Orphaned Tag Sequence References
One or more tags in this container have Tag Sequencing relationships pointing to setup tags or blocking tags that have been deleted. The reference is left behind in the configuration but resolves to nothing at runtime, which means the intended sequencing simply does not happen.
Why It Matters
When you delete a tag in GTM, references to it from other tags' Tag Sequencing configuration are not auto-cleaned. The downstream tag keeps a stale reference to a tag name that no longer exists. At runtime, GTM evaluates the reference, finds no match, and proceeds. so the dependent tag fires without its expected prerequisite. This is dangerous: a conversion tag may have been carefully configured to fire after the Conversion Linker, but if someone deletes the linker and creates a replacement with a different name without updating the references, the conversion tag now fires unsequenced. The check finds these dangling references so the team can clean them up before they become a real problem.
How To Fix It
- AdLint's details list each orphaned reference (the tag, the missing target, and whether it is a setup-tag or blocking-tag reference).
- For each, open the referencing tag and decide: is the intended prerequisite tag still in the container under a different name, or has it been removed entirely?
- If a replacement exists, update the reference to point to the current tag.
- If the prerequisite is genuinely gone and no longer needed, remove the orphaned reference entirely from the tag's Tag Sequencing configuration.
- Publish.
Example
Tag: Google Ads - Purchase Conversion
Setup tag reference: "Google Ads - Conversion Linker (old)"
Status: target tag does not exist (was renamed to "Conversion Linker")
Fix: update the setup-tag reference to "Conversion Linker"GTM tags with Tag Sequencing references to setup or blocking tags that no longer exist in the container. Google's Tag Sequencing documentation, orphaned references resolve to nothing at runtime and break the intended ordering between dependent tags. This is particularly risky for conversion tags configured to wait for Conversion Linker tags that have since been renamed or replaced. Fix: update orphaned references to point at current tags or remove them entirely from the Tag Sequencing configuration. Source: support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/6238868.
Drop this paragraph into your client deliverable. Sources back to the canonical platform documentation linked below.
References
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