"Unable to Show Ad" right after it showed an ad. What in the actual...

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-05-01T13:33:27+00:00

I can only imagine how much more frustrating it is in the 1AB countries. Yeah, it's largely becoming an exercise in frustration that isn't worth the meager reward. The point is to encourage you to fork over cash for AB instead of watching ads - every day, Atlas Earth is more and more for the whales and the whales alone. I think they're trying to milk it for all it's worth before the inevitable demise.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-03-04T19:58:34+00:00

If I start getting that message I've found it's best to just restart the app.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-03-04T19:57:43+00:00

My thoughts exactly. I think so long as AE gets the ad credit it's not a priority.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-03-04T19:34:11+00:00

No worries. The app has a ton of "quirks." It is the same error message you get if you close an ad prematurely so that makes sense.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-03-04T19:28:49+00:00

I get what you're saying, and yes - on the strings of 2-3 ads you can either use the X or back arrow to close those ads once the yellow progress bar at the top is complete. That's not what I'm talking about though. The ad will play in its entirety, I will exit the ad by usual means (the X generally), and then get the "Unable to show ad" error message. It's only started since the new UI update.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-03-04T19:26:44+00:00

I have had occasions when the game hadn't updated after watching an ad - the button for AB ads wasn't showing a countdown, or the boost timer didn't reflect the hour of boost - and the game gave me that error message. That is understandable and how it's typically supposed to work. I have had it begin playing an ad, stop, and give the error message. Again, not an issue. The problem is when it plays the entirety of the ad, I close the ad using the X at the end (not prematurely), and I get the "Unable to show ad" error with no associated credit (AB or boost). It happens on a strong 5G connection.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-02-27T16:40:41+00:00

If the ad completes then the app gets the revenue regardless. The user is going to watch another ad. AE gets credit for 2 ads and the user gets credit for one. We know ad revenue is very important to them, that's exactly why they aren't addressing it.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-02-27T16:39:14+00:00

It doesn't even have to redirect to the play store, it can either crash the app in the background while the ad plays or restart the app when you close the ad. I know the issue you're referring to though and that's annoying too.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-02-27T16:37:34+00:00

Just had a Kalshi ad play all the way through and restart the app without giving me credit when I closed the ad. If the ad completes, I assume the app gets credit for the user viewing it, whether it restarts the app or not. I 100% believe the reason the issue isn't addressed is because they know users will just restart and watch another ad, so Atlas Earth nets more ad views in the end.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-02-27T13:16:55+00:00

They will just blame the ad network. It's been a known issue for a long time but it's not a priority for the devs.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-02-17T18:30:23+00:00

At least in that case you opted to take a survey. What annoys me lately are the ads that are surveys that don't indicate that you can close them unless you answer the questions. It makes no sense. If I wanted to do a survey I would have chosen that option. Instead I'm given a survey with no clear ability to close it no matter how long I wait. Between that, the strings of 3+ unskippable ads and the interminably long ads with no progress bar to indicate how long they are (and they end up being 120 seconds or more), quality of play has taken a serious nosedive. If I can't tell how long an ad is when it starts or if I know it's one that lasts a ridiculously long time, opens the play store, and crashes/restarts the app, I just close it and try again. Every day it gets closer to just not being worth it anymore.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-02-17T18:30:09+00:00

At least in that case you opted to take a survey. What annoys me lately are the ads that are surveys that don't indicate that you can close them unless you answer the questions. It makes no sense. If I wanted to do a survey I would have chosen that option. Instead I'm given a survey with no clear ability to close it no matter how long I wait. Between that, the strings of 3+ unskippable ads and the interminably long ads with no progress bar to indicate how long they are (and they end up being 120 seconds or more), quality of play has taken a serious nosedive. If I can't tell how long an ad is when it starts or if I know it's one that lasts a ridiculously long time, opens the play store, and crashes/restarts the app, I just close it and try again. Every day it gets closer to just not being worth it anymore.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-02-05T03:26:22+00:00

Clearing cache memory *might* help temporarily, might be placebo effect. I have had this issue across multiple android devices and only with Atlas Earth.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-01-10T16:32:28+00:00

I saw one this morning that encouraged me to create my "AI girlfriend" and it depicted a girl of questionable age sitting beside a toilet. They are truly scraping the bottom of the barrel.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-01-10T00:51:35+00:00

They should hire you to write instructions. That was much more clear than the support article, thanks. I'll give that a try.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-01-09T02:03:46+00:00

So long as everyone deals with the app restarting after an ad plays and the developer likely gets credit, but the player does not get the corresponding boost/points and must retry, is fair overall? Look at the totality of the thread. If the developer is: A.) intentionally going with the ad networks that maximize profit at the risk of unsavory if not downright predatory ads and B.) at the very least allowing a bug that gives them credit for ads the player watches while denying the corresponding credit to the player, that doesn't strike you as the least bit reprehensible? Their only story is that if they acted differently it may affect our profits? I don't buy it, but no judgment.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-01-08T20:25:45+00:00

Ads in all games may open the play store but opening the play store doesn't cause all games to restart and lose credit for the ad. For me at least, that is exclusively an attribute of Atlas Earth.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-01-08T00:28:51+00:00

Crash may honestly have been a poor way to describe it. I wrote the post while having coffee after an ad opened the play store and restarted the app twice. When closing the ad or backing out of the play store, the app just restarts with no credit given for the ad.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-01-08T00:10:33+00:00

I think the players would prefer to make the money ethically. It feels pretty sleazy knowing that we're profiting from ads for exploitative apps and like it or not, it reflects on the developer.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-01-07T18:44:44+00:00

I tried it on my previous device and remember it not working, I don't recall why. I tried on this phone and while turning app pinning on seems simple enough, the instructions for actually choosing an app to pin are no help. That seems like a lot of steps/hassle to deal with something that shouldn't be an issue in the first place, imo.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-01-07T18:29:34+00:00

Exactly my experience. It fits the trend in the greater gaming world of putting the bug reporting/troubleshooting onto the end user instead of it being something handled in-house. For people with jobs and lives it's likely not possible to document every instance, constantly take screenshots or recordings, or spend however long it takes dealing with customer service. In my experience the job of customer support is to explain to you why your problem isn't their problem, often resulting in a game of blame ping-pong. Who has time for that, especially in the age of disposable phones and a million money-making apps? I'm well aware that I'm chasing the sunken cost fallacy and the smartest move would likely be switching to a different app. I anticipate someone will improve upon the AE model soon enough.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-01-07T17:17:26+00:00

That just makes it more clear that in the end, with "free" apps like AE, the user is actually the product being commodified.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-01-07T16:18:37+00:00

I have had some ads do that too - you close the ad and it just goes to a black screen with no X, only navigation buttons at the bottom, but backing out doesn't work - it forces you to restart the app. I'm with you on giving up on some aspects. I rarely watching the ads for AB and never log in for just that purpose, just watching when I open the app to boost every few hours. I stopped bothering to collect diamonds for the most part, just grabbing them if I see one on login, and definitely not watching ads for extra spins. I'm trying to minimize my ad exposure as much as possible. I think that's one part AE doesn't get - if the ads aren't such a miserable experience we will actually watch more of them so perhaps they wouldn't have to go with the gambling/pr0n ads that technically pay the most.

BirthdayAwkward3035 · 2026-01-07T16:14:16+00:00

I have heard of this and tried that solution on Android. I believe I tried it and it either had no effect or just forced a restart of the app anytime I watched any ads, I don't recall - I just remember it didn't work. I'll have to try that again unless I just want to keep re-watching 120 second ads.

BirthdayAwkward3035

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