Stopped receiving ads, it's been about 3 weeks

[Solugistics]

Briefly describe your issue:
About 2-3 weeks ago, I stopped receiving all ads on PC. Still getting them on my Android phone.

What Operating System and Brave version are you using (Menu --> About Brave)?
Windows 10 Home
Brave Version 1.62.165 Chromium: 121.0.6167.184 (Official Build)(64-bit)

Is your Brave Rewards Profile currently verified? (yes/no)
Yes, I am connected to Uphold, I received ads and rewards for January. Noticed I was not getting ads shortly into February

What date did you connect a your Brave Rewards Profile?
I used Gemini for a few years but switched to Uphold about 3-4 months ago just to minimize the number of apps I use. No issues with the transition.

Have you been able to successfully receive payments in the past?
Yes

Are you using a VPN? (yes/no)
I do have a VPN. Never been a problem before, and I am using the same VPN on my mobile without issue. I have turned it off while testing over the past several days on my PC. Still no ads.

Are you in a supported region (see here for list of supported regions)?
Yes USA

Does your device pass the SafteyNet check (Android only)?
I am on PC

I have researched extensively over the past week or so, found several troubleshooting steps. Here is what I have confirmed:

Notifications are on and accepted for Brave (toggled off, then on again to be sure)
Focus Assist is off (toggled on, then off again to be sure)
DND (and all other automatic rules) are off
New tab page ads on (toggled off, then on again to be sure)
Notification ads on Max 10/hr (toggled off, then on again to be sure)
Fresh reboot without VPN, launched Brave and used for several hours, still no ads
Reinstalled Brave
Reset Brave rewards

Not the end of the earth, but I do spend a fair amount of time on my PC during the day, so it would be nice to get the ads back. Any help would be appreciated.

[Evan123]

Hello - How many ads does it show you’ve viewed at brave://rewards for February? Are you able to see view New Tab and Brave News ads? Thanks for confirming!

[Solugistics]

Hello, thank you for your response.

I am not getting any ads at all on my PC, so my current counts for February are all zeros. I rarely scroll my Brave news feed, so I turned off my VPN and restarted Brave and scrolled for a few minutes off and on. Still zero ads. This is a screenshot from my PC Brave://rewards screen:

Since I rarely use the brave news feed, I tried testing on my mobile. As you can see, when I first tested this morning, I had not received any news ads:

With my VPN still turned on, I went to the news feed and started scrolling and immediately saw two ads in the feed. The count on my rewards screen updated:

Not sure whether the lack of replication on my mobile device matters, but I thought it might be helpful to include. Thanks for any assistance.

[Saoiray]

@Solugistics

This is a screenshot from my PC

@Solugistics do you see how this one shows next payout date is December 31? Something screwy is going on with that as it’s active like you’re still in November. If that is what it’s actually still showing, you may want to try to download Brave again to see if it will patch on top of that.

To be clear, I’m not saying to uninstall, but to go to https://brave.com/download/ and install on top so it can manually patch/update the browser and possibly fix whatever has gone wrong. If that doesn’t help, not sure if it’s best to tell you to Reset your Rewards or if Evan123 might have some specific advice to give you.

The mobile devices, which is where it seems to be showing you viewing ads, is showing current month. As such it’s letting you know next payout will be starting March 7.

[Solugistics]

Hi Thanks for the response. I did note that reward date. I believe the difference is the fact that there are rewards expected on my Android whereas on my PC, the earnings this month are zero. Payout dates are always about a week into the following month, right? so I believe the Dec 31 is actually Dec 31, 2024. If it somehow thought we were still in November, one would expect the payout date to show Dec 7, no?

A few other reasons why I suspect this: First, I got rewards normally through January. The Dec 31 date appeared immediately after my January rewards were delivered on Feb 7. The ad count was at that time all zeros, and no troubleshooting steps had been taken yet, so with zero earnings this month, it seems to be looking to the end of the year, Dec 31.

Another reason why I suspect this, as mentioned in my original template, I did reinstall Brave and then reset my rewards profile as my last troubleshooting step before making my post here. As no rewards had been generated in February, and nothing else seemed to be working, the reset was the last step that I hadn’t tried that was listed in all the suggested troubleshooting steps I found across the internet and this forum. Unfortunately, it did not work and I am now here seeking more advice.

I could be wrong of course, it is definitely a strange date to see in any event.
Thanks again, if any other ideas come to mind, I’d appreciate the suggestions.

[Saoiray]

@Solugistics

so I believe the Dec 31 is actually Dec 31, 2024. If

Nope. It’s December 7, 2023. It always shows the following month. So if we’re in January, it will say next pay is February. For it to show December, it means that browser profile is having you stuck in November 2023 for some reason.

I mean, I guess it’s possible you screwed something and it’s showing for December 2024, but in that case it would be assuming you’re currently in November 2024. Either way, it’s a glitch/error that shouldn’t be happening.

[Solugistics]

Except it doesn’t say Dec 7.

Stamping your foot and insisting is not evidence, rather it’s boorish and argumentative. I spent time carefully considering and typing out what I have seen over the past several weeks, and while I certainly do not rule out the possibility that I did something to cause the issue, to dismissively proclaim that I “screwed something” is less than helpful.

I’ll thank you to leave me alone at this point if you have nothing of substance to offer in advice. I will wait to hear back from other users. Thank you for your time.

[Saoiray]

@Solugistics I’m going to go from nice to a bit mean. I’m trying to help you. You’re not even trying to do anything asked of you, are you? I pointed out an issue with your browser, you’re trying to argue little details and how an attitude.

But that’s fine, if you want to claim me assisting is argumentative and all, then I’ll not help. And quite frankly hope that others follow suit. You’re only hurting yourself by behaving as you are.

[Solugistics]

You haven’t been nice at all, and you haven’t done anything to help. So we will have to agree to disagree.

What have you asked of me? Evan123 asked for extra information, I provided in detail with screenshots.

You pointed out an issue that I already noted and proceeded to argue with me over our differing, completely suppositional explanations. I provided evidence, you provided argument.

I listed a litany of steps I have tested, which you did not even bother to read. Had you read the template I took time to thoroughly complete, you would have seen that the two steps you suggested, reinstall and reset, I had already tried.

You can try to play turnabout if you feel the need, clearly you have the time. But I am more interested in trying to resolve the issue. I asked you once to leave me alone, now I ask again. I looked for an option to block users, I do not see it, so if such a feature exists, please block me so we do not waste any more of each other’s time.

Thank you.

[Saoiray]

@Solugistics then let me spell it out.

@Solugistics

I listed a litany of steps I have tested, which you did not even bother to read.

I did read, I asked you to try again. What you did not include is when you last reinstalled your browser. And rather than uninstall, I was asking you to install on top.

If you did reinstall, then we should have had you uninstall and made sure to clear all data. Otherwise there still could be something corrupt there.

This again was just about asking to try once more. If you had done this and said that nothing changed, I’d have gone to another step.

@Solugistics

Except it doesn’t say Dec 7.

Ever hear of typos? I put 7 out of habit instead of 31. It doesn’t detract from what I said, which is that it shouldn’t be showing like that.

@Solugistics

litany of steps

And if you had tried the steps again as I asked and still had issues, I was then also going to ask you to:

1. Check your OS clock and all. Does it accurately portray the date and time?

2. Download Brave Beta or Brave Nightly and see if you have issues on that as well.

3. On the original profile, go to brave://rewards-internals and see what errors you have under Logs. (other than usual ones like [ERROR:redeem_reward_confirmation.cc(143)] Payment token is not ready or ERROR:get_available.cc(63)] Unexpected HTTP status: 426)

4. To make sure you have created a Rewards Support Ticket at https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=360001302431 using the information on the original profile.

You just got impatient with troubleshooting and showed quite an attitude. Sometimes people need you to try steps over again. You do realize you could have simply asked if I really was asking you to do it a second time or if I just missed what you said earlier.

[Solugistics]

@Saoiray

You just got impatient with troubleshooting and showed quite an attitude. Sometimes people need you to try steps over again. You do realize you could have simply asked if I really was asking you to do it a second time or if I just missed what you said earlier.

Impatient? Nope, not at all. I’m in no rush and I certainly didn’t expect a reply so quickly, let alone two. A solution was not even in my mind in such short time. I was polite, and thorough, and researched prior to posting so as to be respectful of everyone’s time.

There was no attitude at all, until you were dismissive. It wasn’t simply that you rejected my supposition, it was that you did so without any countervailing rationale. You even conceded it’s possibility, but only if I “screwed something.” That’s rude. Plain and simple. Maybe you didn’t intend it. Mistakes happen. Like your typo. But when we make mistakes we own up to them.

Moving on…

@Saoiray

What you did not include is when you last reinstalled your browser.

I did, it was the last step, along with a reset, that I completed immediately prior to creating this topic requesting help.

@Saoiray

And rather than uninstall, I was asking you to install on top.

I have not yet tried uninstalling, I downloaded Brave and installed on top.

@Saoiray

Check your OS clock and all. Does it accurately portray the date and time?

Yes

@Saoiray

Download Brave Beta

Tried, this was the result:

Brave Nightly installed successfully. As soon as it completed and Brave relaunched, I checked the payout date, it still shows Dec 31. As I was typing this, I received a notification ad. I immediately checked the rewards page again and, completely unsurprisingly, as soon as the first ad came through and an earning was displayed, the payout date changed to Mar 7. I have since received several notification ads as well as new page and news ads.

@Saoiray

On the original profile, go to brave://rewards-internals and see what errors you have under Logs. (other than usual ones like [ERROR:redeem_reward_confirmation.cc(143)] Payment token is not ready or ERROR:get_available.cc(63)] Unexpected HTTP status: 426)

Prior to installing Brave Nightly, and excluding the errors you mentioned, I have several of these (dozens per day):
[Feb 20, 2024, 2:01:20.6 PM:ERROR:publisher.cc(625)] Publisher info not found

Since installing Brave Nightly, which was a little over an hour ago, there have been none of those errors.

So the issue, whatever it was, is no longer occurring with Nightly installed. Should I leave things as they are? Is there a process to uninstall Nightly? Or should I try a full uninstall and reinstall.

Thank you

[Saoiray]

@Solugistics

only if I “screwed something.”

Perhaps phrasing off. But I guess looking at the idea if some setting was changed or something. And I guess what I also needed to confirm is if it’s a “normal” PC or if you were using something like a VM? Just was trying to figure out what’s different on your setup compared to others on you experiencing the issue. That’s what I was saying in that.

@Solugistics

As soon as it completed and Brave relaunched, I checked the payout date, it still shows Dec 31

What’s intriguing is I tried to replicate and it didn’t. The very first payout date as soon as connected showed for March. Prior to connecting no date was given. So will be a question of what might be happening for that difference.

@Solugistics

as soon as the first ad came through and an earning was displayed, the payout date changed to Mar 7.

At least it corrected then. And yeah, it might be worth trying to do a clean uninstall and installation then. To be clear what I mean, you should get something like below. Checking the box to remove everything should completely remove it all. If you’re concerned about bookmarks and all, you might want to make sure to export them or have an ongoing sync with your phones.

@Solugistics

So the issue, whatever it was, is no longer occurring with Nightly installed. Should I leave things as they are? Is there a process to uninstall Nightly?

So Nightly is one of the testing and development versions. It’s a few updates ahead of Release. If you want to keep using that, you can. It gets you access to things a lot quicker than most will, but also means you might encounter bugs in their early stages. A lot of people prefer using it instead of Release. Guess just is your preference. Kind of like, “if it ain’t broke, why fix it?”

As to uninstalling, you can uninstall it just as you would any program. You’ll see Brave Nightly and Brave as two different apps/programs on your device.