AdMob, Cannot access the payments or billing page

Question

Xcode 7.3, iOS 9.3

I understand that this is not a programming question, but someone who is implementing AdMob might be stumped by this. Please drop a comment if you know where a post like this would go, if not here.

I just spent 3 days trying to figure this out... I am posting a question and solution to my dilemma in hopes of saving someone who is new to AdMob some valuable time.

If you signed up for AdMob and integrated the SDK in your app., then you probably want to ensure that your payment and billing information is set up correctly too, before proceeding with app. submission. Well, it was not so easy for me...

So you'd click the "gear" to get the settings popover to appear...

Then try to navigate to "Payments" and "Billing" to set up, well you guessed it, payments and billing... However, I saw the following behavior:

The page you are directed to continuously loads... As indicated by the google beach ball loading animation.

This goes on for about 3 minutes, and then you get...

Being new to AdMob and following the provided advice "...Please try again later" I tried again later, then later, then later - figuring it was due to traffic volume or whatever. It was not, eventually I got frustrated enough and started looking for help.

Please see my answer.

Answer 1

Xcode 7.3, iOS 9.3

After hours of stumbling around on the internet, I found this in the FAQ section of AdMob Help.

Cannot access the payments or billing page

The issue was that I had the incorrect cookie settings. Yes. Why they couldn't code a little more description to the error is beyond me, but I really feel that "...try again later" is a poor choice of words.

To add fuel to the fire, their solution is a bit outdated, the new Safari browser does not exactly have the correct cookie setting they describe. But nonetheless, I understood what the problem is...

If you use Safari, then do this:

Go to the "Preferences" for Safari...

Navigate to the "Privacy" tab and change the "Cookies and website data:" from any other setting to "Always allow".

Reload the AdMob "Payment" or "Billing" page and you should see the corresponding content.

Hope this saves someone time! Cheers.

P.S. You most likely will not be able to configure your payment method, because...

You can only select a payment method after the finalized earnings in your transaction history have reached at least $10.00 or your local currency equivalent.

Answer 2

In Safari 14.0, go into Preferences > Privacy, uncheck Prevent cross-site tracking. Then, reload AdMob Payments page.