Spike in Admob crashes across multiple titles

[AndyW]

We're seeing a big spike in crashes when initializing Admob starting at around 2024-03-19 13:00 UTC.

We're seeing this across multiple titles. The ratio of crashes is what we'd typically see when a crash is blocking users (it's about 6:1). We have made no changes on our side.

While the crash appears to be blocking large numbers of users, it isn't blocking all, and we have been unable to reproduce it in QA.

The projects are using gms:play-services-ads:22.6.0

Would appreciate any updates on what appears to be a live, emerging issue.

Fatal Exception: java.lang.ClassCastException: java.lang.Integer cannot be cast to java.lang.String
       at android.app.SharedPreferencesImpl.getString(SharedPreferencesImpl.java:302)
       at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.scionintegration.a.onSharedPreferenceChanged(:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:73)
       at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.scionintegration.m.a(:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:106)
       at com.google.android.gms.ads.nonagon.a.s(:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:439)
       at com.google.android.gms.ads.nonagon.a.b(:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:5)
       at com.google.android.gms.ads.ChimeraMobileAdsSettingManagerCreatorImpl.getMobileAdsSettingManager(:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:52)
       at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.bx.bR(:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:40)
       at m.ajn.onTransact(:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:21)
       at android.os.Binder.transact(Binder.java:1050)
       at npg.gL(:com.google.android.gms@240713031@24.07.13 (150400-607434947):8)
       at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.ay.getMobileAdsSettingManager(:com.google.android.gms@240713031@24.07.13 (150400-607434947):12)
       at com.google.android.gms.ads.MobileAdsSettingManagerCreatorImpl.getMobileAdsSettingManager(:com.google.android.gms@240713031@24.07.13 (150400-607434947):42)
       at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.az.fL(:com.google.android.gms@240713031@24.07.13 (150400-607434947):40)
       at nph.onTransact(:com.google.android.gms@240713031@24.07.13 (150400-607434947):101)
       at android.os.Binder.transact(Binder.java:1050)
       at com.google.android.gms.internal.ads.zzavg.zzbh(com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-base@@22.6.0:2)
       at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.zzcp.zze(com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-lite@@22.6.0:4)
       at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.zzeq.zza(com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-lite@@22.6.0:3)
       at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.zzaq.zzc(com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-lite@@22.6.0:11)
       at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.zzax.zzf(com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-lite@@22.6.0:1)
       at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.zzax.zzd(com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-lite@@22.6.0:11)
       at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.zzej.zzA(com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-lite@@22.6.0:3)
       at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.zzej.zzm(com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-lite@@22.6.0:8)
       at com.google.android.gms.ads.MobileAds.initialize(com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-lite@@22.6.0:3)
       at com.mycompany.myengine.MyEngineAdSupport$6.run(MyEngineAdSupport.java:729)
       at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:938)
       at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
       at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:264)
       at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:8315)

[anonym]

same issue here - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/78189099/admob-mobileads-initialize-java-lang-integer-cannot-be-cast-to-java-lang-s

[anonym]

I also use 22.6.0. Mb it's fixed in 23.0.0 but we can't just force all users of all apps to update for it asap...

[ark.t...@gmail.com]

Same issue on my end. One of the users here found the cause probably:  https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/330368298 . It looks that it's related to reading consent data.

[Ilias]

We have the same exact crash and we cannot reproduce it.

It suddenly started around the same time that OP mentions on multiple app versions which makes it clear that it's an issue external to the app.

We are using com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:22.1.0