Ads disappeared from app - HTTP response code: 403/Ad failed to load : 3

[aink53]

Hi,

I'm testing my app currently. Its on Google Play and I push new builds to Internal Testing.

I have been using real ad units (banner, interstitial and rewarded ads). I added the ad ids from the phones to ad mob test device settings. I also made sure the ads had "Test Ad" tag on top.

All these words were working fine till yesterday. Suddenly the ads have stopped appearing and i see the following in LogCat.

06-16 10:55:31.542 16828  1892 I Ads     : SDK version: afma-sdk-a-v211512999.203404000.1

06-16 10:55:31.547 16828  1892 I Ads     : HTTP timeout: 60000 milliseconds.

06-16 10:55:31.561 16828 30577 I Icing   : Usage reports ok 1, Failed Usage reports 0, indexed 0, rejected 0

06-16 10:55:31.638 16828  1892 W Ads     : Received error HTTP response code: 403

06-16 10:55:31.658  1653  1653 I Ads     : Ad failed to load : 3

Not sure what went wrong. I can provide my ad units if you can take a look.

Note: This morning I added Sample test units and they didnt load either. I read somewhere that 403 means my admob account is banned. Is this true?

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Aink,

Thank you for reaching out to us about your issue. In looking over this we would suggest a few things. One is to make sure that your app has the device setup as a test mode. We generally advise against using your real ids during testing as it is always possible that you could get flagged. Also we would just check to make sure that there is no issue with your internet connection as this has sometimes been known to cause delays and this leads to the SDK timing out. There is also a possibility that  from the previous testing you did get flagged and now just are seeing the restriction. For that we would suggest to contact our Product Support Team as they are best equipped to handle that.

Regards,

William Pescherine Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[aink53]

Hi,

Thanks for your response.

My internet connection is working fine. I tried connecting through LTE. It is still the same. 

"There is also a possibility that  from the previous testing you did get flagged and now just are seeing the restriction."

I think this could be it. I'll try contacting the Product support team. Would they be able to unban me if its a mistake?

[aink53]

Also, how to contact the product support team? The link you have just takes me to AdMob community page. That looks like another forum.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Aink,

Thank you for the response back. While I know that it might look like another forum it is the only way that we have for you. to contact our Product Support Team.

[aink53]

One more thought. I don’t have a app-ads.txt file setup. I noticed I got a notification from admin that I’ll lose major revenue if I don’t set this up. Could that be the reason the ads stopped showing? 

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi there,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

I work with William and will be assisting you on this. For app-ads.txt file, try to implement it and setup your app-ads.txt file to prevent a significant loss in ad revenue and helps protect your app ad inventory from ad fraud. As this is might one of the possible reason why you are not getting ads. Another thing is to check this common reasons for ads not showing. As my colleague mentioned, as this might be an ad-serving concern, we recommend raising this to Product support team as they are better equipped with regard to this.

Regards,

Princess Pamela Pineda Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[Jay Lee]

I also encountered the same problem. How to solve this problem later?

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello Jay,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

It appears that you have reopened an old thread with concerns about failed to load : 3 error. This error means that you have encountered an ERROR_CODE_NO_FILL (https://developers.google.com/android/reference/com/google/android/gms/ads/AdRequest?hl=en#public-static-final-int-error_code_no_fill) which means that the ad request was successful, but no ad was returned due to lack of ad inventory.

If your app is not yet published, then this could be a reason for live ad unit not getting any ads. Please do note that requesting an ad on unpublished app has a low fill rate. Also, we don't encourage our publishers to test their app with their live ad units to avoid being flag for invalid activity. You may refer to this documentation for demo ad units (https://developers.google.com/admob/android/test-ads#demo_ad_units).

You may also check the below article for other possible reasons:

• Common reasons for ads not showing - https://support.google.com/admob/answer/9469204?hl=en&sjid=14834334159109346542-AP

 

This message is in relation to case "ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q2IwFdA:ref"

Thanks,
 

Mobile Ads SDK Team