Massive delay updating AdSense stats today

May 6, 2008

Before you start panicking when you login to your trusty AdSense account only to discover you have about 2% of the earnings you would expect for this time of day, Google seems to be experiencing a massive delay in updating their stats.  So when you see $2.87 when you would should be seeing something like $130, this is why.  Google AdSense stats have not been updated for about 8 hours or so, since about 1am PST (AKA Google AdSense stats time).

It is affecting all the stats - impressions, clicks and earnings.  While sometimes we have seen delays with either impressions or clicks, this is definitely affecting everything, as if the AdSense account has been frozen at 1am.

There hasn’t been any word from Google yet on why the stats are so delayed, but this seems to be across the board in all counties.  Ads to appear to be serving normally, but it is always disconcerting when there is such a massive delay in stats… especially since stats haven’t had any delay issues for years.

 That said, there could be something new and shiny to play with when they do start updating. 

I will post updates as I hear more, so be sure to subscribe to the feed if you haven’t already and my Twitter feed, if you want the latest :)  I am trying to find out why there is such a delay.   And if you are a little bit nervous about the lack of updates, you can read up on Supplementing AdSense with Affiliate Ads while you wait.

 Update: Stats are also affected on the AdWords site of things, with advertisers not seeing any updates for the same period of time.  Google AdWords has confirmed that the ads are continuing to be served properly, that they are aware there is an issue, and it is being worked on by engineers right now. 

Yes - some advertisers are seeing a delay in their stats today. The engineering teams are aware of this and, as you might imagine, are working to resolve it as a priority.

Please know that ads have continued to run as normal. This issue revolves around the reporting of statistics only, and does not impact ad delivery.

I’ll post again when I have anything of substance to add - and, in the meantime, my apology for the inconvenience this is causing you.

AWA

Still no official word from the AdSense site of things though.

Update 2 @ 11:35 am PST:

Google AdSense has finally responded over on Google Groups:

Hi everyone,

I’ve escalated your reports to our engineers, and they’re currently
investigating the issue. I’ll be sure to update this thread as soon as
I have any more info — thanks for your patience in the meantime.

Stephanie

So no real new information, but they are working on it :)  I will continue to update on this post and tweet as more information is available.

Update 3 @ 11:50 am PST

Clicks are very slowly starting to come in, but still at only a small percentage of totals of what it should be at this time of day.  Either they are updating stats since the time they discovered the problem earlier this morning, or the stats from 1am PST are starting to roll in.

Update 4 @ 1:45pm PST

Stats are still very much behind but slowly updating.  And another update from Google:

Hi again everyone,

I’ve just received an update from our engineers: they’re still working
on resolving the issue, but they have confirmed that no statistics or
data have been lost from your accounts. I’ll let you know when I have
more info about when you might expect to see updated stats. Again, we
appreciate your patience.

Stephanie

So no update on when it will be resolved, but the confirmation that stats and earnings are not lost permanently, which should cause some to breathe a sigh of relief!

Update 5 @ 4:20pm PST

No further word from Google, but stats are still creeping up - about 1/2 to 2/3 of where they should be at this time.  If you have raw logs, you can do a guestimate of how much your have updated at this time.

Update 6 @ 5:17pm PST

They have now updated the AdSense blog with:

A number of you have informed us that your reports are substantially lower than usual today, or aren’t being updated. Our engineers are currently investigating the issue and working to resolve it as quickly as possible. Please be assured that your account data has still been tracked, so this issue will not affect your earnings or payments. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for being patient.

 They also point to a new Known Issues page.  I wish they would timestamp the updates though, so we know when it is current to.  Knowing this issue was updated just on “May 6, 2008″ doesn’t really do much good for those of us wondering if it was updated this morning when it was first noticed or just 15 minutes ago as a current status update.

Screenshot (click for full-sized)

Update 7 @ 5:22pm PST

After I posted the above and double checked the known issues link, the report about the AdSense stats not being updated has now been removed.  This might mean it is resolved, although no confirmation as of yet.  I wonder why they don’t change it to a status of resolved for 24 hours for those of us checking the page for details, rather than deleting it from the page entirely.  I added the screen shot from the known issue page in the update above.  (And a few minutes after I added this, it was back again on the known issues page, maybe someone was trigger-happy and thinking it was resolved; Or maybe not, it is gone once again).

Posted in Google AdSense