Unspecified in Reports

[jayak13010535]

Hi AA Team,

We capture user's login status in an eVar on every page load across web apps with the following values:

1. userId - if user is logged in

2. anonymous - if user is not logged in

However, when I see this eVar report with 'Visits' metric, I see a lot of Unspecified coming up in there. Any idea what might be causing this issue?

Many Thanks in advance!

[EricMatisoff]

Hi there,

My recommendation is to break the "Unspecified" row down by the following dimensions to try to better understand where the issue is cropping up. Are you using Analysis Workspace? That will make it much easier to find the issue. Keep in mind Workspace will show the row as "None" rather than "Unspecified".

Most likely it's a page (or set of pages) that doesn't have the logic to set the eVar, but sometimes it's a set of devices. Consider breaking down by:

Page

Mobile Device Type

Mobile Device

Countries / Cities

As well as any other custom dimensions that you have tied to Page Type, Customer Type, etc.

[marion33678522]

Hello !

I have Exactly the same issue.

I've been looking into it, and I think it's because of the Custom Links on IOS - at least for me. 

So Try ALSO breaking down by CUSTOM LINKS.

If you see ABDInternal on your first items then we have the same issue. I need to populate this sdk custom link that is launched at every app launch with my 1. user ID and 2. anonymous.

I believe that my anonoymous segment shows lot of anonymous on apps since there is no information on those custom links.

Still looking !

Cheers !

[jayak13010535]

Hi Eric,

We have set this eVar on every pages. We have used DTM Page Load Rule without any condition and this rule makes sure to get fired on every pages. I wrecked my head over this and I am still trying to find a solution. Do you think if this is because of eVar configuration which has been set to 'expire on visit'?

[Gigazelle]

If custom links are your culprit, make sure the linkTrackVars variable includes the eVar in question, especially if the eVar expires on hit.

[EricMatisoff]

Very good point - what happens if you leverage the Custom Links Instances metric? Does that help?

[EricMatisoff]

Actually - Exit Link Instances and Download Link Instances are all worth checking

[Pablo_Childe]

The likely reason you are seeing unspecified is that some pages are using older versions of code. I am guessing you used DTM to establish logged in VS anonymous. I would do a pages report against the unspecified find URL and check code version.

Good luck

[EricMatisoff · Accepted solution]

Oooh - another idea:

If you aren't capturing URL in an eVar/prop on those pages, you can consider leveraging Data Warehouse which makes the URL dimension available!

Create a hit-based segment that focuses on your login status eVar = None.

Create a Data Warehouse request that leverages that segment and pulls in Page URL as a dimension and a Page Views or Visits as metrics. You may also want to pull in additional dimensions like Custom Links, Exit Links, and File Downloads.

[david_bressler]

This just happened to me, which brought me here. I used the Segment Comparison within Analysis Workspace to identify what was causing the 'Unknown' values.

[amidland]

Hi,

I was wondering if you ever solved your issue because we seem to be running into a similar one - "Unspecified" with Custom Links showing ADBINTERNAL:Lifecycle only for iOS for certain variables we have implemented globally.

We don't seem to be doing anything different in iOS vs Android yet we seem to have Unspecified values showing up for iOS that we think may be duplicates.

Thanks in advance!

[EricMatisoff]

Hi amidland​ - I'm not quite following where you're seeing Unspecified. Which report is this in? Custom Links report? And if so, with what metrics?

[amidland]

Hi ericmatisoff​, sorry for the confusion, I was replying to the 2nd message above. We have several globally implemented variables (sending with all server calls) that are showing "Unspecified" in addition to the proper variable values. They all appear to be coming from iOS and upon breaking down Unspecified by Custom Links I can see ADBINTERNAL:Lifecycle.

[EricMatisoff]

No worries about the confusion - times like these I wish we had a threaded view

That does make sense. Those Lifecycle custom links are sent on app launch, app crash, etc that are automatically built into the SDK to provide metrics on that data. Your global variables will not be included in these automatic calls.

[amidland]

Thank you for the response! We are sending the global variables by passing additional data with Lifecycle calls and are able to see the Lifecycle custom link under our correct variable value and under Unspecified. So it appears that some of the data is coming in correctly/as expected and some is showing up under Unspecified.

To clarify, are you saying that the built in Lifecycle calls are likely the Unspecified values? Do you know if iOS handles Lifecycle calls differently than Android? And if so, is it advisable or possible to filter out the Unspecified items so they don't impact our reporting?

Thank you!

[EricMatisoff]

I wouldn't expect a difference between how iOS handles Lifecycle vs Android, but I don't feel confident without digging into the app's server calls and data.

If those Unspecified values show Lifecycle data when broken down by Custom Links, I'd feel confident that's the root cause.

The reason some global variables have Lifecycle data and others don't may have something to do with expiration of those eVars vs other eVar expirations vs props. If any of your eVars are set to expire at the Visitor granularity, then the values would persist 'through' the Lifecycle metrics getting fired.

Are you seeing that the context data variables that you're setting are firing in your debugger (ex: Charles) with the Lifecycle metric server calls?

[amidland]

We think we have found the issue - iOS was not sending the variables with Lifecycle calls and Android was. We are currently implementing and testing. Thank you for your help and quick responses!

[marion33678522]

amidland​

I had the same problem with the IOS LifeCycle trackAction.

Instead of implementing this on the Lifecycle, would'nt it be easier to just creat a segment excluding all Lifecycle custom links ?

Or even excluding all 'Unspecified' Data ?

I mean, it would be less hard to implement !

Cheers !

[amidland]

marion33678522​ Thank you for getting back to me. Good point and we were wondering if that sort of filtering was appropriate/advisable. 

Our implementation choice stemmed from attempting to mimic sending on "all server calls" which was how a set of global variables on web were implemented. I took this to mean that the variables should be implemented with all Lifecycle, trackAction, and trackState calls and another consultant confirmed that we should go forward with this implementation if possible.

Thanks, again!

[jonathanr763882]

I'm having the same issue! Ok so we know the following:

• Pageviews are working correctly (no unspecified values)
• Some visitors and visits have unspecified values
• Some visitors and visits do not have unspecified values

This leads me to believe that if, during a visit, login_status sends both logged in AND not logged in (because someone logged in during a visit), then the value is unspecified in analytics. Same goes for visitors that have been logged in AND logged out during the date range.

I can't confirm this but I have a good feeling about it. My task is now to 'classify' the unspecified values as 'logged in' but I have no idea how to do that. Any ideas?

[vijayaveenab130]

Hi Jonathan,

With respect to your above explanantion, can you please elaborate on this "during a visit, login_status sends both logged in AND not logged in (because someone logged in during a visit), then the value is unspecified in analytics. "

Are you saying that if a user is logged in and if he logs out and comes back as an anonymous user in the same visit then we see unspecified?

Your comments on this will be highly appreciated. Thank you