FAQ for Session Replay 1.0

When viewing recordings, I see the message “Something is wrong with this page.”

This message may appear for several reasons:

  • Try to play back the session in another browser. If playback works, disable all plugins and extensions in your regular browser, and clear your cache and cookies.
  • Your site uses protection against rendering in an iframe (the site returns the header X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN or X-Frame-Options: DENY).

    To correctly replay sessions, you must delete the protection code (contact the person responsible for site support), or configure the web server.

  • Lower the protection level of your antivirus software.
  • A firewall on the computer or network is blocking access to:

    • The domains metrika.yandex.ru and mc.yandex.ru.
    • The domain *.yandex.net.
    • The domain *.yandex.tld.
  • The site does not open without the www prefix.
The “Session Replay” report does not have any data

Session Replay is not enabled automatically when creating a tag. To learn how to enable it, see the section Enabling and configuring Session Replay 1.0.

When enabling Session Replay, don't forget to click the Save button. Otherwise, report data will not be displayed.

The “Session Replay” report does not include any demographic data (gender, age, and so on).

Yandex Metrica protects users' privacy and ensures that all collected information is depersonalized. This is why some data is not fully disclosed. This includes data that is calculated by Yandex algorithms, for example, socio-demographic data (gender, age), login page addresses, search phrases, and information about robots. Such information is provided only if there are more than 10 users in the sample.

This information can't be shown in the report, since Session Replay records the actions of each user individually.

The “Referral from site” field shows my own site, but the traffic was from an ad

This may be caused by the following reasons:

  • The link from the ad points to a page that does not have the code snippet installed on it. As a result, Yandex Metrica cannot correctly register the referral source. When a user goes to the next page (where the code snippet is installed), your site is recorded as the session source in reports. To avoid these types of errors, make sure that the code snippet is installed correctly on every page on the site.
  • The tag was not triggered on one of the pages that ad links point to. This may happen if a user goes to a different page before the Yandex Metrica code loads, or if there is a redirect on the page.
Why are some sessions empty?

A certain percentage of visits to any site may not display any activity. This happens either because nothing actually happened on the page during the session, or because the actions could not be recorded.

Reasons for nothing happening on the page:

  • A web crawler visited your site.
  • Your page was loaded in a tab when a browser restored a user’s previous session.

Reasons for actions not being recorded:

  • The code snippet does not support Session Replay. Turn on the Session Replay option on the tag settings page and update the code on your site.
  • The user left your page without waiting for it to load.
  • The user was using a browser that does not support recording (for example, a mobile browser).
  • The user used a non-standard device to view the page.
  • The user had a slow internet connection (for example, mobile internet).
Does Session Replay increase the load on my site?

No, the load on your site will not increase, because all the user actions are recorded in users' browsers after your webpage has loaded.

Does Session Replay increase the data used by my site's users?

Depending on the page size and viewing time, the data transferred per session ranges from 200 bytes to 4 kilobytes (this is less than 5% of the average page size in the internet). Such an increase in traffic will be negligible compared to the amount of data used when visiting your site.

Does the quality of my site layout affect how Session Replay works?

If there are a large number of HTML markup errors (such as unclosed tags or incorrect nestings), this may lead to inaccuracies in session replays. Session Replay usually adapts to such errors, but having correct HTML structure on site pages is preferable.

What should I do if Session Replay doesn't work in my browser?

Session Replay supports most modern computer browsers. There is limited support for recording sessions in beta versions and in certain mobile browsers.

We recommend keeping your browser updated to the latest version available. Session playback is supported in these browsers: Yandex Browser, Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Internet Explorer.

In Safari 12, the click map, link map or scroll map page may load endlessly due to an option in the browser settings.

  1. Go to the Privacy tab and disable the Prevent cross-site tracking option.
  2. Restart the browser and open Session Replay or the maps again.
Note. Different browsers may process the same page in different ways. This means that to accurately replay a session, you should use the same browser as it was originally recorded in.
Will sessions on sites with flexible layouts be reproduced correctly?

Yes. Sessions on pages with flexible layouts will be replayed correctly, even if the resolution of the user’s screen is not the same as the replay screen. During playback, you might see small cursor jumps due to a different relative positioning of elements on the recorded and replayed pages.

A webpage is password protected. Why does the playback just show the login page instead of the entire replay?

Session Replay does not record passwords and makes no attempt to log in to a site on behalf of a user. Therefore, the player loads the login page, just like any other user who has not logged in.

Session Replay player shows an error or invalid page instead of the page confirming that a form was sent. Why?

Most likely, the form sends data using the POST method.

When loading data to the player, Session Replay only uses the GET method. This is because POST requests usually lead to actions such as submitting a form, making an order, and so on. Session Replay would be simulating an actual user if it used the POST method, so every time you viewed such a page using the player, you would get a duplicate request or repeat order.

Why aren’t user actions replayed in the Flash sections of the site?

Session Replay only records user actions performed in the HTML sections of a site. In addition, user interactions with Flash elements are not recorded. Only mouse movements over these elements are recorded. The cursor may disappear when playing these movements. This is due to the fact that Flash elements are by default displayed above the page's content in the browser, including the cursor displayed by the player.

To make the cursor visible on Flash elements, set the display mode for them to wmode=transparent:
<object>
    <param name="wmode" value="transparent">
    ...
    <embed wmode="transparent" ... />
</object>
Why does the page reload when I try to view pages with the player?

You probably have some sort of protection from rendering pages within a frame. It may look something like this:

<script type="text/javascript">if (top.location != self.location)
{
 top.location.replace(self.location)
}
</script>

In order for sessions to replay correctly, you’ll need to delete this code.

Does Session Replay record users' passwords?

No. Session Replay does not record what is entered in a password type field.

How can I stop Session Replay recording keystrokes in certain fields?

To prevent information from specified fields from being recorded, set the CSS class -ym-disable-keys for them. This class can be used for marking fields with private information.

Session Replay submits a form when replaying sessions

When replaying sessions, sometimes a duplicate form may be submitted in the name of the user on the site (for example, another product is added to the shopping basket).

To prevent this, set the CSS -visor-no-click class for form elements:

<form action="/login" method="post" class="-visor-no-click"></form>
How long does Session Replay store recordings of sessions?

Data is stored for 15 days, including the current day.

Select a question to find a solution.

The page content in the recording may be different from the actual content. It's likely that the CSS on the site frequently changes. In this case, add the content hash to the style file names. Then, when you change the file's content, its name will change. For example: style.390b32d4d49d5e7d.css will be changed to style.0c573d460df87d4de5a4.css. This lets Session Replay use the style that the site visitor sees when it records a session.

Do the following:

  • Clear the browser cache.
  • Disable all plugins and browser extensions.
  • Delete browser cookies.
  • Check the firewall settings. The firewall may be blocking the Yandex Metrica tag script. The tag could also be blocked by the extension Adblock Plus.

If you have more questions about Session Replay, submit them in the form below. Provide an example of the session where data was displayed incorrectly and specify the full version of your browser.