Getting Ready For GA4: Saving Your Historical Data article image Ref: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/ga4-historical-data/447519/#close Migrating your data to GA4 is not currently possible. Here's what you can do instead to prepare before the July 2023 deadline. As you’re preparing to set up Google Analytics (GA4), you’re probably asking the same thing we were: What’s the best method for migrating our historical data? There should be a way to do this, right? In this column, you’ll learn whether we can merge data in GA4 and three DIY ways to save your historical data. Can You Migrate Your Data To GA4? The primary concern is whether GA users can transfer or migrate Universal Analytics data into their Google Analytics 4 property. Unfortunately, you cannot migrate your data to GA4, and it’s not likely to be a feature we’ll see added in the coming months. Migrating your data to GA4 is not likely to be a feature because the two versions use completely different data models. I spoke with Charles Farina, Head of Innovation at Adswerve, and he explained that: “It is the difference in schema and dimension definitions/calculations that make merging the data not possible.” Schema refers to how the data is organized and the language used to ensure compatibility. Essentially it is the blueprint. He explains you can see the differences in schema well when comparing the BigQuery integrations for UA and GA4. “The UA export is sess-ionized, meaning each row in the export is a session, and every interaction is nested in that row. The GA4 export is very different, where each row is the event (interaction) itself,” shared Farina. Another key reason is how dimensions and metrics are defined and calculated in GA4 compared to UA. Google has a great support page that goes over many of these. For example, let’s look at one of the most common KPIs, “Users.” Universal Analytics reports on Total Users or all users, while GA4 focuses on Active Users or users that have visited the website at least once in the past 28 days. Even if we could migrate UA data to GA4, it would be like comparing apples to oranges. If you’re wondering why this change is happening, you’ll find the answer in our article, Google Analytics 4 FAQs: Stay Calm & Keep Tracking. How To Export Google Analytics Historical Data Google does empathize and encourages users to export their historical data. “We know your data is important to you, and we strongly encourage you to export your historical reports during this time.”