Having trouble locating a session within FullStory? This article is here to help identify the most common reasons as to why you are unable to find this session.
Reason #1: You've setup data capture settings which have blocked this user's session from ever capturing.
To start, let’s navigate to Settings > Data Capture and Privacy > Data Capture to see if you have any settings setup that would help explain why this session never captured. Once there, you’ll want to ask yourself the following questions:
- Is data capture toggled on?
- Are you currently capturing the domain this user visited?
- Are you capturing sessions from this geographical region?
- Are you blocking this user’s IP address or user agent?
Reason #2: The session you are trying to locate is outside your plan's Session replay retention period.
When locating older sessions, it’s always good to double check to see how much Session replay retention your plan currently has by going to Settings > Account Management > Subscription within your FullStory account.
If your current Session replay retention is set to 1 month but you are trying to locate a session which was captured 6 months ago, this would explain why you’re unable to see this session. Once the Session replay retention period has passed, these sessions are permanently deleted and non-recoverable.
Reason #3: Your account exceeded its monthly session limit during that time frame.
Another possibility is that your FullStory account exceeded its monthly session limit during the time this user accessed your website or mobile app. When you exceed your monthly session limit, data capture will be paused until the next billing cycle and all Admins on the account will be notified via email.
To help rule this possibility out, try searching for all sessions captured in FullStory on that specific date. As long as you’re able to see sessions captured consistently throughout that date, you can rule this possibility out.
Reason #4: FullStory isn't capturing on that page/screen.
Still no luck? As a next step, it’d be good to confirm that FullStory is properly deployed on this page/screen. A quick way to do this is to search for other sessions within FullStory where users visited that specific URL during that time range.
If you aren’t able to confirm this within FullStory, you’ll want to follow the steps outlined in this help article to verify whether FullStory is properly deployed on that page/screen.
Reason #5: This user has installed a third-party extension or is using strict browser settings that block data capture.
Lastly, if FullStory has never captured any sessions for a specific user or if you’re able to view some older sessions but no recent ones, it’s always possible that this user has either installed a third party extension (such as Ghostery or uBlock) or has strict browser settings in place which can block data capture. The best way to confirm this would be to reach out to the user directly.
Noticing a good chunk of your users are using a third-party extension to block data capture? You might want to check out the FullStory Relay. The FullStory Relay is an open source project that points to your first party domain instead of FullStory's domain, so it should allow you to circumvent script blocking extensions and capture these users normally. You can learn more about the FullStory Relay here.
Still have questions? Feel free to reach out to us here with as much information as you have available regarding the missing session, including their IP address, user agent, and specific URL(s) visited.