Pausing a Pixel

Requires version 1.72.0

Some tracking tools are only needed now and then. Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity, for example, are often switched on for a few weeks of testing and then left alone. Instead of deleting a pixel's ID and entering it again later, you can pause the pixel and resume it whenever you need it.

How to pause a pixel

1. Open the Pixel Manager and go to Tracking Pixels.
2. Open the card of the platform, for example Microsoft (Advertising & Clarity).
3. Every pixel that is set up shows a switch labelled Tracking on in its header. Switch it off.

The switch only appears once a pixel is configured. There is nothing to pause before that.

To resume, switch it back on, or click Resume tracking in the yellow notice of the paused pixel.

What happens while a pixel is paused

• Nothing is sent to that platform. The pixel's browser tag is not loaded, and its server-side tracking (Conversions API, Events API, Measurement Protocol and similar) stops too. If you use SweetCode Cloud, the platform is removed from the server-side proxy until you resume it.
• All settings are kept. IDs, tokens and advanced settings stay exactly as they were, and you can still edit them while the pixel is paused.
• Other pixels are not affected. Pausing Google Analytics 4 does not pause Google Ads, for example.

Conversions that happen while a pixel is paused are not reported to that platform, also not after you resume it. Pause marketing pixels that run active campaigns only if you really want them to stop receiving data.

Where paused pixels show up

A paused pixel never looks like a pixel that is simply not set up, so it is easy to tell what is on, what is off and what is only paused:

• Tracking Pixels tab: the pixel has a yellow paused badge, and a notice says for how long it has been paused. Cards whose pixels are all paused are grouped under Paused, and the Paused filter shows only the paused pixels.
• Dashboard: a reminder lists every paused pixel with the time it has been paused and a Resume button, and the overview shows the number of paused pixels.
• WordPress dashboard: the Pixel Manager widget lists paused pixels below the active ones, with a link to review them.

Pausing with the Abilities API

AI agents and other tools that use the WordPress Abilities API can pause and resume pixels too. The pmw/get-tracking-status ability lists paused pixels under paused_pixels, and pmw/update-settings pauses a pixel when paused_pixels.<pixel> is set to 1 (for example paused_pixels.clarity) and resumes it with 0.