Fix “app-ads.txt file not found”
The file exists on your server, but the network still says it isn’t there. These are the causes we see most often when checking thousands of files.
Causes and fixes
- Wrong domain — the developer website in Google Play / App Store is a different domain (or www vs non-www). Put the file on the exact domain from the listing, or change the listing.
- Wrong path — the file is in a subfolder (/files/app-ads.txt) or named ads.txt. It must be /app-ads.txt at the root.
- HTML instead of text — single-page apps and site builders return the home page for unknown paths. Open the URL: if you see your site, the crawler sees HTML.
- Redirect away from the file — the domain redirects to a landing page, another domain or a long chain.
- Blocked crawlers — a firewall, Cloudflare bot protection or geo-blocking answers 403/503 to bots.
- Wrong encoding — the file is saved as UTF-16; crawlers read garbage. Save as UTF-8.
- Not crawled yet — networks re-crawl on their own schedule; allow up to a day or more after a change.
- App not linked to the store — e.g. in AdMob, the app must be linked to its Google Play / App Store listing so the crawler knows the developer website.
Check it like a crawler
Paste your domain into the checker: it fetches https://yourdomain.com/app-ads.txt as a crawler would, tells you if it got HTML, a redirect, a block or a wrong encoding, and shows the lines your networks expect.
FAQ
Why does AdMob say app-ads.txt not found when I can open it?
Usually the domain in the store listing is different from where the file is, the app is not linked to the store in AdMob, or Google has not re-crawled yet.
Is a redirect allowed?
Yes, crawlers follow standard redirects, but the final response must be the text file with status 200.