Why are my recordings missing?

Recordings depend on everything else working first: snippet, tracking and consent. On top of that, they have their own settings and limits. Find your symptom below.

"Recording is off for this site, so new visits are not recorded"

How many visits to record is set to Off. The recordings you already have stay in the list and can still be watched. To record new visits, go to Settings → Session recordings, choose a percentage or All visits and click Save recording settings. New visits are recorded within a minute. Older visits can't be recorded afterwards. See Set up session recordings.

"No recordings match these filters"

1. Check that data comes in at all: open Install and look under 4. Check that data comes in. If it says "No data received in the last 24 hours", start with Why is no data coming in?.
2. Choose a longer period. The list starts at 7 days.
3. Remove filters one by one, especially Any length, With or without frustration and the page filter.
4. Check the device: All devices shows everything.

The message also tells you what share of visits Varly records. At 10%, nine out of ten visits are never recorded.

A specific visit is missing

• No consent: Varly records nothing before the visitor accepts cookies in your cookie banner. Visitors who decline are never recorded. See Cookie consent.
• Not in the sample: with less than All visits, Varly picks visits at random.
• Older than 30 days: recordings are deleted after 30 days, unless someone added them to the favorites. Favorites are kept for 13 months. When a recording is removed from the favorites, the normal 30 days apply again, so an older recording disappears.
• Deleted: an owner may have deleted the recording.
• Your own visit: if your IP address is under Exclude IP addresses, or you excluded your own visits on this device, nothing of yours is recorded. See Exclude your own visits.

Part of a visit is missing

• Pages that are never tracked: pages under Never track these pages in Settings → Tracking & privacy are never recorded. The cart and checkout paths are on that list by default, so a recording skips those pages.
• Pages without the snippet: pages without the Varly snippet are not recorded.
• Very long page visits: recording of one page stops after an hour, or when the page produces a very large amount of recording data. Clicks and other measurements keep going.

The replay doesn't load or looks wrong

• "This recording has no page content yet." The visit has just started, or it ended right away. Recordings appear a few seconds after the visit starts. Try again a little later.
• "The recording could not be loaded." Refresh the page.
• Text shows as dots: that is the setting Hide text in recordings, on purpose. With Balanced, numbers such as prices are hidden too. Use Always show for elements you need to see, or choose another level. See Privacy in session recordings.
• Empty boxes: the element is blocked from recordings by your developer (with data-varly-block).
• Images, fonts or embedded content look different: the replay rebuilds the page and loads images from your site at the moment you watch. If an image has since been removed, it is missing. Fonts may look different. Embedded content from other sites (videos, maps, payment widgets) and drawings on a canvas are not recorded.

I can't add notes or favorites

Viewers can watch recordings but not change them. Ask an owner or editor, or ask for the editor role. Only owners can delete recordings. See Team roles.

The Recordings link on a heatmap is missing

The Recordings link next to elements on a heatmap only appears when recordings are on for the site.

For developers

The snippet loads a separate recording script only for visits that are recorded. If your site has a Content Security Policy, it must allow this script (rec.js) and its requests to /api/recording, both on Varly's address. If the snippet works but no recordings arrive, check the browser console and Network tab for a blocked rec.js or a failing request to /api/recording.