Data error in Analytics – The response is not a valid JSON response.

Thanks for opening a support topic and sharing the additional details. While nothing stands out from inspecting your site and your WordPress environment the “The response is not a valid JSON response” is a general WordPress error. So we can try and determine why this is occurring within your Analytics dashboard can you share the below:

1. Does the same occur if you check your site from a Chrome browser incognito window? If so please share any browser console errors.
2. Do you see any errors or warnings when checking your Site Health status – which differs to your Site Health information?
3. Has this just started occurring recently, with Site Kit working as expected before this error?

Let me know if you have any questions with the above.

Hello,
1. Here’s a screenshot of the errors when I’m logged in and looking at the Dashboard: https://prnt.sc/1uqowjv
If I visit the site using Incognito mode there are no errors.

2. Only these: https://prnt.sc/1uqp2kw

3. It was working, at some point it stopped, I don’t know when, this website has been dormant for some time, after maintenance I removed the plugin, re-installed and followed the setup wizard, after the setup was done I was seeing these errors.

Thanks

Many thanks for sharing, very useful indeed. If the error no longer occurs when checking from a browser incognito window this may indicate a browser extension or Ad Block active. Can you share what browser you’re using and the extensions active?

The ad block extensions are not running on this site: https://prnt.sc/1uquutv
Anyway, I’m using Google Site Kit in many other websites and my extensions are not disturbing the connection. I think this is either a bug or a server connection issue.

Extensions: FullPage Screenshot, Loom, Mega, Chrome Remote Desktop, Link to Text Fragment, NordVPN, Wave, Salesforce DevTool, Google Tag Assistant Legacy, Facebook pixel helper

Thanks for the update. Without having tested all your active extensions I don’t suspect any would block Site Kit functionality. So we can investigat this further can you share the following:

1. Does this occur consistently each time you login to your site during a regular browser session?
2. Similar to the above does the error never appear when using an incognito window?

If both the above are try can you try and clear your browsers cache before checking once more? If the results are not consistent can you disconnect the Analytics module before connecting once more – to the same connected property.

1. Yeah.
2. It still appears using incognito mode on Google Chrome but I do actually have some extensions running in Incognito mode as well.
The best way to test this is do it on Mozilla since I’m only using it for these type of tests and nothing else: https://prnt.sc/1us9tsh – issue persists.

Thanks for helping out James!

Many thanks for the update and your cross browser testing. To try and determine the cause in your case we can perform a couple of additional checks. Firstly let’s try use the Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin, which can help rule out theme or plugin conflicts. To do so follow the steps below:

1. Login to your site from a Chrome browser incognito window
2. Install and activate the Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin.
3. Navigate to “Plugins > Health Check & Troubleshooting > Troubleshoot”.
4. From the same screen click on the “Available Plugins” tab at the top right and then click on the “Enable” option next to “Site Kit by Google”
5. Check your Site Kit dashboards once more

Let me know how you get on with the above.

Hello again,
Still seeing the same issue:
https://ibb.co/zQfRD8Q

Thanks for checking this. So we can troubleshoot more on this would it be possible for you to share a screen recording of this, demonstrating the following, preferably in order:

1. Your Site Kit dashboard with this error
2. Your console errors
3. Any XHR response on this page when reloading
4. Disconnecting the Analytics module and connecting once more

I can then check this with the team and see if we spot anything unusual, or we can perform some checks at host level.

You can use a service such as Loom or RecordIt to share, while using the form previously used to provide a link to the recording.

Hey, I’ll do that in a few days, I’m on vacation.

Not a problem, thanks for the update. Enjoy your holidays, hopefully upon your return we can determine the cause after discussing this with the team and reviewing the above information.

Hello again James!

There you go: https://www.loom.com/share/2bc6b28323b64cec8f6f2fcbdf73e244

It could be that the hosting provider is blocking this connection but it seems very unlikely, I will contact them about this as well.

Thanks

Many thanks for sharing the very useful insights. It seems like there may be something at host level blocking some Site Kit scripts. From checking your provider there is a web firewall included. On your other sites where you mentioned this is not occurring are these also hosted on the same package?

In addition to sharing details of your other sites can you check if the same occurs if you temporarily disable your hosting firewall?

This error only happens on this site and this hosting, I will talk to the hosting about it and let you know, that might take a few days because I don’t have full access to that hosting account yet.

Thanks for your patience and help!

Please do let us know! We’re also going to attempt setting up a site with the same provider for testing purposes. It looks like they offer free trials.