Safari removes click identifiers solution

In this guide

What Safari does How to tell if it is happening What does not work What works Set up Click ID Restorer Terms you will see How to measure the loss Frequently asked questions

Check these first

Safari's Advanced Tracking and Fingerprinting Protection removes known tracking parameters such as gclid and fbclid from links in some contexts, including Private Browsing.
You cannot restore a parameter that was removed before the page loaded. You can pass your own parameter that carries the same value.
Open Tracked's Click ID Restorer power-up (all plans) turns your custom parameter back into gclid or msclkid on the server.

Apple's Safari has been tightening what it allows in links for years. One of its protections removes parameters that are known to track people across sites. Ad platforms use exactly such parameters, the click IDs, to link a sale to an ad. When Safari strips them, the sale arrives without a click ID and the ad platform cannot attribute it directly. This page explains what is stripped, when, and what you can do. The rules differ between Safari versions and settings, so test on your own devices. See also Safari ITP.

What Safari does

In Private Browsing, and in some other contexts such as links opened from Mail or Messages, recent Safari versions remove query parameters from a list of known tracking identifiers. Examples reported in Apple's materials and by testers include gclid, fbclid, msclkid, twclid and mc_eid. Newer Safari versions have extended these protections beyond Private Browsing, depending on settings. Treat the list and the contexts as moving targets.

Try it

Works with your stack

Grab a logo and throw it. These are the tools Open Tracked already talks to.

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How to tell if it is happening

Open an ad in Safari on iPhone

Use a private tab, then also a normal tab.

Click the ad and read the address

Does the landing page URL still contain gclid or fbclid?

Compare with Chrome

The same ad in Chrome usually keeps the parameter.

Check your tags

In Preview, is the click ID present on the first page view?

What does not work

Reading the parameter later. If Safari removed it from the URL, it is gone.
Restoring from the referrer. The referrer does not carry the click ID.
Hoping Safari reverses the rule. Plan for it to continue.

For online stores

Orders from your store, back to the ad that earned them

Your store sends the order once. Open Tracked passes it on to each ad platform, cleaned and deduplicated.

What works

SymptomGoogle Ads: gclid is stripped

Likely causeSafari removes gclid from the landing URL.

FixIn the tracking template or final URL suffix of Google Ads add your own parameter that carries the value, for example ?mygclid={gclid}. Then restore it on the server with Click ID Restorer.

SymptomMicrosoft Ads: msclkid is stripped

Likely causeSame cause.

FixUse a custom parameter with the same value and restore it with Click ID Restorer.

SymptomMeta: fbclid is stripped

Likely causeMeta adds fbclid automatically and does not let you rename it.

FixMatch on other signals: hashed e-mail and phone with the Conversions API, plus the fbp cookie. Keep the cookie alive with Cookie Keeper.

SymptomCross-site flows lose parameters

Likely causeA redirect or a link shortener removes them.

FixAvoid unnecessary redirects. See avoiding UTM parameter removal.

Set up Click ID Restorer

In Google Ads, add a custom parameter that carries {gclid} to the tracking template or final URL suffix.
In Open Tracked, open the Click ID Restorer power-up.
Type the parameter your site uses instead of gclid (and msclkid for Microsoft). Save: the rule is applied within a few seconds.
Press Test this power-up.
Open a landing page with your custom parameter. In GTM Preview the request arrives with gclid or msclkid instead.

Whatever you do, a click ID helps attribution but is not required. Conversions sent from the server with hashed e-mail and phone can still be matched by the platforms.

0 of 5 done

I tested the ad click in Safari private and normal tabsGoogle Ads carries a custom parameter with the same valueClick ID Restorer is on and testedMeta events carry hashed e-mail and phone where I have themCookies are kept alive from my own domain

Terms you will see

Click ID: A parameter such as gclid, fbclid or msclkid added to an ad link.
Link Tracking Protection: Safari's removal of known tracking parameters from links.
Private Browsing: Safari mode that has stricter protections.
Tracking template: A Google Ads setting that adds parameters to every ad link.
ValueTrack: Google Ads placeholders such as {gclid} that fill in values at click time.

How to measure the loss

Segment by browser

In GA4, compare conversion rate and click ID presence for Safari and Chrome.

Count conversions without a click ID

In your server logs or in the platform, how many purchases arrive with no gclid?

Compare the platform and the store

The gap for Safari traffic shows the size of the problem.

Repeat after the fix

Run the same comparison two weeks after you add the custom parameter.

Check your setup

Check your tracking in one pass

This is an example. Run the check on your own site to see where yours stands.

Frequently asked questions

Does Safari remove gclid?

In some contexts, yes. Recent versions remove known tracking parameters, including gclid, in Private Browsing and, depending on settings, elsewhere.

Can I stop Safari from removing click IDs?

No. You can pass the value in a parameter name Safari does not recognise and restore it on your server.

What does the Click ID Restorer power-up do?

It replaces custom click ID parameters with gclid or msclkid in your server requests, so tracking stays accurate.

What about fbclid?

Meta adds it itself. Use hashed customer data and the fbp cookie for matching.

Does this affect all Safari users?

It depends on the version and on settings such as Private Browsing. Test on your own devices.

Do I need spreadsheets to read my results?

No. Once tracking is live, the Open Tracked analytics shows spend, revenue, ROAS and profit, and you can ask Ari, the built-in AI assistant, questions about your own numbers in plain words. Ari's allowance depends on your analytics plan.

Is Open Tracked different from Open Track or Open Space Track?

No. Open Tracked is the official name of our server-side tracking platform, and the website is opentracked.io. Many people search for it as Open Track, OpenTrack or Open Space Track. All of them lead to the same product: server-side Google Tag Manager hosting, first-party analytics and a CRM pipeline.

Fix your tracking at the source

Open Tracked hosts your server-side Tag Manager, keeps first-party cookies alive and shows what each ad is really worth.

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Written by

The Open Tracked team

We build Open Tracked: server-side tracking hosting, analytics and the tools around them, for stores that spend on ads. Questions about this guide, or an idea for the next one?

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