How do I tell Matomo to track Unique Visitors based on the Visitor ID cookie, instead of using IP Address?

There are a few use cases when the default Tracker algorithm to track unique visitors does not work as expected. For example if you use Matomo (Piwik) on an Intranet and all users have the same IP address, or if many of your visitors come from a Company or University network and have all the same IP addresses, then Matomo may track many users as one unique visitor.

In these cases you can enable better unique visitors recognition:

• If your website has a login form, when users sign-in we recommend to tag your users with a User ID.

• Alternatively if you cannot use User ID then you may force Matomo not use the IP address and device info to decide Unique Visitors but instead rely on the Visitor ID found in the user cookie. To force Matomo to not rely on the IP address as a mean to differentiate one user from another, edit your config/config.ini.php and add a new section [Tracker] with the following:

  [Tracker]
  trust_visitors_cookies = 1
  

See also: How does Matomo detect unique and returning visitors? (with User ID, Visitor ID from cookie)