That’s frustrating! If your All Sessions traffic report is only showing Paid Social and nothing else, there’s a good chance that a filter, segment, or data issue is blocking the rest of your traffic. Let’s track down the culprit.

1. Check If a Filter or Comparison Is Applied

Sometimes, GA4 reports only show a subset of data because a filter is in place without you realising it. To check:

• Look at the top of the report for filters or comparisons (e.g., “Session Default Channel Group: Paid Social”).

• If one is applied, click the X to remove it and see if other channels appear.

2. Review Data Retention Settings

GA4 only keeps detailed user-level data for a set period (default: 2 months, max: 14 months). If your report uses a long date range and other channels have older data, they may not appear in this specific view. Try:

• Shortening the date range to a recent period.

• Checking Admin > Data Settings > Data Retention to ensure GA4 isn’t automatically deleting older session data.

3. Look at How Traffic Is Being Categorised

GA4 automatically groups traffic sources using Default Channel Grouping, but misconfigured UTMs or missing auto-tagging can lead to traffic being misclassified or dumped into Unassigned or Direct.

• Go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition and see if traffic is being counted under “(not set)” or Direct.

• If running paid ads, confirm that auto-tagging is enabled in Google Ads and that UTMs are properly structured.

• Click into Unassigned or Direct to check if other traffic sources are incorrectly categorised.

4. Ensure GA4 Is Tracking All Traffic Sources

If GA4 is missing organic, referral, or email traffic, the issue could be:

• Tracking code missing on some pages (use GA DebugView or Tag Assistant to confirm).

• Blocked tracking due to cookies, browser settings, or server-side issues (check if Consent Mode is in effect).

• UTMs being stripped by redirects or security settings (test links in an incognito window to see if parameters persist).

How to Fix It?

✅ Remove any applied filters or comparisons in the report.
✅ Adjust the date range to ensure GA4 isn’t excluding older data.
✅ Check the Traffic Acquisition report for miscategorized traffic.
✅ Ensure tracking code is firing correctly and UTMs are set up properly.

Once those steps are complete, your Channels – All Sessions report should reflect all traffic sources. If the issue persists, checking BigQuery exports (if enabled) can help confirm whether GA4 is actually collecting the missing data.

Best of luck!