Most issues are fixed by reloading the page after opening the panel. The rest are usually tag-config gotchas, not Pixel Auditor bugs.
The side panel is empty
Reload the page after opening Pixel Auditor. The extension only intercepts calls made after its content script has loaded — pre-existing tags from a long-loaded tab won't show until refresh.
I see "0 tags" but I know GA4 is installed
Some sites lazy-load GA4 after a user interaction (cookie consent acceptance, scroll, page-end timer). Interact with the page — accept consent, scroll, click — and tags should appear. Pixel Auditor re-scans at 800 ms, 2.5 s, and 5 s automatically, plus a MutationObserver catches injected scripts.
Pixel Auditor doesn't open on chrome:// or extension pages
Chrome blocks extensions from running on its internal pages. This applies to every extension, not just Pixel Auditor. Test on a real http(s) site.
The panel doesn't open at all
- Visit
chrome://extensions, find Pixel Auditor, confirm it's enabled. - Reload the tab you were on.
- Click the Pixel Auditor toolbar icon. The panel should slide in.
- If still nothing: disable other side-panel-using extensions and try again. Chrome only allows one side panel at a time.
Saved Run says "data lost" when I load it
Saved Runs are stored in chrome.storage.local. If you uninstalled the extension or cleared Chrome's extension data, runs are gone. They never sync to Google's cloud unless you've enabled extension sync explicitly.
The CMP auto-click button doesn't find my CMP
If your CMP isn't one of the 19 supported vendors, the generic text-based fallback runs. If it can't find a button either, the CMP is probably using shadow DOM or unusual selectors. Click the banner manually — Pixel Auditor still captures the consent_update.
I see PII flags on hashed values
Hashed values (SHA-256, MD5) are flagged at lower severity as "likely hashed PII". This is informational — Meta's Advanced Matching expects hashed em / ph / fn / ln. Raw PII is a separate, higher-severity flag.
Sites with strict CSP block the panel
Pixel Auditor's content script runs in an isolated world separate from the page's CSP. The panel UI runs from the extension origin and isn't subject to the page's CSP either. If you see issues on a strict-CSP site, file a bug — it's likely something else.
Latency badge always shows red
Check whether the page is genuinely slow. performance.now() is wall-clock time from navigation start; if your page takes 3+ seconds to fire its first tag, every fire will show red. Use the Reset Consent + reload trick to test from a clean state.
Theme keeps reverting to light/dark on its own
You probably haven't set an explicit override yet — the theme is following prefers-color-scheme. Click the sun/moon toggle to set an explicit theme. → Themes