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FAQ

This page answers common questions about installing, configuring, and using BimBeau Privacy Analytics. For detailed configuration guidance, see Settings overview, Account and license, and Contact support.

Good to know

This FAQ is written for WordPress site owners and BimBeau Privacy Analytics users. It does not cover internal development, database schema, or implementation details.

General questions

What is BimBeau Privacy Analytics? BimBeau Privacy Analytics is a lightweight analytics plugin for WordPress. It helps you monitor website activity directly from your WordPress admin area while keeping analytics data local to your website.
Who is BimBeau Privacy Analytics for? BimBeau Privacy Analytics is for WordPress site owners, editors, marketers, agencies, and teams who want practical analytics without relying on a complex external analytics platform for their core website statistics.
Where do I find BimBeau Privacy Analytics in WordPress? After installation and activation, open the **BimBeau Privacy Analytics** menu in your WordPress admin area.
Does BimBeau Privacy Analytics work for public frontend pages only? BimBeau Privacy Analytics is designed to measure public website activity. WordPress admin screens, technical requests, cron jobs, and internal system contexts are not intended to appear as normal content traffic.
Which languages does BimBeau Privacy Analytics support? BimBeau Privacy Analytics uses WordPress locale settings for the plugin interface. Bundled plugin translations cover English (United States), French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Turkish, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Greek, and Chinese (China).

Free and Pro

What is included in BimBeau Privacy Analytics Free? BimBeau Privacy Analytics Free focuses on essential aggregate analytics, including the main dashboard, Pages, Referring sites, Internal searches, Pages not found, Devices, country-level Geolocation, Real-time, Visitors, and privacy settings.
What does BimBeau Privacy Analytics Pro add? BimBeau Privacy Analytics Pro adds advanced workflows such as exports, Page Details, Events, content analytics, city-level geolocation reports, the PWA Stats App, white-label admin header controls and Pro-only display depth where licensed features are active and the required data is available.
Why do some Pro features not appear in Free? In the Free runtime, BimBeau Privacy Analytics hides Pro-only report surfaces, controls, and routes instead of exposing disabled locked screens. If you expect a Pro feature to appear, check that your Pro license or account connection is active and that your WordPress user has the required permissions.
Why are Pro features not visible after upgrade? Check that your Pro license or account connection is active, that you are using the correct plugin version, and that your WordPress user has permission to access BimBeau Privacy Analytics settings and Pro features.
Why does activation say another BimBeau Privacy Analytics package is active? Only one BimBeau Privacy Analytics package can be active at a time. Activation is blocked when the other package is already active, and the existing active package remains active. To switch packages, manually deactivate the active package first, then activate the package you want to use.

Tracking and privacy

What is essential tracking? Essential tracking is the baseline analytics layer in BimBeau Privacy Analytics. It supports core aggregate reports such as page views, visits, Pages, Referring sites, Devices, Internal searches, and Pages not found with minimal collection.
What is advanced tracking? Advanced tracking is the enrichment layer. It can provide richer analytics signals such as active engagement timing, deeper visitor details, geolocation enrichment, Events, and some Pro workflows when enabled and allowed by your consent setup.
Does BimBeau Privacy Analytics replace my CMP or cookie banner? No. BimBeau Privacy Analytics is not a consent management platform. If your website requires consent for advanced analytics, your CMP or consent banner should control whether advanced tracking is allowed to run.
Why are some fields shown as private or unavailable? This can happen when only essential tracking data is available, when advanced tracking is disabled, when consent has not been granted, or when the required technical signal is missing.
Can I use BimBeau Privacy Analytics without advanced tracking? Yes. BimBeau Privacy Analytics can still provide essential aggregate analytics without advanced tracking.
Which query parameters are kept for campaign attribution? When URL query cleanup is enabled, BimBeau Privacy Analytics can keep allowed query parameters for attribution. New installs include `utm_source`, `utm_medium`, `utm_campaign`, `gclid`, `gbraid`, `wbraid`, and `msclkid` in the default allowlist. Existing installs with a missing or empty allowlist are backfilled once, while custom non-empty allowlists are preserved. Do not put personal data in UTM values or advertising query parameters.

Reports

Why is my dashboard empty after installation? The dashboard may be empty if BimBeau Privacy Analytics has not collected enough activity yet. Visit a public page, wait briefly, then refresh the dashboard. Also check your tracking settings, role exclusions, and consent setup.
Why does Real-time show no visitors? Real-time only shows recent activity. If your website has low traffic or no recent visitors, the report may be empty. You can test it by opening a public page as a normal visitor.
Why are some referrers missing? Referrer information can be limited by browsers, apps, search engines, privacy tools, or the referring website's referrer policy. Some visits may appear as direct traffic because the original source was not shared.
What is the difference between views and visits? Views count page views. Visits represent visit-level activity. A page can have more views than visits when visitors reload it, return to it, or view it multiple times during the same visit.
What does average active time mean? Average active time measures foreground engagement when timing data is available. It is not the same as the total time a browser tab remained open.
Why do I see 404 errors? A 404 error means someone requested a URL that WordPress could not find. This can happen because of broken internal links, old URLs, external backlinks, deleted pages, bots, or mistyped addresses.
Why is geolocation incomplete? Geolocation depends on available technical signals and configured data sources. Country-level data is usually easier to resolve than city-level data. Some visits may not have usable location information, and city-level reporting requires BimBeau Privacy Analytics Pro.

Exports

Why do I not see an export button? Exports are a Pro feature. The export action appears as a download icon on supported reports when Pro is active and your user has the required permissions.
Which export format should I use? Use CSV for spreadsheets, reporting workflows, and broad compatibility. Use JSON for structured data, integrations, archives, or technical processing. Use Excel when you want a `.xlsx` workbook that opens directly in Excel, Numbers, or LibreOffice. Excel exports require the PHP Zip extension on the server; when Zip is unavailable, the Excel action can remain visible but disabled with an explanatory tooltip.
Are exported files deleted by BimBeau Privacy Analytics retention settings? No. Once a file is exported, it exists outside BimBeau Privacy Analytics. You are responsible for storing, sharing, protecting, and deleting exported files according to your own data handling rules.

Events

What are Events? Events are a BimBeau Privacy Analytics Pro feature that lets you track specific actions or behaviors, such as clicks, form submissions, page views matching a target page, or other configured interactions.
Why is my event not triggering? Check that Pro is active, the event is enabled, the trigger selector or page pattern is correct, advanced tracking is allowed, and cache or script optimization plugins are not interfering.
Should I track clicks or form submissions? Use click events for buttons and links. Use form submit events when you want to track form submission behavior. Tracking both on the same form can create two separate event occurrences.

PWA Stats App

What is the PWA Stats App? The PWA Stats App is a BimBeau Privacy Analytics Pro feature that provides a dedicated app-like interface for viewing analytics outside the standard WordPress admin layout.
Why does the PWA Stats App ask me to sign in again? The app uses authenticated access. You may need to sign in again if your session expired, your permissions changed, or your browser cleared site data.
Why does the app look outdated after an update? Browsers may cache app assets. Refresh the app, close and reopen it, or clear site data if the interface appears outdated after a plugin update.

Data retention

What happens when retention cleanup runs? BimBeau Privacy Analytics removes analytics data older than the configured retention period. After cleanup, deleted historical data will no longer appear in reports unless it exists elsewhere, such as in a backup or exported file.
Should I export data before changing retention settings? If you need to keep historical reports, export them before reducing retention or uninstalling the plugin.
What does uninstall cleanup do? When enabled, uninstall cleanup can remove BimBeau Privacy Analytics plugin tables and analytics data from your WordPress database when the plugin is uninstalled. This can permanently delete analytics history.

Getting more help

If you cannot find an answer here, continue with Common issues for troubleshooting workflows.