Guide 168 · Conversions · GA4 + Tag Manager
Unmark a key event in GA4: remove the star, and what happens to the numbers
A key event that no longer matters should lose its star. Unmarking is the same table in reverse, but the numbers do not rewind: past key events stay key events in history, and only new events stop counting. This guide unmarks the scroll event, which was marked by mistake, and works out what the reports show the day after.
After the steps, the scroll key event appears under the Key events tab in Admin, and the standard reports show it within a day. The worked example below gives the count and the rate to expect.
Download the reference: the scroll key-event reference (JSON) (793 bytes, MD5 99e2dc684ebab21b1533d4d4af77c3c9). It holds the event name, the counting method, the worked-example figures recomputed for this guide, and the checkpoints that prove the key event is recording. The figures in the file are the same figures shown on this page.
What you need
- Editor access or above at property level in GA4. Marking an event as a key event is a property setting, and the star in the Events table does not appear for a Viewer.
- The event currently marked as a key event, visible under the Key events tab in Admin, then Data display, then Events.
- A note of the date and the reason for the change. The change applies to future data only, so the date is the only way to explain a break in a trend line later.
The trace
- Open Admin, then Data display, then Events, then the Key events tab. The tab lists only the events currently marked. Find the row for
scroll. If it is not in this tab, it is not marked, and there is nothing to unmark. - Open the row menu and remove the key-event marking. The same star that marked the event removes the marking. The event keeps collecting as an ordinary event; only the key-event label goes away.
- Check the row is gone from the Key events tab. The tab should now hold one fewer row. In the worked example the property drops from 8 marked events to 7.
- Write down the date. The change applies to future data only. A report that spans the change shows key events before the date and none after it for this event, which looks like a sudden drop unless the date is recorded.
- Allow up to 24 hours for standard reports to reflect the change. The same wait Google states for marking applies here: a newly unmarked event can still appear in standard reports for up to a day after the click.
- Check the metric the business actually watches. If scroll was inflating the session key event rate, the rate should fall back to the outcome events only. In the worked example the rate falls from 22.42% to 10.15% once scroll stops counting.
Dead ends
DEAD END — UNMARKING AND EXPECTING THE PAST TO SHRINK. History does not change. The 312 scroll key events recorded before the click stay in the reports for those dates. Only a date range that starts after the click shows zero.
DEAD END — DELETING THE EVENT INSTEAD OF UNMARKING IT. There is no delete for a collected event, and none is needed. Unmarking removes the label; the event keeps its history as an ordinary event, and its past key-event counts stay where they were recorded.
DEAD END — UNMARKING THE ONLY KEY EVENT AND LOSING THE RATE. Session key event rate is sessions with at least one key event divided by sessions. With no key event marked at all, the numerator is zero and the rate is zero, even though the site still collects the events. Keep at least one outcome event marked.
End state
The scroll event is an ordinary event again, and the property holds 7 marked events. The worked example below is the same 28-day window as the marking guide, before and after the unmarking, so the fall in the rate is the scroll count and nothing else.
| Figure | Value |
|---|---|
| Sessions in the window | 1,842 |
| Scroll key events before unmarking | 312 |
| Sessions with any key event before | 413 |
| Session key event rate before | 22.42% |
| Sessions with any key event after | 187 |
| Session key event rate after | 10.15% |
| Rate fall from unmarking scroll | 12.27 percentage points |
Both rates use the same denominator, 1,842 sessions, recomputed in Python 3: 413 / 1,842 = 22.42% and 187 / 1,842 = 10.15%, both rounded to two places. The fall is the difference of the two checked rates, 12.27 percentage points. The figures are a worked example, not a real property.
Sources
- Analytics Help — About key events — marking an event as a key event, the 30-event limit for a standard property, and 50 for Analytics 360
- Analytics Help — Conversions vs. key events in Google Analytics — what a key event is, the event to key event to conversion flow, and where Google Ads conversions appear
Checked 11 November 2026. The click path above is the one in Google's help pages, read 11 November 2026. The change applies to future data only, and the up-to-24-hour wait for standard reports are as Google documents them. No step in this guide was run inside a live Analytics property, because Admin needs a Google sign-in and this site does not sign in as anyone. The figures on this page are a worked example recomputed in Python 3 with decimal arithmetic, not numbers from a real property. Google moves menu items without warning; if a path on this page no longer matches, the linked help page is the current map.