IssueTracker

android.app.SharedPreferencesImpl.getString (SharedPreferencesImpl.java:302)
com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.scionintegration.a.onSharedPreferenceChanged (:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:73)
com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.scionintegration.m.a (:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:106)
com.google.android.gms.ads.nonagon.a.s (:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:439)
com.google.android.gms.ads.nonagon.a.b (:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:5)
com.google.android.gms.ads.ChimeraMobileAdsSettingManagerCreatorImpl.getMobileAdsSettingManager (:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:52)
com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.bx.bR (:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:40)
m.ajn.onTransact (:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:21)
android.os.Binder.transact (Binder.java:1188)
ocm.gL (:com.google.android.gms@240812039@24.08.12 (190408-608507424):8)
com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.ay.getMobileAdsSettingManager (:com.google.android.gms@240812039@24.08.12 (190408-608507424):12)
com.google.android.gms.ads.MobileAdsSettingManagerCreatorImpl.getMobileAdsSettingManager (:com.google.android.gms@240812039@24.08.12 (190408-608507424):42)
com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.az.fL (:com.google.android.gms@240812039@24.08.12 (190408-608507424):40)
ocn.onTransact (:com.google.android.gms@240812039@24.08.12 (190408-608507424):101)
android.os.Binder.transact (Binder.java:1188)
com.google.android.gms.internal.ads.zzaoj.zzbs (com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-base@@20.6.0:2)
com.google.android.gms.internal.ads.zzbic.zze (zzbic.java:4)
com.google.android.gms.internal.ads.zzbjv.zza (zzbjv.java:3)
com.google.android.gms.internal.ads.zzbgg.zzc (com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-lite@@20.6.0:12)
com.google.android.gms.internal.ads.zzbgn.zzf (com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-lite@@20.6.0:1)
com.google.android.gms.internal.ads.zzbgn.zzd (com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-lite@@20.6.0:11)
com.google.android.gms.internal.ads.zzbjq.zzv (com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-lite@@20.6.0:3)
com.google.android.gms.internal.ads.zzbjq.zzl (com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-lite@@20.6.0:8)
com.google.android.gms.ads.MobileAds.initialize (com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-lite@@20.6.0:3)

Crashlytics tells me that in the last few hours I've had 1,505 crash events affecting 133 users. Getting lots of support emails saying my app won't run. Same stack trace as above. Running 'com.google.firebase:firebase-ads:22.6.0'.

We are affected by this as well. This issue has 84,290 crash events affecting 5,663 users starting today.
Happens across multiple App versions, devices and Android versions.

Same here. Seems like a remote issue as nothing changed from our part.
I'd say that it's possibly because the static string key saved on the shared prefs is used somewhere else, even in a different library perhaps, as an Integer. Couldn't fully recover the string name though because of the compiled code. Haven't delve much in though

Ok I gave up and delve deeper.
It's a bit hard to understand where's the problem is as the code is obfuscated but it should be one of these:
"gad_has_consent_for_cookies"
"IABTCF_gdprApplies"
"IABTCF_TCString"
"IABTCF_PurposeConsents"

I don't know who exactly causes this crash but I know that the "getString" function crash when one of them returns an integer instead of string.

The getString function crashes somewhere here:

public final void onSharedPreferenceChanged(SharedPreferences sharedPreferences, String str) {
        char c;
        int i;
        zzbbc zzbbcVar = zzbbk.zzay;
        C6158t c6158t = C6158t.f15178d;
        if (((Boolean) c6158t.f15181c.zzb(zzbbcVar)).booleanValue()) {
            if (zzbwv.zza(str, "gad_has_consent_for_cookies")) {
                if (!((Boolean) c6158t.f15181c.zzb(zzbbk.zzaw)).booleanValue()) {
                    return;
                }
                int i2 = sharedPreferences.getInt("gad_has_consent_for_cookies", -1);
                C6482j0 c6482j0 = (C6482j0) this.zzc;
                c6482j0.m973p();
                synchronized (c6482j0.f16228a) {
                    i = c6482j0.f16242o;
                }
                if (i2 != i) {
                    ((C6482j0) this.zzc).m982g(true);
                }
                ((C6482j0) this.zzc).m984e(i2);
                return;
            } else if (zzbwv.zza(str, "IABTCF_gdprApplies") || zzbwv.zza(str, "IABTCF_TCString") || zzbwv.zza(str, "IABTCF_PurposeConsents")) {
                String string = sharedPreferences.getString(str, "-1");
                if (string != null && !string.equals(((C6482j0) this.zzc).m965x(str))) {
                    ((C6482j0) this.zzc).m982g(true);
                }
                ((C6482j0) this.zzc).m983f(str, string);
                return;
            } else {
                return;
            }
        }
        String string2 = sharedPreferences.getString("IABTCF_PurposeConsents", "-1");
        int i3 = sharedPreferences.getInt("gad_has_consent_for_cookies", -1);
        String valueOf = String.valueOf(str);
        int hashCode = valueOf.hashCode();
        if (hashCode != -2004976699) {
            if (hashCode == -527267622 && valueOf.equals("gad_has_consent_for_cookies")) {
                c = 1;
            }
            c = 65535;
        } else {
            if (valueOf.equals("IABTCF_PurposeConsents")) {
                c = 0;
            }
            c = 65535;
        }
        if (c != 0) {
            if (c != 1) {
                return;
            }
            if (((Boolean) c6158t.f15181c.zzb(zzbbk.zzaw)).booleanValue() && i3 != -1 && this.zzf != i3) {
                this.zzf = i3;
                zzb(string2, i3);
            }
        } else if (!string2.equals("-1") && !this.zze.equals(string2)) {
            this.zze = string2;
            zzb(string2, i3);
        }
    }

where the str argument is one of the static strings I mentioned. Notice that Google does lots of type/null checks before communicating with the SharedPreferences so this seems like something that the developers tried to avoid

I'd say that it's related to the new GDPR dialog as the results/consents are fetched remotely.
Again, I could be wrong. My assumptions are heavily relayed on lots of obfuscated code

Yeah that's not bad. So.. basically.. as a quick fix:
```
val prefs = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(this)
        try {
            prefs.getString("consent_string", "")
        } catch (e: ClassCastException) {
            prefs.edit().putString("consent_string", "").apply()
        }
            MobileAds.initialize(this) {}
```

Is there an ETA from the Google AdMob team for the fix? I'm also experiencing this (22,830 crash events affecting 973 users)

Same issue here, lots of spike in Crashlytics

Is there anyone on Crashlytics who is seeing a decrease in crashes? (I'm not)

I'm not sure that this is GDPR-related. I've asked my users where they are, and two said North America, one said England. Also I'm not seeing a drop in crashes despite it being 1am in England.

I see a decrease in crashes after reach the peak around 5h ago. Many european users

Isn't this being monitored by admob people? Are a lot of apps and developers suffering right now and there's no issue resolution or progress sharing?

I'm not sure it is decreasing. This issue is still occurring.
I just released a new version with try-catch.

It looks like Google is working on the fix now:
https://ads.google.com/status/publisher/incidents/ZDDr9AsgkrNxd7zHjU4c?hl=en

The number of crashes appear to be decreasing now. Pretty poor form on somebody's part - a widespread issue like this can cause significant app publisher reputation damage & loss of user installed base. Users don't know that it's affecting all apps - they just see it causing issues in the apps they're using. Considering the higher & higher standards we're being held to this is a real kick in the teeth.

Still being affected by this. Of course we would not be in this situation if your engineers spent their working hours writing robust code instead of posting disrespectful garbage on memegen mocking other companies and their products.

Google Mobile Ads SDK is almost fixed as they explain in their recent status. We also check our company app(using european region vpn) and consent is working fine but ads are not loading right now.

https://ads.google.com/status/publisher/incidents/ZDDr9AsgkrNxd7zHjU4c?hl=en

It's surprise that any Google engineer didnt post a single reply here yet.
the status page doesnt include any technical details.
I just hope that they fixed the issue in a robust way.

Can I prevent a crash from occurring with try-catch?
Google said it was resolved, but many crashes are still being reported.

Any news on this subject : we are still seeing a lot of crashes related to this issue

We still getting this crash, has anyone found any solution?

Thank you for reporting this issue. For us to further investigate this issue, please provide the following additional information:

Related API or developer doc.

Android bug report (to be captured after reproducing the issue)
For steps to capture a bug report, please refer: https://developer.android.com/studio/debug/bug-report#bugreportdevice

Alternate method
Navigate to “Developer options”, ensure “USB debugging” is enabled, then enable “Bug report shortcut”.  Capture bug report by holding the power button and selecting the “Take bug report” option.

Note: Please upload the bug report to google drive and share the folder to android-bugreport@google.com, then share the link here.

The number of crashes has been decreased but It's still happening.

We still getting this crash, has anyone found any solution?

It appears fixed for me, I've gone from a peak of over 50k crashes to just 1.2k in the last hour, it's slowly improving.

It looks like it's not fully fixed yet, the number of crashes no longer decreases.

Referring to the posts above, the problem is that the saved type of iab consent strings of the initially affected users was somewhat corrupted.
Google needs to restore these corrupted iab consent strings to their original state,
but I'm worried that they may have omitted this part.

java.lang.ClassCastException: java.lang.Integer cannot be cast to java.lang.String
        at android.app.SharedPreferencesImpl.getString(SharedPreferencesImpl.java:302)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.scionintegration.a.onSharedPreferenceChanged(:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:73)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.scionintegration.m.a(:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:106)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.nonagon.a.s(:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:439)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.nonagon.a.b(:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:5)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.ChimeraMobileAdsSettingManagerCreatorImpl.getMobileAdsSettingManager(:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:52)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.bx.bR(:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:40)
        at m.ajn.onTransact(:com.google.android.gms.policy_ads_fdr_dynamite@240304709@240304704034.602821767.602821767:21)
        at android.os.Binder.transact(Binder.java:1169)
        at ocm.gL(:com.google.android.gms@240812038@24.08.12 (190400-608507424):8)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.ay.getMobileAdsSettingManager(:com.google.android.gms@240812038@24.08.12 (190400-608507424):12)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.MobileAdsSettingManagerCreatorImpl.getMobileAdsSettingManager(:com.google.android.gms@240812038@24.08.12 (190400-608507424):42)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.az.fL(:com.google.android.gms@240812038@24.08.12 (190400-608507424):40)
        at ocn.onTransact(:com.google.android.gms@240812038@24.08.12 (190400-608507424):101)
        at android.os.Binder.transact(Binder.java:1169)
        at com.google.android.gms.internal.ads.zzato.zzbg(SourceFile:8)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.zzcp.zze(SourceFile:15)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.zzeq.zza(SourceFile:15)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.zzaq.zzc(SourceFile:109)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.zzax.zzf(SourceFile:1)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.zzax.zzd(SourceFile:93)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.zzej.zzA(SourceFile:15)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.client.zzej.zzn(SourceFile:49)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.MobileAds.initialize(SourceFile:3)
        at com.viber.voip.ViberApplication.lambda$doInitApplication$16(SourceFile:889)
        at com.viber.voip.ViberApplication.x(SourceFile:1)
        at com.viber.voip.y1.init(SourceFile:1)
        at u20.f.initInstance(SourceFile:3)
        at u20.d.b(SourceFile:16)
        at u20.d.run(SourceFile:1)
        at d00.j1.run(SourceFile:1)
        at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:487)
        at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264)
        at java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$ScheduledFutureTask.run(ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor.java:307)
        at d00.i1.run(SourceFile:1)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:644)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:1012)