The One GA4 Setting Everyone Forgets to Change

May 14, 2025
If you have set up Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and left all the defaults in place, I have bad news for you. One of those defaults is slowly ruining your data behind your back. It is called Data Retention, and almost nobody talks about it.

The Silent Problem: Only 2 Months of Data

When you launch a GA4 property, it starts off by keeping user-level and event-level data for just 2 months.
Two. Months.

That means if you want to look back over a year, or compare performance across seasons, or track how customer behaviour has shifted over time, you will not be able to.
The data will already have been deleted.

It sounds ridiculous, right? Most businesses are planning at least quarter by quarter, if not year by year. Yet GA4 quietly clears out the history before you even realise it is missing.

Why Did Google Set It This Way?

If you are wondering why Google would do this, the answer is simple.
It is easier for them.

Shorter data retention periods mean fewer legal headaches when it comes to GDPR, CCPA, and all the other privacy laws that are popping up everywhere.
If they only keep your users' detailed behaviour for 2 months unless you explicitly say otherwise, they can say they are "privacy-first".
They are protecting themselves, not you.

What Happens If You Do Not Change It?

Leaving it at 2 months creates all kinds of problems you will not notice until it is too late.

  • You cannot do year-over-year comparisons inside GA4.
  • Customer journey and lifetime value analysis will be based on a tiny slice of data.
  • Funnel reports and path explorations will feel shallow and disconnected.
  • Predictive audiences and insights will be built on very weak signals.
  • Even audience definitions that rely on historical behaviour will stop working properly.

In short, you will lose the ability to actually learn from your users over time.
And when you finally realise, you will not be able to recover the missing data. It will be gone for good.

BigQuery vs GA4: A Hidden Mismatch

Some people assume this is not a big deal because they are exporting their data to BigQuery.
That is only half true.

BigQuery will keep everything you export into it.
But GA4’s interface will still be stuck showing you only the last two months unless you change the retention setting.
So you end up with BigQuery telling you one thing and GA4 telling you another.

If you are relying on GA4’s built-in reports, Explorations, or audience builder, you are still trapped inside that tiny 2-month window.
It is a completely avoidable mess.

How to Fix It (Before It Is Too Late)

The good news is it takes about 30 seconds to fix.

Here is what you do:

  1. Open your GA4 Property.
  2. Click Admin in the bottom left.
  3. Under Property Settings, click Data Settings, then Data Retention.
  4. Change the Event Data Retention option to 14 months.
  5. Hit Save.

That is it.
No complicated steps. No risk.
You are just telling GA4 to hold onto your user and event data for a timeframe that actually makes sense.

Why 14 Months and Not Longer?

You might wonder why the maximum is only 14 months.
It is deliberate.

Google is willing to offer you a little more breathing room to make year-on-year comparisons, but they still want to limit their exposure.
If you want data for 2 years, 5 years, or longer, you are expected to manage that yourself by exporting into BigQuery or some other storage.

It is a bit of a cop-out, but at least they give you 14 months if you know to ask for it.

Final Thought

GA4 is not "broken", but it is not set up to work in your favour either.
If you do not take control of settings like Data Retention, you are flying blind without realising it.

It is one small change, but it has a huge impact.
Fix it now, and your future self will thank you when you are pulling full-year reports next Christmas and not sitting there wondering why half your data is missing.

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