The numbers from Transitions don’t match other numbers shown in Matomo. Why?
The Page Transitions report shows what visitors did directly before and after viewing a specific page. The numbers in this report may sometimes differ from other Matomo reports because reports use different data sources, scopes, selection criteria or report limits.
This guide explains several possible reasons why pageviews in the Pages report may not match the pageviews shown in Transitions.
Archived data compared with log data
The Pages report is pre-archived and shows the data available when archiving was last run. Transitions does not use archived data and retrieves its data directly from the logs. This is why the Transitions report shows more pageviews for a period that includes today.
Because Transitions retrieves data from the logs, it can only display data for periods where the logs are still available. If older logs have been deleted according to your data retention settings, the Pages report may still show historical pageviews because the data was archived. However, Transitions cannot retrieve data for periods where the underlying logs have been deleted.
Multiple URLs aggregated into one row
In some cases, a Pages report row may represent data from multiple URLs. Because Transitions analyses individual URLs, it may show different than the aggregated row in the Pages report. When this occurs, Transitions displays statistics for the individual URL with the most pageviews, rather than the combined statistics for all URLs represented by that row.
Incoming groups do not add up to total pageviews
The groups shown on the left of the Transitions report may not add up to the total number of pageviews shown for the selected page.
Transitions does not display separate From Downloads or From Outlinks groups, so these preceding actions are not represented in the incoming groups. However, the subsequent pageview is still included in the total number of pageviews.
When comparing these numbers, include the page reloads shown in Transitions as well as the incoming groups. If the total is still lower than the number of pageviews, a download or outlink may have been tracked immediately before the selected page was viewed.
Page report row limits
The Pages report has a configurable row limit. When this limit is reached, less frequently viewed URLs may be grouped under Others instead of appearing individually.
URLs may appear individually on some days but in other periods, URLs could be grouped under Others. So, the Pages report may show fewer pageviews for that URL than Transitions, which retrieves its data directly from the logs rather than archived reports.
URL fragments tracked in earlier Matomo versions
Earlier versions of Matomo recorded URL fragments (for example, example.org/home.html#one) but did not display them in the Pages report. The URLs with different fragments were then grouped under the same row.
When viewing Transitions, Matomo shows the transitions for the individual URL with the most pageviews, rather than the combined data for all URLs grouped under that row.
Data grouped in Others
The Others groups displayed in Transitions are different to the Others rows in Page reports. In Transitions, Matomo combines results beyond the top five rows in each section and it does not indicate that pageviews are missing.
If the totals are correct but a particular referrer is missing or appears under Others, see Why are some referrers missing or grouped into Others in Page Transitions?