Close button missing (iOS, rewarded video)

[Torsten]

Rewarded videos work most of the time. However, sometimes they fail to play!

Instead of showing the close button, the frozen countdown timer is shown in the top right corner of the screen (see screenshot below).

Since the video fails to play, the countdown timer does not change and the close button will not appear.

This is a big problem, because the customer cannot close the ad. The ad blocks the screen, and the customer cannot proceed. 

Please release a failsafe solution that always shows a close button.

Replacing the close button by the countdown timer is too risky.

Best regards

Torsten

PS: I am using  Google-Mobile-Ads-SDK (7.69.0). 

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi Torsten,

Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We are currently looking into this more and would ask if you have any Charles logs that display the ads that are causing this problem. This would help us to look more into this for you. At the same time we would also suggest to keep an eye on our release notes for when a fix might be released.

Regards,

William Pescherine Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[Torsten]

Dear William,

unfortunately, I do not have Charles logs. I only took a video of the non-responsive ad yesterday. It only proves that 

- the interface is working

- playback of video clip fails

- the countdown timer does not change

- the close button is missing

Apparently, you cannot guarantee that the delivered videos can also be played. In real life, so many things can go wrong (corrupted videos, transmission errors, bad ads, etc.). Thus, you should always show a close button. The customer must be able to close a non-responsive ad. Replacing the close button by a countdown timer (that can freeze) is a bad idea.

My customers are complaining about this issue. They get really angry.

Best regards,

Torsten

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi Torsten,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

I work with William and will be assisting you today. With regard to your concern, I like to inform you that buttons in ads is not controlled by SDK, it is embedded in the Ads itself and SDK is performing only to request ads in the ad server. Also, you mentioned that most of the time some of the video ads are not working, it means that it trigger in specific ads.

With this, the only way for us to investigate further is by capturing the Charles log while reproducing the issue, as this will enable us to replicate the behavior in our test app environment (by trafficking the creative in the test network).

With that said, please provide us the Charles log (see instruction here) so we could further investigate the issue.

Regards,

Princess Pamela Pineda Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[Torsten]

Dear Princess,

thank you for your quick response.

Does this mean, that the advertiser has full controll over the screen of the customer and the customer cannot close an ad whenever the customer likes? Is this Google's policy?

If this is the case and an ad fails to play due to technical problems (transmission errors, ad server errors, etc.), the customer is completely and utterly at advertiser's mercy. 

The customer can only terminate the app because the ad blocks the screen. Is this correct?

Is there no solution that detects non-responsive ads and let's the programmer close these ads?

Best regards,

Torsten

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi Torsten,

Thank you for the response back. While I know this is a serious issue for you. Just want you to know that we are looking into this. As for the SDK? The SDK itself does not create the close button and unfortunately during the ad creation it is possible for bad ads to be created. That is why we ask for the Charles logs for us to look deeper into the create side of this. But also know it is not common nor intentional for ads to be like that. Also you will generally see that when this does happen it is usually like 1 or 2 ads and they share a common factor, ie same product/company/image.

Regards,

William Pescherine Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[Torsten]

Dear William,

mistakes can happen. It does not matter if they are unintentional or if there is a malicious advertiser that likes to freeze my app.

Since rewarded videos are not foolproof, Google should provide a safety switch that allows the customer to close unresponsive ads.

At the moment, showing awarded videos is like playing Russian roulette. If you have bad luck, your app stopps working and the customer will be furious.

In my opinion, the Charles logs are a very unproductive way to solve this problem. 

The developers do not have the time to watch myriads of ads to find the bad ones. 

Aside from that, developers and customers watch different ads because all ads are personalized.

Tracking down unresponsive ads should be done by Google automatically.

Best regards,

Torsten

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi Torsten,

Thank you for responding back. As stated previously we understand your frustrations and are always looking into this. In looking also at our teams recent feedback, there should also be a fix coming out for this soon. And know that this is not a malicious adster trying to block your app from running. This has to do with the many things that are going on at any one time and unfortunately do cause errors. Hoipefully it will be fixed soon and there wont be an issue going forward.

Also as for the Charles log? These are actually very helpful to us. We do not ask for you to parse through them and find items for us. We are happy to do that and find the information that we need. In this case, the Charles log was helpful for us to find some items for us to look into.

[Torsten]

Thanks for your help. I am looking forward to the bug fix.

Best regards,

Torsten

[Torsten]

Yesterday I played many rewarded videos in my app. All videos had a countdown timer instead of a close button! Everything worked fine, though.

Today I resumed my tests, and the first video I tried to play did not work. 

The good news: The ad did not show a countdown timer. I tapped the close button and was able to close the ad without receiving a reward (see pictures below). Afterwards, I loaded a new video, I watched the new video and received an award. (This is the desired behaviour. Every ad should behave this way!)

The bad news: I do not have the Charles log, because I have not installed the app yet that collects all the data. 

Best regards,

Torsten

PS: When I tapped "more information", the app "Clark Versicherung" in App store appeared.

BTW: My app downloaded the rewarded video yesterday, and I tried to play the video today. Does the time intervall between download of the video and playing the video matter?

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi Torsten,

Thank you for getting back to us with this. I would ask also what phone versions you are testing on. As from what I have seen this can also cause some of the issues with this at the moment. These should all be fixed now. But from what I have seen the behavior that you are seeing sounds correct. Even if you are unable to get Charles logs, getting who the ad is can help us in the future as we look into this more and see how we can improve it.

The "Learn more" going to the location that you mentioned is not something I know of and would ask if you can share more about that if it continues. I will also mention it to my team.

As for the delay? I do not believe it should be of any concern.

[Torsten]

I am using the latest iPod Touch model (running iOS 14.4.2). My customers that also had problems playing ads are using iPhones and iPads. My app requires iOS/iPadOS 12.

Unfortunately, the German button "Weitere Informationen" (engl. "learn more") does not always reveal the advertiser. 

Regarding the delay: I am wondering if iOS is freeing some resources in the background (if the ad has not been played for hours). If there is a memory pressure event, does the SDK release the video?

Best regards,

Torsten

PS: The app that collects the Charles logs is not for free. I am hesitant to buy an app that has not much use apart from logging my network traffic.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi Torsetn,

Thanks for the response back. From what you have stated you should definitely see some difference in the way the app with the ads are behaving if done on different devices.

The "Learn More" button this again would seem to be an issue with the ad. But yeah that is unusual.

I do believe that there is something under the hood that kind of keeps track of that type of thing. SO that if an ad is in background as you mention it just dumps it after a certain time. What , when how long we do not know.

As for Charles you general can just pull it off their website for free. I no need to pay for it even for mobile devices, just go here install on your desktop and you are free to go. it is a helpful debugging tool at times.

[Torsten]

There might be a pattern. Today also my first ad failed to play. Since the ad showed only the countdown timer in the top right corner, I could not close the ad (see screenshot below). So I had to terminate my app again.

This proves again that replacing the close button by a countdown timer is too risky because the countdown timer can freeze.

Advertisers should not be allowed to do that!

How can I solve this issue? 

How can I detect if an ad can be played or if it has been dumped?

Does the SDK allow me to load a new rewarded video if the old ad has not been played for several hours?

Regarding the Charles logs: The app "Charles for iOS" is not free.  My understanding is that I have to install this app to get the Charles logs on my test devices. Is this correct?

Anyway, if iOS dumps videos, the Charles log will not help, will it?

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi Torsten,

Thank you for bringing this information to us. First off, it is not the advertisers that are deciding whether it is a countdown timer or the "x". I would ask what iOS version is your device on. And assuming that it is the same device that you mentioned previously? I will bring this information to my team once I get it.

[Torsten]

Correct! Same device. 

I also have older test devices that I have not used yet to watch the ads.

However, I think it does not make a difference because my customers also had problems to play ads sometimes.

The iOS/iPadOS version should not be the issue.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi Torsten,

Thank you for the additional information. And from the research that our team has done on this issue. There is a reason why I ask for the OS version on the devices.

[Torsten]

Testing is time consuming because my app  does not show rewarded videos very often.

To verify your questions, I switched on my other device (iPhone 6 running iOS 12.5.2, english setting). My app was still running (in release mode). 

I noticed the same pattern: My app failed to play the first ad (see screenshot below).

This cannot be a coincidence.

I had to terminate my app because I could not close the ad (due to the countdown timer). After relaunching the app, all rewarded videos played.

Best regards,

Torsten

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi Torsten,

Thank you for the information. I have been passing this along to our team to look at.I understand it might not be easy for you and have appreciated all the effort you have been in helping us to resolve this.

[Torsten]

Thank you for passing this along to your team.

This is a critical bug. If the ad fails to play, the customer will be furious and the advertiser will not be happy.

By the way, I noticed two different kind of ads today.

The first ad, shows the countdown timer (12 seconds) next to the close button (x) in the top right corner. This approach is failsafe (see picture below).

The second ad, however, replaces the close button by the countdown timer (3). This approach is not failsafe. If this ad fails to play, the customer cannot proceed. The app has to be terminated!

These premium ads need a safety switch, if the ad fails to play.

I am looking forward to the bug fix.

Best regards,

Torsten

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi Torsten,

I’m with William’s team, thank you for your response. Let me share this information with the team and we will give you feedback once we receive an update.


Regards,

Sherwin Diesta Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[Torsten]

Dear Support-Team,

I reported the critical bug two weeks ago, and I am still waiting for a solution or at least an update.

By the way, today I used my two other Apple devices to check if ads play. I only played a few ads.

Instead of playing ads, my AdMob account was suddently suspended by the AdSense Team. 

They give no reason. They only stop serving ads for 30 days!

Now my live Android app and iOS app do not work anymore!!!

Is this a bad joke??? 

You make the mistakes, and I will be punished for trying to figure out what's wrong. 

Is this your policy to solve problems?

Best regards,

Torsten