screens, your Google tag also processes on-page gtag() commands to load and configure settings for your Google tags. 

If the same Google tag is configured two or more times on the same page, it may cause duplicate data or mixed settings. This scenario can occur if you accidentally implement the same tag twice or if you combine two Google tags that were previously both installed on the same page. To ignore duplicate instances of on-page config commands, you can enable the corresponding option in the “Manage Google tag” section of the “Admin” tab: “Ignore duplicate instances of on-page configuration”. To prevent issues, this option will be enabled automatically when you combine two Google tags.

Note: Some webpages are tagged with two Google tags that have different on-page configuration settings. If you combine those two tags into a single Google tag, only the first config command will be processed, and subsequent config commands and settings for that Google tag will be ignored. As a result, combining tags may cause a change in tagging behavior on those pages. As a best practice, you should review tags with conflicting on-page configurations before combining them.