(In Theory)
Supposedly there is (finally) a process for getting control of lost google analytics accounts.
We’re in the middle of attempting this, so we’ll see where it goes.
The instructions we’ve found are here:
https://support.google.com/analytics/troubleshooter/7264014?hl=en&ref_topic=1009691#ts=7271146
and pretty much the same thing here:
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/7268497#prove
Part of the process is creating an analytics.txt in the web root of the site in question.
GooGhywoiu9839t543j0s7543uw1 - pls add {INSERT EMAIL ADDRESS} to GA account {INSERT UA-ID} with ‘Manage Users and Edit’ permissions - date {INSERT DATE}.The information gets submitted on this page:
https://support.google.com/analytics/contact/adminleft_ga
It wants information about the previous owner, of which we know nothing, so we’ll see if google likes our worthless answers. (ie: [email protected] for the previous owner’s email address)
From poking around on different sites, we’ve gathered these tips:
- Don’t include the “-1” at the end of the UA-ID, as that will reference only the one property, not the whole account.
- The date needs to be MM/DD/YYYY format.
- Google wants your adwords account information, so we had to create a new one for a customer who hadn’t used adwords before.
We’ll update this post as we find out more information.
This handy article got us pointed in the right direction: