VWO Session Recording FAQs

1. What are Recordings in VWO, and how do they work?
   Recordings in VWO allow you to record visitor interactions with your website in the form of video. These recordings show how users interact with your website by capturing their mouse movements, scrolls, and clicks. They work based on sampling. 
   
   
2. What is the maximum duration of the saved recording?
   The maximum duration of a recording session is 2 hours, with a maximum of 20 page views per session. Therefore, no new data will be recorded in the current session if the duration exceeds 2 hours or the page views exceed 20 pages.
   
   
3. When does a recording start?
   A visitor needs to spend a minimum of  5 seconds in a session for the recording to be seen in the VWO dashboard.
   
   
4. When does a recording session expire?
   A recording session expires after 30 minutes of idle time. For example, if a visitor is idle for 30 minutes, the current recording session ends. Post this, a new recording session starts. The session also expires when the respective tab or the browser window is closed.
   
   
5. Can I view all the Recordings of the previous/next previous session of the user?
   Yes. A tile in the player shows the visitor's currently active session and how many recorded sessions of the visitor are available. When clicking the tile, a sidebar shows the visitor's recorded sessions ordered from oldest to most recent.
   
   
6. Do the recordings record sensitive data?
   By default, VWO hides all key presses to avoid storing or transmitting any personal or sensitive data to VWO servers. Additionally, you can hide the sensitive data explicitly by adding the "nls_protected" class to the input field, and we will not store or transmit the field input. For example, <input type="text" name="cc_number" class="nls_protected"/>.
   
   
7. Why do the recordings appear to be distorted and broken/blank?
   This can happen due to multiple reasons:
   
   
   • • A recording might get corrupt when we have failed to capture the HTML data required to play the recording. This generally happens because the user was not on the page for a long enough duration (approx. < 5 seconds).
       
       
     • It could be because of the CORS policy. (Refer to the error message in the screenshot below). To overcome this, you need to add an extension called 'ModHeader'                  (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/modheader/idgpnmonknjnojddfkpgkljpfnnfcklj? hl=en). This extension requires the following two parameters to be configured:
       
       
       • • Access-Control-Allow-Origin = *
         • URL Pattern = <customer website URL>
           

To configure the two parameters in your extension, you need to follow these steps:

1. 1. • 1. 1. 1. 1. Enable the ModHeader plugin.
                 2. Click on the + sign present in the top right corner of the extension dialogue and select the Response header option.
                 3. Enter the value for it as Access-Control-Allow-Origin = *
                 4. Again, click on the + sign, and select a filter option.
                 5. Enter the value for the URL pattern—for example, http://abc.co.uk/.
                    
                    
      • The CSS may appear broken because of CSS Versioning. When a recording is created, VWO saves the HTML file of the webpage. If the website CSS is updated after a recording is saved, a discrepancy occurs between the CSS versions of the recording and the website.
        To solve this issue, redirect older versions of the CSS to the new version, or you may try installing the Custom Redirects extension in your browser. You must also ensure that asset snapshotting is enabled for your account and VWO is allowlisted in your firewall rules. For more information, see Asset Snapshotting in VWO Session Recordings.
        
        
      • Some files might get blocked due to a violation of the Content Security Policy (CSP) configured on your website, which in turn leads to blank recordings. You must whitelist these rules to ensure the tracking works fine. The screenshot shows some files which are getting blocked due to the policy violation:

8. Why aren’t some of the dropdown menus recorded?
   The dropdown menus that load using the CSS hover effect do not appear in the recording. 
   
   
9. How to record all the pages of your website?
   To capture all web pages of your website, run the recording site-wide. VWO does the recording for all the pages where the VWO code is present.
   
   
10. The date-time that appears in the “created on” field is shown in which timezone?
    The “created on” field shows the date-time as per the timezone configured in your account's “Locale Settings”. To modify this, go to Settings > Campaign settings> Locale Settings.
    
    
11. Can a recording pageview be shared directly?
    Yes, append the "recordingId={PAGEVIEW_ID}" query param with the request.
    
    
12. Does VWO capture canvas elements in session recordings?
    Yes, VWO captures canvas elements in session recordings if the Show canvas elements in recordings option in recording settings is enabled. For more information, see Capture Canvas Elements in VWO Session Recordings.