Server-side verification callback called with "fakeForAdDebugLog" user ID instead of real ID

[Dmitrij Chomčik]

Hello,

In our game we are using AdMob's server-side verification for giving rewards to our users for watching video ads. In the last couple of days we've noticed that on some Android devices rewards for video ads are not received. Investigating this issue I've noticed that server-side verification callback that is made from the device after closing the video contains wrong value of rwd_userid field: instead of the real user ID, "fakeForAdDebugLog" string is inserted for some reason. In our server logs we've also found that sometimes AdMob callbacks are called with this fake user ID. As a result, our server cannot identify the user that must get the reward.

Do you know why this happens? I've observed this both in GMA Debug logs (enabled on device via Settings -> Google -> Ads -> Enable debug logging for ads) and in Charles logs: when rewarded video is closed, device sends a callback with label=admob_reward_granted and rwd_userid=fakeForAdDebugLog.

It seems that this happens only with AdMob ads – rewards for mediated videos are received successfully. Also, it can be reproduced on various devices with various Android versions: Samsung S7 (Android 7.0), Samsung S5 (Android 6.0), One Plus 5T (Android 8.0), Google Pixel 2 XL (Android 10.0) and Samsung S6 (Android 7.0).

We are using 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:19.1.0'.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi Dmitrij,

Thank you for bringing this reward not being counted on some devices with logging differences issue to our attention. In order to investigate from our end, via "Reply privately to author" could you send us a test app based on our sample app (look for rewarded) with just the minimum of your code necessary to replicate the issue?

Kind regards,
Aryeh Baker
Mobile Ads SDK Team

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