Admob issue: a black screen after a reward video on Android

Corona Marketplace Corona Premium Plugins
#1

Hi guys! I have some problems with the Admob’s reward ads (and sometimes with video interstitials as well). The ads look normal with the exception of screen controls are missing. There is no any timer at the top and the close button (x) is missing at the as well, but in most cases there is a black screen and there is no any way to close an ad at the end. The only way is to suspend the app and then to return to it, after that all controls including the close button and so on magicly appear and the ad looks like it should.

I’m currently using the build 3549, but the issue exists at least since summer. I’m testing it on Google Pixel, but rewards don’t work on other devices too.

Moreover sometimes the bug occured when an interstitial is showing. The image is the same: screen controls are missing, there is no any buttons to close the ad, only black bars at the top and bottom parts of the screen.  

In the logcat there is no any huge crash reports, only small errors like: ‘E/Ads JS: uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property ‘ve’ of null’ or ‘E/SurfaceFlinger… rejecting buffer’. And something about chromium. It looks like there are some problems with the webwindow for the ads or something. And all controls appear once you exit-enter the app.

There is no any issues on iOS, only on Android.

Thank you in advance.

#2

This seems to be the same issue that was reported a few days ago here as well: https://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/76568-black-screen-when-ad-should-show-ad-mob-plug-in0/?hl=admob

#3

Yes. Sounds pretty similiar to my situation with the plugin. It worth to mention that the issue was spotted on both on Android 9,10 and 7. It all started on pre-64-bit builds of Corona SDK (I think that first problems ocurred around of July-August of 2019, before that there were not any issues) and continued on 64-bit versions.

#4

Sounds like the plugin needs fixing.

#5

In June and July, there were two separate threads on basically this same topic. These two:

https://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/75924-admob-rewarded-ads-with-20193504-gives-black-screen-at-the-end/

https://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/75658-admob-rewarded-video-bug/

Even though the AdMob Rewarded videos have some of the highest monetary returns, I’ve had to deprecate them in our apps because of this. Looking forward to this getting fixed. Thanks!

Steve

#6

The same. I had to turn off that feature in my game. Very pity:( And now I’m worrying about the interstitials as well. Because it looks that they also could behave not normally with some controls being missing which can be pretty annoying for players

#7

It looks like AdMob’s video ads (the interstitials) sometimes could not work properly. They have some issues with their UI. They are not feature 5 seconds timer that should end with a close symbol (x). That means that there is no a way for user to close such ad. The issue persists. I’ve spotted it on Pixel phone, Android 9, some errors and warnings about some GUI errors in the log ('E/Ads JS: uncaught TypeError and so on).

#8

Any updates on this?

When ad is broken tap “home” and then return to app. Sometimes it fix broken ad. 

#9

Yes. Home button can help to “fix” the broken ad. But that is not an option for players, because in most cases an ad without proper controls is a way to lose a player, ads are annoying for most of them, but the broken ads are more irritating. So it looks like you could n’t use AdMob Rewards on Android and there is also some chances that the interstitials (mostly with videos) are broken as well:(

#10

Yes, this should be fixed asap. We pay 200$/y for this…

I have found several bugs:

  • when you press back button (swipe left on Android 10) it doesn’t return to the app (no confirm popup). You need to lock device, unlock and then popup appears.

  • sometimes only the black screen appears

  • some ads don’t display the entire ad: Some areas are invisible and the clock is not displayed.

#11

Chartboost was updated to 2.5.10 for Android and 2.5.13 for iOS four days ago. I’m asking Engineering to see if anything else could cause this…

Rob

#12

I’m using only Admob plugin in my projects.

#13

Yes. Here we are talking about the Admob plugin. As I’ve said it looks like the issues started this summer: July-August.

#14

Any news?

#15

We would appreciate a more active response to all premium plugins. I recall previously someone actively maintaining the AdMob plugin. Is he still with the Corona team?

#16

Google changed AdMob to use their new AndroidX libraries which are not currently compatible with Corona. This will be a large and painful project to be able to support AndroidX. I do not have an ETA on this but it something we are researching on what we have to do.

Rob

#17

For a 200 dollar per year plugin it would make sense to update and fix it asap

#18

I agree. It looks like the AdMob plugin for Android is broken now. You can’t use its full potential. I had to disable the rewards in my game (that is pity, because the rewards are effective form of monetization) and I’m worrying that I’m loosing some users because of some broken interstitials. I understood that the problem was not caused directly by Corona Labs, but by AndroidX and os on, but what do we have to do as your customers paid for the plugin? For a couple of month nobody told us about the situation, there where posts here about the AdMob’s black screens since last summer. At least would be great to have an info box in the AdMob plugin documentation saying that there are some issues on Android OS and they’ll fixed later, or a blog post. Just some information to let the customers know that they are not alone with their problem.

#19

I agree with the earlier comments. We need to have more transparency on the situation and regularly update of the progress. When you mentioned large and painful process, is it going to be months before we can have a resolution?  During this period, our subscription for the plugin will continue to run and at the same time we are losing revenue due to the bugs mentioned.

#20

Any updates to share?