Missing Ads.txt File

No notification from Google on the dashboard

[azlinda]

Ads stopped appearing yesterday morning. After I investigated, I discovered the the Google ads.txt line was missing from the ads.txt file. I have no idea who removed it as I am the only one who works on my website, and I know that I did not remove it. I've always been very careful to keep it at the very top of the ads.txt file. I never received a notification on my dashboard that the file was missing. The correct file was uploaded 24 hours ago, and still no ads are appearing. Does anyone know how long it takes for ads to start reappearing?

Also, I am wondering why I didn't receive a notification on the Google dashboard.

[topr8]

not sure .. although i don't use an ads.txt file at all
... as i haven't got around to implementing it on my sites that use adsense, and ads are still served and i still earn money.

[azlinda]

@topr8 WOW! I thought that AdSense ads would not serve without an ads.txt file.

[not2easy]

Do you mean the line with

google.com, pub-0000000000000000, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0

is not shown in ads.txt?

Since you have updated and uploaded a new file it may be too late to check, but I would have suggested that the date or timestamp of the erroneous file might help you to check into any changes to that file.

[azlinda]

@not2easy, yes, that's the line! Thank you.

[not2easy]

Can you check your ftp logs? If it was uploaded in error, you might find out when by checking there.

[azlinda]

Yes, not2easy. Couldn't find anything there.

[azlinda]

Third day without Google ads.

[not2easy]

Can you see whether mediapartners-google bot has visited your site since you found and corrected the problem? I would expect that you could also find information in your AdSense UI if something had been changed on their end.

[azlinda]

@not2easy - Their last visit - 12 Sep 2019 - 05:01

It worries me that I never got a notification on my AdSense dashboard about the problem. According to Google, you can fix the problem when it appears on your dashboard and submit that it has been fixed.

[not2easy]

If they visited today then they've seen the updated file. Sorry I wasn't more specific, I should have asked whether the mediapartners-google bot has requested the ads.txt file since it had been updated. Good to know the bot has visited, if they requested the ads.txt file, then you should be OK shortly.

[azlinda]

I don't know, but I'm going to check to see if they requested it. If not, I'm going to remove all Google ads from the site because I'm tired of seeing huge white spaces!

[azlinda]

Google ads are back!

[Nightmute]

After an ads.txt removal I've seen it take anywhere between 12-36 hours for ads to come back.

@azlinda, You can serve ads without an ads.txt file as long as the file doesn't exist. However as soon as you add a file you must include your entries.

[azlinda]

@Nightmute, I wasn't aware of that! Thank you for responding.