Broken Ad Loop - Forge of Empires - Tab S9 FE / Android 16

Hi, I have an extremely important and revealing update regarding the ad issues since the start of  the new CoM season:

Wednesday (Season start until approx. 11:00 PM CET):

The video ads suddenly ran completely without any problems! I noticed that the in-game billboards around the city were completely empty/out of service. Also, I frequently got the message 'no ads available at the moment'. This clearly proves that when the in-game billboard assets were deactivated, the video ad system worked flawlessly!

Since Wednesday 11:00 PM CET and today (Thursday): 

Around 11 PM, the first unclosable ad suddenly popped up again. Today, on Thursday, the issue is fully back: I am getting numerous ads that simply cannot be closed at the end, resulting in zero rewards. Even though the physical billboards in the city still appear to be out of service visually, the broken code or faulty campaign synchronization seems to have been re-activated in the background since the nightly reset.

This definitively proves the direct technical conflict between the in-game billboard system and the video ad-player crashing!

Hello EA_LANNA,  I would like to provide an important update, as the behavior has shifted with today's daily update, but the main issue unfortunately persists depending on how the ad is triggered:

What I noticed before today's update:

1. Conflict with In-Game Billboards: Some of the brands that consistently caused the  frozen ads (like June’s Journey, Gossip Harbor, or TikTok) started appearing directly on the in-game billboards around the city. It seems there is a code conflict within the game when the same ad campaign tries to load as an in-game asset and in the video ad-player at the same time. This would perfectly explain why the player used to cut out at the 21-28% mark.

2. The Temu Phenomenon: With the Temu ads the screen stayed completely white  for about 3 seconds until the 'X' appeared, showing only a tiny text at the bottom saying 'Spare bei Temu' with an arrow (Screenshot attached).

 Behavior after today's Daily Update (Important distinction based on trigger):

● Via the Prize Wheel (Partial success): The two ads I watched through the prize wheel  feature remained completely black, but the timer bar kept running normally. The ad (TikTok) ran 'blindly' in the background, the end-screen appeared, the 'X' worked, and I received my reward.

● Via City Pop-ups (The issue persists): However, when I clicked on an ad pop-up directly  inside my city (June’s Journey and Gossip Harbor), the videos actually played through, but they could not be closed at the end. Consequently, I received no reward for them.

It looks like the bug behaves differently depending on how the ad is triggered. While the prize  wheel system seems to handle the workaround better, the city pop-up system remains highly unstable and completely blocks rewards at the end—especially with brands that share in-game billboard assets.

Hi, I would like to share another technical observation and an update on the current situation:

I noticed that I can only open the Gaming Hub overlay (showing the %-loading bar) when an ad  is already frozen. On ads that function correctly, the game maintains full control of the screen, a nd the overlay cannot be opened at all. This strongly suggests that at the 21-28% mark, the ad-player loses its connection or 'focus' within the game, causing it to crash and allowing the system tools to overlap.

To clarify the scale of the issue: Today, I had to trigger 20 ads just to get 3 successful  completions. This high failure rate makes time-limited bonus tasks extremely frustrating and  stressful, as I lose precious time constantly having to restart the app. It is nearly impossible to enjoy or complete these challenges under these conditions.

Hi, I wanted to circle back and let you know I passed this along, and it's being looked into. Thanks for sharing those updates and the images

Hello EA_Lanna,

I want to provide a quick update: After my last post 9 days ago, things were much better for a few days with almost no issues. However, since the new CoM season started on Wednesday, the problems have been increasing again significantly.

It was especially bad today while I was trying to use some of the 85 ads for Music Tokens in the shop. Practically every 2nd or 3rd ad failed to close. I’ve taken screenshots showing that the ads consistently freeze right at the beginning, between 21% and 28%. This happened with a wide range of brands (Amazon, Tchibo, Payback, Temu, Royal Kingdom, Goods Puzzle, Match Villains, June’s Journey).

Since my capital city and regions have been running perfectly smooth since the reinstall, this is clearly a technical failure of the internal ad-player, struggling with the current season's load."

I have exactly the same issue with iPhone running the latest iOS. Watch the Ad it plays, the x detects that I’m attempting to use it,  but doesn’t close the Ad. Google Ads are the worst and never work/close.  But other cheaply made Ads are the same. Apple TV and the gaming Ads are usually fine.
As a result you don’t get the reward especially frustrating since watching Ads is now part of the weekly challenge and all the Ads since change to the weekly game seem to be non working google Ads.

Hi EA Lanna,

Ithank you for the follow-up. I have attached the requested screenshots of the DJI Avata 360 ad.

I want to clarify a specific point: I can see the 'X' button, but it is completely unresponsive. When I tap it, nothing happens. The ad effectively freezes the UI, /forcing me to restart the game to continue.

I’ve attached two versions of the screenshot:

• 1. With RAM Monitor: This clearly shows the high memory load during this specific ad.
• 2. Standard View: Showing the ad and the 'X' button that fails to close the window.

This confirms it is a functional freeze caused by these specific 'heavy' ads interacting with the game's RAM management. Please forward these to the technical team so they can investigate the interaction between these ad-scripts and the game's UI responsiveness.

Thank you Ifor your help!

Hi Bergfels​,

When this crops up again for you in-game, could you pop up a screenshot of what you're seeing and share it here with us? I'll pass it on to pop this on the teams radar. 

- EA_Lanna

Sorry guys and girls at EA how low can you go. I have to pay for everything to make any progress and still am fluded with adds.

Now they are even a job to do in the mayors contest. This is ridiculous I want a real assignment no adds

I have some significant updates based on my technical monitoring and the feedback shared by others in this thread:

1. The 'Healed' Ads (System Fix):

Since fixing a Google Play Store conflict on my device, Hero Wars and Gossip Harbor have reappeared and are now running perfectly. This proves that my device is fully capable of handling well-optimized ads once system conflicts are resolved.

2. The 19% RAM Threshold (Technical Data):

I have been monitoring my RAM during the remaining problematic ads. I’ve noticed a wild fluctuation: the free RAM drops to 19%, then jumps to 27%, and back to 19% in a loop. During this 'RAM-struggle', the UI freezes and the 'X' button becomes unresponsive.

3. Confirmation from the Community:

As reported by other users here in my thread, Shopify and Kingshot are major offenders. The issues are identical: the 'X' button either fails to appear or doesn'treact at all. This confirms the problem is not isolated to my hardware but lies within the ad-containers themselves.

4. Current 'Problem-List' for Android 16 / General UI:

• Temu (Waia): Triggers the 19% RAM drop immediately.
• Vined / Vinted.de: Consistently freezes the interface.
• Kinghot: Unresponsive 'X' (Confirmed by multiple users).
• Shopify: Missing or non-functional close button (Confirmed by multiple users).

Conclusion: It is clearly an optimization failure between these 'heavy' third-party ad-containers and the game's memory management. We need the developers tolook into how these specific providers (especially Temu and Shopify) interact with the game's UI overlayI