Lost access to your GTM container? Here's how to fix it.
Even without admin access, your container is still running. Tagstack can read it, decode it, and export a file you can reimport directly into a new account.
TL;DR
Use Tagstack's export feature to get a working copy of your lost GTM container, then import it back into a new GTM account. No admin access required.
Step-by-step recovery guide
Step 1
Sign up for Tagstack
If you haven't yet, sign up for Tagstack. The container export feature is available on paid plans, starting at €19/month.
Step 2
Scan your GTM container
Head to the scanner and enter your website URL or GTM container ID directly.
Tip
If the website scan fails, retry by entering the GTM container ID directly. Some sites block Tagstack's scanner at the network level.
Step 3
Access the scan report
The scan report gives you an automatic audit of your container's setup quality, along with a full inspect view of tags, triggers, and variables. This is also where the export button lives.
Step 4
Export the container
In the Containers Summary card, click on the GTM container you want to export, then hit the Export button. You'll get a JSON file downloaded to your computer — the exact format Google Tag Manager expects for imports.
Step 5
Import into a new GTM container
In your new GTM container, go to Settings → Import Container, and upload the file. GTM gives you two options: merge or override.
If you're importing into a fresh container, either option works. If you're merging with existing content, check for conflicts — particularly with tags or variables that share names.
Why would you lose access?
In consulting, I came across this situation several times. The most common: the only GTM admin resigned, their email was deactivated, and the client was left with a container live on their site and no way in.
Agency transitions
When switching agencies, the outgoing agency sometimes held the container under their own Google account. The client never had direct access. Always retain ownership of GTM containers regardless of who manages them day-to-day.
Employee offboarding
When the one person with admin rights leaves — and their account gets deactivated before anyone thinks to transfer ownership — you're locked out. More common than it should be.
Company mergers
Merging IT systems and user directories often means access permissions fall through the cracks. GTM containers are easy to overlook until they're already inaccessible.
Recovery methods
Ask your agency first
If you're working with an agency, there's a reasonable chance one of their team members still has access. Your account executive is the first call to make.
Google's official position
The question comes up regularly on Google support forums. There's no official recovery path — the answer is consistently "start over." Which is why external tools exist.
Why Tagstack works without access
Even when you lose account access, your GTM container is still live and publicly accessible at its Google URL. It's minified JavaScript — unreadable for a human, but not for a machine.
Tagstack fetches that file and decodes it, reconstructing the tag definitions, triggers, and variables into a structured audit report — and a valid JSON export you can reimport.
Other tools like gtmspy.com offer something similar, but they appear to be in maintenance mode and don't export GA4 tags. Worth knowing before you try them.
Prevention strategies
Recovery is a last resort. These are the things that make it unnecessary.
Split admin responsibilities
Keep at least two admins on every container. Single points of failure are avoidable.
Handle offboarding deliberately
Keep departing employees' accounts active for a few days. It's enough time to spot missing access rights and transfer ownership before the window closes.
Back up containers regularly
GTM has a built-in export feature. Automate regular backups via the Tagstack API connected to Zapier, Make, or n8n — set it up once and forget it.
Include permissions in your audits
As part of your regular GTM audit cycle, add a step to review who has access and whether those permissions are still valid. It takes two minutes and removes a real risk.
Recover vs rebuild?
Sometimes recovery isn't an option and you'll have to rebuild. But that doesn't mean starting from zero.
If you have other websites running similar tracking, export those containers via GTM or Tagstack and use them as a foundation. You won't get the lost container back, but you'll start from something rather than nothing.
There are also cases where rebuilding makes more sense anyway: if the container was already non-compliant, full of outdated vendors, or tracking the wrong things — recovering it just restores a broken setup.
When recovery is worth it
If no one on your team owns the tracking setup day-to-day, months or years of configuration work went into that container. Rebuilding it from memory is expensive in time and opportunity cost. In that case, recovery isn't just convenient — it's economically sensible.
Need to recover your GTM container?
Tagstack scans any active container — no account access needed. Export it as a valid JSON file and reimport it into a new GTM account.
Key takeaways
- Your GTM container is still accessible even when you lose account access — Tagstack reads the live container file without needing credentials.
- Export gives you a valid JSON file ready to reimport into a new GTM container, with tags, triggers, and variables intact.
- Prevention is cheaper than recovery: multiple admins, deliberate offboarding, and regular backups remove the risk entirely.
- Recovery is worth it when rebuilding from scratch would mean recreating months of configuration work. Rebuilding is worth it when the existing setup was already broken.