Ad SDKs can't seem to get the Advertising info from the device

Question

This is what we see from Mopub and other ad networks:

java.io.IOException: Connection failure com.google.android.gms.ads.identifier.AdvertisingIdClient.g(Unknown Source) com.google.android.gms.ads.identifier.AdvertisingIdClient.getAdvertisingIdInfo(Unknown Source)

They all seem to have the same problem.

The weird thing is that we have no problem getting the advertising id from our app whatsoever with the following source. We get the right advertising id and we have no error logs. All the SDKs are hitting the same issue (Connection failure).

Any help appreciated.

private void getAdvertisingId(AdvertisingIdHolder receiver) {

    AdvertisingIdClient.Info adInfo = null;
    String id = null;
    boolean isLAT = false;

    try {
        adInfo = AdvertisingIdClient.getAdvertisingIdInfo(App.getCtx());

        id = adInfo.getId();
        isLAT = adInfo.isLimitAdTrackingEnabled();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        SLog.e("error", e);
        // Unrecoverable error connecting to Google Play services (e.g.,
        // the old version of the service doesn't support getting AdvertisingId).
    } catch (GooglePlayServicesNotAvailableException e) {
        SLog.e("error", e);
        // Google Play services is not available entirely.
    } catch (GooglePlayServicesRepairableException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    receiver.receive(id, isLAT); 
}

Answer 1

I went through trials and errors these days on getting advertising id. Finally I got it! The connection error can be solved if we pass in getApplicationContext() instead of the context of current activity. Below is my working code:

private void getGaid() {
    new Thread(new Runnable() {

        @Override
        public void run() {
            try {
                String gaid = AdvertisingIdClient.getAdvertisingIdInfo(
                        getApplicationContext()).getId();
                if (gaid != null) {
                    Log.d("DEBUG", gaid);
                    // gaid get!
                }
            } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (GooglePlayServicesRepairableException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (GooglePlayServicesNotAvailableException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }).start();
}

getGaid() can be put in onCreate(), onResume(), or onClick() of a view, as long as the thread is called by the main ui thread.

Another thing you may need is to update google play services library to latest version. As the official document here mentioned, IOException is probably caused because the old version of the service doesn't support getting AdvertisingId.

Feel free to comment if there is any other questions.