Common Issues & Solutions

Resolve common issues with the Consent Studio CMP

Find your issue below. Each entry gives the quickest checks and links to the article that explains the fix in full. Did Consent Studio Monitoring show you a recommendation? Start with "I have gotten a critical/urgent/neutral recommendation".

Banner and website

"My consent banner does not show on my site"

If the banner worked before and has disappeared, follow "My consent banner has stopped showing". It covers billing issues, a domain mismatch and browser privacy settings.

If the banner has never shown since you installed it, check these first:

• The domain is registered. The domain your website runs on must be added to your Consent Studio account. www. is included automatically.

• Your Content Security Policy (CSP) allows Consent Studio. If your website sends a CSP, it can block the Consent Studio script. See Content Security Policy (CSP) instructions.

• A cache or optimisation plugin isn't serving an old page. See "My changes don't show on my website" below.

• The installation is complete. Check your installation method in Start Here: How to install Consent Studio on your website.

"My changes don't show on my website"

Changes only reach your website after you click Save & Publish. After that, three caches can still show you an older version for a while:

• Consent Studio's network. For performance, the banner is cached on our network, so a published change can take a short while to reach your website.

• Your browser. Do a hard refresh (Ctrl + Shift + R, or Cmd + Shift + R on a Mac) or check in another browser.

• Your website's cache or optimisation plugin (for example LiteSpeed Cache on WordPress). Logged-in administrators often see the newest version, while visitors, mobile devices and private windows get a cached page. Clear the plugin's cache. To test, add a parameter to the URL that the cache hasn't seen yet, for example ?x=10.

Optimisation plugins can also delay or defer the Consent Studio script. That causes Google Consent Mode issues; see "Google Consent Mode Load Order" below.

"I see two consent banners" or "my old consent banner still shows"

Remove or switch off your previous consent banner or consent tool (including scripts it left in your theme or in Google Tag Manager). Two consent tools on one page conflict with each other and can also block Consent Studio's scanner. Some platforms have their own banner that you need to switch off, for example Wix's native cookie banner.

Also load Consent Studio itself only once: either directly on your website or through Google Tag Manager, not both.

"My banner shows in the wrong language"

The banner follows the lang attribute of your page, for example <html lang="nl">. If your website says lang="en", the banner shows English. Set the correct site language in your website builder or CMS, and check that the language is selected under Web CMP > Behaviour > Multilanguage. Full explanation: How your banner language is chosen. To add languages, see How to add more languages to your banner.

"Not all categories are shown in my consent banner"

You have most likely switched on Hide Categories Without Tracking Technologies (Web CMP > Behaviour > Tracking Technologies). It hides the toggle of a category that has no tracking technologies on your website. Hidden categories aren't included in the "Allow all" consent. Learn more in Hide empty categories.

Which category each tracking technology is in is managed under Monitoring > Tracking Technologies. See Manage your tracking technologies.

"Consent is shared between my subdomains" (or isn't)

This is controlled by Share Consent Studio cookies across subdomains under Web CMP > Behaviour > Consent Sharing. When it's on, the domain and its subdomains share one consent state. When it's off, the domain keeps its own consent state. Configure it on each domain individually. See Cross-domain and cross-subdomain consent sharing.

Google Consent Mode and measurements

"Google Consent Mode Load Order"

Google Consent Mode defaults must be set before any Google tag starts. The most common causes of a late default are: Consent Studio loads only through Google Tag Manager, the script is delayed by an optimisation plugin, or another plugin (such as Google Site Kit) loads Google tags first. The fix is explained step by step in Google Consent Mode Load Order.

If you do install through Google Tag Manager, use the trigger Consent Initialization - All Pages for the Consent Studio tag. See Google Tag Manager: How to Install Consent Studio.

"I have received a warning/notice from Google about [x]"

• Make sure you use the default banner texts from Consent Studio.

• Make sure that the Google Consent Mode load order is correct. See Google Consent Mode Load Order.

• Make sure that you have selected the right languages under Web CMP > Behaviour > Multilanguage, and that the banner shows in your visitors' language. See "My banner shows in the wrong language" above.

For questions about Google Consent Mode or Google Tag Manager, see I have questions related to Google Consent Mode and/or Google Tag Manager.

"I see a drop in my measurements in Google Analytics 4 and/or Google Ads"

• Check that Enable Google Consent Mode is switched on under Web CMP > Behaviour > Consent Modes. If you use the Consent Studio Google Tag Manager tag, also check that Google Consent Mode is enabled in that tag. See Enable or disable Google Consent Mode.

• Unless you're an advanced user who deliberately chose otherwise, let Consent Studio manage the Google Consent Mode default and update signals, and make sure no other default consent command is set elsewhere on the same page.

• Check for an active Google Consent Mode Load Order recommendation and fix it first.

• Some drop is expected. Visitors who refuse consent are no longer fully measured, and cookieless pings may not count as users or sessions unless GA4 behavioural modelling applies.

• If Enable Implicit Consent is on, new visitors are recorded with your Default Selection. If Analytics isn't part of it, analytics is recorded as declined. See Implicit consent: what it does and how to configure it.

Monitoring, scans and recommendations

"I have gotten a critical/urgent/neutral recommendation"

Recommendations have one of three urgency levels: Critical, Urgent or Neutral. Each recommendation explains what is wrong and how to act on it. About Web Recommendations & Troubleshooting explains where to find them, who gets notified and how dismissing works. Many recommendations have their own article in the Recommendations collection.

"Consent Studio cannot access my website; scans do not seem to be running" ("Site access blocked")

• Allow the Consent Studio scanner IP addresses in your firewall, security plugin or CDN (for example Cloudflare or Wordfence).

• On Shopify, IP allowlisting doesn't work. Use a crawler signature instead: see Web Bot Auth.

• Check that your domain also works without www. and has a valid SSL certificate.

Step-by-step guide: Ensuring Website Access. If you see the Site access blocked recommendation, also see "Site access blocked".

"A tracking technology is described wrongly or is in the wrong category"

Open it under Monitoring > Tracking Technologies, click the padlock next to the field you want to correct and click Save changes. Later scans won't overwrite your correction. If our scanner missed a tracking technology, add it with Add Technology. See Manage your tracking technologies.

"HTTP Consent Cookies are not reaching Consent Studio"

You have switched on HTTP Consent Cookies via a CDN Worker, but the worker doesn't forward consent requests yet. Fix the worker, or switch the setting off under Web CMP > Enhancements > HTTP Cookies. See "HTTP Consent Cookies are not reaching Consent Studio" and How to configure HTTP Consent Cookies (CDN). Use Test Worker in the setup wizard to check the result.

Policies and declarations

"Can Consent Studio generate my privacy policy?"

Consent Studio generates a declaration: an automatically updated overview of the tracking technologies on your website, which you can place on your privacy policy page or a dedicated page. See How to place the Consent Studio declaration on your website.

Consent Studio does not generate a privacy policy. You write your privacy policy yourself or with your legal advisor.

Still stuck?

Contact us and include your domain.