Identifying a session | Community
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saqibali
July 15, 2025
Question

Identifying a session

  • July 15, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 555 views

Hi. A newbie question. I am trying to establish a session (potentially cross device). I am looking at visid_high, visid_low, hitid_high and hitid_low and the visit field. and the page / page_url field.

 

I am trying to understand how the visid differs from hitid. The documentation does not have much: https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/analytics/export/analytics-data-feed/data-feed-contents/datafeeds-reference

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3 replies

D
Deepika_S_V
July 16, 2025
  • In Adobe Analytics data feeds, visid_high combined with visid_low forms a unique visitor ID that remains the same for a user across multiple hits and visits, as long as they use the same browser or have a consistent ECID.
  • On the other hand, hitid_high and hitid_low together represent a unique ID for each individual hit, such as a page view or event, and change with every new interaction.
  • If you only want to identify unique users, the visitor ID (visid) alone is enough. For accurate cross-device tracking, it's essential to implement and maintain ECID properly.
pradnya_balvir
Community Advisor
pradnya_balvirCommunity Advisor
Community Advisor
July 16, 2025

Hi @saqibali ,

 

Key Differences Between visid and hitid

 

Field(s)
What it Identifies
Scope
Example Use
visid_high + visid_low
A visitor ID
Cross-sessions (per browser/device)
Track all sessions from a single user (cookie/device-based)
hitid_high + hitid_low
A unique hit ID
Per hit (page view, event)
Identify individual page views or events

 

visid_high + visid_low

  • Together, they uniquely identify a visitor.

  • Usually based on a browser cookie (s_vi)or ECID if you're using the Adobe Experience Cloud ID service.

  • Persistent over time on the same browser (unless cookies are cleared).

  • Different across devices (unless using ECID with cross-device stitching).

 

hitid_high + hitid_low
  • Unique identifier for every single hit (i.e., every row in the data feed).
  • Adobe generates a unique hitid for each action: page view, custom event, etc.
  • Even if two hits are part of the same session, they will each have different hitid values.

 

Cross-Device Tracking?
If you're trying to identify sessions across devices:
  • visid_high/low will differ across devices by default.
  • Use post_visid_type = 5 (ECID) and customer stitching via customer_id if available.
  • Cross-device analysis is more reliable in Customer Journey Analytics (CJA) or AEP.

I hope this information help you.

 

Thanks.

Pradnya

S
saqibaliAuthor
July 16, 2025

Thanks @pradnya_balvir and @deepika_s_v 

What's the difference between visid_high and visid_low? Do we need to use both?

pradnya_balvir
Community Advisor
pradnya_balvirCommunity Advisor
Community Advisor
July 16, 2025

Hi @saqibali ,

 

Yes, always use both to uniquely identify a visitor.

 

Adobe splits the visitor ID (visid) into two 32-bit integers:
  • visid_high: The first part of the visitor ID (high-order bits)
  • visid_low: The second part (low-order bits)
Together, they make up a 64-bit identifier for the user: essentially a unique long number that represents a visitor.

 

N
nitesh__anwani
July 21, 2025

Hi @saqibali ,

 

I’m sharing some documentation that is very helpful for calculating metrics from the raw data feed. It should answer all your questions regarding the columns in the data feed.

 

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/perspectives/from-data-to-insights-navigating-adobe-analytics-feeds

 

https://experienceleaguecommunities.adobe.com/t5/adobe-analytics-blogs/sample-sql-queries-to-query-adobe-analytics-data-feeds/ba-p/588992

 

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/analytics/export/analytics-data-feed/data-feed-contents/datafeeds-calculate

 

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/analytics/export/analytics-data-feed/df-faq#:~:text=treated%20as%20text.-,Are%20columns%20like%20hitid_high%2C%20hitid_low%2C%20visid_high%2C%20and%20visid_low%20guaranteed%20to%20be%20unique%20to%20the%20hit%20or%20visit%3F,-In%20almost%20all

 

There is no common identifier across devices that allows you to analyze the cross-device user journey using only the Adobe Visitor ID. However, if a custom user ID is being tracked in one of the variables, you can use that custom ID in the data feed to perform cross-device analysis.

Adobe identifies users based on the Experience Cloud ID (ECID), which is cookie-specific and tied to a particular device and browser.

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