Today I made the STUPID mistake of thinking that I could remove my primary Google Analytics email address and update it with an address that I use more frequently. Guess again! I wound up accidentally deleting a YEAR’S worth of traffic data that I don’t think I can get back. :(
Back to square one! No more Analytic’s highs or lows for the time being…
What Happened?
For well over a year I have been using Google Analytics with no problems. However, the primary email address that the account had was one that I never use and the secondary email was my standard Yahoo account, which I always use. Trying to standardize things, I re-activated a different Google email address that more closely matches my Yahoo one in name (i.e. mark_w_hayward) and I was going to make that the primary. However, STUPIDLY, I assumed that if I deleted the primary address that I would still be able to access all of my Google accounts with the secondary Yahoo address that was available…Well, I learned that hard way that if you delete the primary address all of your data is GONE!
And I did not want anyone else to run into this problem.
I can no longer log into my Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, or Google Documents. Man I am pissed at myself!
Matt Cutts, or anyone from Google Analytics, are you out there? Is there anyway I can retrieve all of that traffic data that has been lost?
If anyone else has any suggestions, please let me know…
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May 13th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
mark,
email me with how you were able to delete your primary email account.
i quickly checked my google account and could not see a way to delete the primary email
May 13th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Hi Coqui - That’s just the problem…if you delete your primary address you will lose all of your data!
May 13th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Mark
That is bad luck. I’m only new to Google Analytics, but thanks for the heads up. I certainly won’t be deleting or changing my email address now!
Kelly
May 14th, 2008 at 5:56 am
Hi Brian [Coqui] - Because I was in a rush to get the post up…I don’t think the description of what happened above is very clear.
Initially I started in Google docs because yesterday afternoon I was going to create some files and share them with some folks that I am working on a project with.
While in Google docs I noticed that Google had defaulted my account to a Gmail account that is for my business and it had bumped my Yahoo account to secondary.
So I thought that I would change the primary account to a Gmail account that I use more often [mark.w.hayward@gmail].
Somehow I wound up in a default area that globally controls all Google services (Google docs, webmaster tools, analytics, etc). Well, when I went to remove (read: delete) the primary I assumed that the Yahoo account would still work until I added the new Gmail address that I wanted to put in…Not so.
June 11th, 2008 at 7:21 am
I am new to Google Analytics and have learnt a good lesson from your experience. Thanx for sharing
August 6th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Mark:
Hey, its Dawn C from triiibes.
Thanks for this heads up. I am about to dive into the Google Analytics world and will do so with caution.
Appreciate the insight.
August 19th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Having the same issue now. I would like to do the following:
-transfer the account to a new email address
-keep all the reports I created
Can that happen?
September 26th, 2009 at 3:09 am
@Randy same problem, I want to change my analytics primary email but can’t, also can’t find any information on it just lots and lots people saying they have the same issue. Check the timestamps of these posts.