Deleted Google Analytics Profile: Any Way to Recover?

[Ehren]

Several months ago, an employee of ours tried to add his personal Gmail account as an admin of our Google Analytics account, so that he would not have to log out of his Gmail in order to set up new conversion goals.  He mis-typed his email, and accidentally invited some random individual who is not affiliated with our company.

Now, several months later, this random stranger just recently created his first ever Google Analytics account, found another account in there (ours), which he did not expect, and so proceeded to delete all the profiles, not realizing that they belonged to someone else.  I'm not sure why he chose that course of action, but that's beside the point. I've been in contact with him, since the profile deletion notification emails I got included his email address.  He says he's sorry.

Now all of our site's Google Analytics data is gone.

1. Is there any one to get in touch with at Google about this?
2. Is there any way to get our data back?
3. If our data is lost, is there any way to recover our account setup information, or make the previous profile IDs work again? Our account is/was heavily customized, and it will be a lot of work to re-do this customization from scratch?
4. What are some good strategies to prevent this sort of thing in the future?  If someone's job involves setting up new profiles, goals and filters in Google Analytics, then they need access.  However, we would want some kind of safeguard against the permanent deletion of our account by anyone who has admin access.  Google Analytics currently has only two levels of access that I'm aware of, "Reporting" and "Admin".  Anyone who is an Admin can delete entire profiles, and all that gets sent to the other admins is an after-the-fact deletion confirmation email.

[SimonCullum]

Hi Ehren

Unfortunately, I do not believe there is a way of recovering deleted GA profiles.  Though if you're an Adwords customer, it may be worth contacting your Adwords Account Manager to see if they are able to assist.

( The same question was asked back in December, which can be viewed at  http://www.seomoz.org/q/how-to-recover-a-deleted-google-anaytics-profile )

Another option to be absolutely sure, I'd suggest contacting a 'Google Analytics Certified Partner' via  http://www.google.com/intl/en/analytics/partners.html for their verdict and/or assistance.

To avoid anything like this happening again, ensure that anybody with Admin access can be trusted, has had the required training and knows the sign-off procedure to go through before deleting anything.

I hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

[AdamNajak]

It seems that there maybe some light at the end of the tunnel.

One of our developers deleted an account and it seems some are having success using this method.

http://www.joelcarlo.net/how-to-restore-a-deleted-google-analytics-account/

I know I am responding to an older thread, but could prove useful to someone else

[bulletproofsearch]

Yes.  You can absolutely recover a Google Analytics account after it has been deleted.  I've done this a handful of times in different ways, but it keeps getting more difficult to get the request to the right department who has this access.  The link keeps moving with each Help Center redesign and such.  At the time of this writing, Google Analytics gives you 35 days before it's gone for good.  So, don't delay.

Start here:  https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1009696?hl=en&ref_topic=1009690#contact=1

This is actually a page with instructions to delete an Analytics account.  Don't do that.  Just click the link to go there.  A contact form should pop up due to the "#contact=1" at the end of the URL.  If it doesn't, click on "Contact Us" at the top right of the screen.  As of right now, there are two options:

• Chat online with a support specialist (it redirects you to fill out a form before you do your chat but it's usually faster for me)
• Request an email reply from a support specialist (I didn't see the option for recovering a deleted account just now)

As of this moment, and the last time I recovered a deleted account, I chose the chat option and it went very well.

Before you begin, remember that they likely have more important things to do than overstaff this particular department.  It can take 2-3 days to complete the process once they get back with you depending on how prepared you are to help them.  You'll need to supply the right information such as one or more admin(s) who was/were on the account, any login data or other credentials, etc.

If for whatever reason your email address is not listed as having admin access to the account, you will need to wait while the admins listed get a chance to reclaim the account first.  Google will send an email to those admin email addresses on file and they usually have 48-72 hours to respond before Google proceeds to consider your request and set up another call with you (I'm sure this will get more automated over time).

In the meantime, they will ask you to upload an html file to the root folder of the domain in question.  This is similar to how you may have verified admin access within Google Analytics in the past.  Keep in mind that just because you do this and verify access to the domain doesn't mean that you have a right to the data.  Say what?  That's right!  It's still their decision to grant you access to the account.  So, be very nice to these people.

If no previous admin who was on file at the time of the account deletion claims the account via the email they send out, you'll receive a follow up call where they will discuss whether or not you get access.  If you've already uploaded the html file to the root directory of the domain in question, they'll litterally call just to tell you that their system was able to scan your site and confirm that you can have access to the deleted account.

They will then email you an admin invite and ask you to log in and confirm that the site you just got access to is what you were expecting.  I imagine they go to these lengths because if it's not, the clock is still ticking on the account that you really wanted.  Remember that there can be multiple accounts for the same domain!  Be sure to get the one you need and say thank you!

I have moved mountains by being nice to support reps and I am very thankful for all that they have done for me and my clients.  You too can recover deleted accounts!  We all just have to follow the rules, be nice, and please leave them a good review when they email you about your experience after the fact.  We're all in this together if you think about it.  Best of luck!

And yes I can try to help you if you hit a brick wall and are easy to work with.