Resolve issues with app-ads.txt

This article reviews issues that you might have with your app-ads.txt file.

Issues with your app-ads.txt file

• The app-ads.txt file isn't found
• Your developer website is missing from your app's store listing
• Your developer website URL isn't valid
• Your app-ads.txt file is hosted on an unsupported subdomain
• Your app-ads.txt file is not formatted correctly
• Robots.txt file is preventing the Google crawler from crawlng your app-ads.txt file
• Crawler keeps crawling your app-ads.txt file from the wrong link

Issues with your app-ads.txt file status page

• Your app-ads.txt status isn't showing in the app-ads.txt tab
• Someone else's app is listed in your AdMob account

The app-ads.txt file isn't found

If you can’t find your app-ads.txt, try the following:

• Set up an app-ads.txt file and publish it on your developer website domain. Follow the instructions for setting up an app-ads.txt file.
• Ensure that your app is registered with Google Play or the Apple App Store and that your developer website is included in the store listing for your app.
• It can take up to 24 hours for AdMob to automatically crawl and verify your app-ads.txt files. Wait at least 24 hours for the app-ads.txt status to update.

Your developer website is missing from your app's store listing

Confirm that your developer website is uploaded in the right place of your Google Play or the Apple App Store listing.

• For Google Play: To confirm you successfully added the URL, check that the Developer Website URL is linked in the "app support" of your Android app page.
• For Apple App Store: To confirm you successfully added the URL, check that the "Developer Website" link displays at the bottom of your iOS app page.

Your developer website URL isn't valid

Check the URL of your developer website and make sure it's compliant with the AdMob app-ads.txt crawler and subdomain rules.

The AdMob app-ads.txt crawler checks for your app-ads.txt file based on the developer website in your app's store listing. In accordance with the app-ads.txt specification, crawlers check for files at the following URL patterns:

• https://<<hostname>>/app-ads.txt
• http://<<hostname>>/app-ads.txt

If you are uploading a subdomain URL of your developer website, the app-ads.txt specification has specific rules for subdomains:

• Crawling up to first-level subdomain
• Exclusion of 'www.' and 'm.' subdomains
• Web server redirects

Your app-ads.txt file is hosted on an unsupported subdomain

Ensure that your web server hosts your app-ads.txt file or redirects to the correct location when you enter the app-ads.txt URL shown in your AdMob account. The app-ads.txt URL shown in your account is the URL AdMob uses to find your file. Learn more about subdomain crawling rules.

Update the developer website in your app's store listing to the site's subdomain or a different domain if you are unable to publish a file at the current location or want to use a different website.

Your app-ads.txt file is not formatted correctly

Review the Authorized Sellers for Apps specification provided by the IAB Tech Lab to ensure you've formatted your file correctly.

Check your app-ads.txt file for issues:

• A missing or incorrect publisher ID
• Any typos in the URL or publisher ID
• An incorrectly formatted publisher ID
• The wrong domain, such as using "admob.com" instead of "google.com"

For each of these issues, you need to update your app-ads.txt file. Copy and paste your personalized code snippet, which includes your publisher ID, from AdMob into your app-ads.txt file. To find your code snippet:

1. Sign in to your AdMob account at https://admob.google.com.
2. Click Apps in the sidebar.
3. Click View all apps.
4. Click the app-ads.txt tab.
5. Click How to set up app-ads.txt. 
6. Click  next to the code snippet to copy.
7. Paste the code snippet into your app-ads.txt file.

Robots.txt file is preventing the Google crawler from crawling your file

The app-ads.txt file may be ignored by crawlers if a robots.txt file restricts crawling. If your app-ads.txt URL redirects to a different hostname, note that any robots.txt file on that subsequent hostname can also impact crawlers, too.

Update your robots.txt file to allow Google to crawl your app-ads.txt file.

Add the following two lines of text to your robots.txt file:

User-agent: Google-adstxt
Disallow:

Crawler keeps crawling your app-ads.txt file from the wrong link

The crawler may be accessing a website's subdomain. Learn more about the different subdomains that the crawlers may be accessing.

You can find the exact URL that is being crawled from the detailed app-ads.txt status in your account. You can set a redirect rule that redirects the crawler from the URL being crawled to the correct location of your app-ads.txt URL.

Your app-ads.txt status isn't showing in the app-ads.txt tab

Your app-ads.txt status won't show in the app-ads.txt tab if your app hasn't generated an ad request in the last 7 days or if your app hasn't been verified with the app-ads.txt file.

Someone else's app is listed in your AdMob account

This is a sign that app-ads.txt is working correctly to protect you against ad fraud. Keep in mind, ad sources that have adopted app-ads.txt are only buying inventory on apps that have a verified app-ads.txt file.

If an app appears that you don't own, you can block the app.

Implementing an app-ads.txt file helps ensure your app ad inventory is only sold through channels you’ve identified as authorized. This gives you more control over who’s allowed to sell ads on your app and helps prevent counterfeit inventory from being presented to advertisers.