Tracking Guest User IP Address and Device Type in Salesforce Experience Cloud

Capturing visitor details like IP address and device type is a common requirement for analytics, auditing, personalization, and security logging in Experience Cloud sites. However, when working with guest users, this becomes tricky because standard session methods don’t work for anonymous visitors.

In this post, we’ll build a working solution using:

Visualforce – access headers
Apex – expose data
LWC – detect device

🚧 The Problem

Most developers try:

Auth.SessionManagement.getCurrentSession().get('SourceIp')

But this fails for guest users because they don’t have a session.

Cookies also aren’t reliable:

May not exist
Can be blocked
Privacy settings vary

✅ Solution Architecture

Layer	Purpose
Visualforce	Read request headers
Apex	Expose IP to LWC
LWC	Detect device type

Step 1 — Visualforce Controller

public class ViewIPAddressController{
    public String ipAddress{get; set;}

    public ViewIPAddressController(){

        ipAddress = ApexPages.currentPage().getHeaders()
            .get('True-Client-IP')?.get('X-Salesforce-SIP');

        if(String.isEmpty(ipAddress)){
            ipAddress = ApexPages.currentPage().getHeaders()
                .get('True-Client-IP')?.get('X-Forwarded-For');
        }
    }
}

Step 2 — Visualforce Page

<apex:page controller="ViewIPAddressController" showHeader="false">
    <ipAddress>{!ipAddress}</ipAddress>
</apex:page>

This page outputs the IP so Apex can read it.

Step 3 — Apex Service

public with sharing class GuestInfoService {

    @AuraEnabled(cacheable=true)
    public static String getGuestIp(){

        String ipAddress = (new PageReference('/apex/ViewIPAddress'))
            .getContent()
            .toString()
            .substringBetween('<ipAddress>', '</ipAddress>');

        return ipAddress;
    }
}

Step 4 — Device Detection in LWC

Import Form Factor API:

import FORM_FACTOR from '@salesforce/client/formFactor';

LWC JS

import { LightningElement, wire } from 'lwc';
import getGuestIp from '@salesforce/apex/GuestInfoService.getGuestIp';
import FORM_FACTOR from '@salesforce/client/formFactor';

export default class GuestInfo extends LightningElement {

    deviceType;
    ipAddress;

    connectedCallback() {
        if (FORM_FACTOR === 'Small') {
            this.deviceType = 'Mobile';
        } else if (FORM_FACTOR === 'Medium') {
            this.deviceType = 'Tablet';
        } else {
            this.deviceType = 'Desktop';
        }
    }

    @wire(getGuestIp)
    wiredIp({ data, error }) {
        if (data) {
            this.ipAddress = data;
        } else if (error) {
            this.ipAddress = 'Not available';
        }
    }
}

🔐 Required Permissions

Apex Class: GuestInfoService
Apex Class: ViewIPAddressController
Visualforce Page: ViewIPAddress

📊 Use Cases

Analytics
Fraud detection
Geo tracking
Audit logging
Security monitoring

⚡ Why This Works

LWC cannot access headers
Apex cannot read guest session
Visualforce can read headers

LWC → Apex → Visualforce → Headers → IP

🏁 Final Result

You can reliably capture:

IP Address + Device Type

Even for anonymous users.

💡 Pro Tip

Store visitor data in a custom object:

Guest_Visit__c

IP__c
Device__c
Timestamp__c

⭐ Conclusion

Tracking anonymous visitor data isn’t straightforward, but this Visualforce bridge technique allows you to capture guest IP addresses and combine them with LWC device detection for powerful insights.

Lightweight. Secure. Reliable.

Tracking Guest User IP Address and Device Type in Salesforce Experience Cloud (LWC + Visualforce Workaround)