[Unity / LevelPlay] Ads work in Editor but never load on real devices (Android & iOS)

Archived Forums Monetization & Growth LevelPlay Mediation
1

Hello,

I’m very new to Unity and recently published my first game. I’m stuck trying to get Unity LevelPlay (ironSource) ads working properly.

Ads work in the Unity Editor and simulator, but never load on real devices, even in test mode or production.

What I’ve done so far:

  1. Created a project on Unity Dashboard and initially used Unity Ads (without LevelPlay).
  • Test ads worked in the Editor
  • On real devices (Android & iOS): no ads in production
  1. Switched to LevelPlay, but couldn’t reuse the original project (since it didn’t use LevelPlay), so I:
  • Created a new Unity project with LevelPlay
  • Linked it to Unity Hub using the new Project ID
  1. Got confused by Game IDs:
  • Unity Dashboard IDs ≠ ironSource LevelPlay IDs
  • Since I’m now using LevelPlay, I used the ironSource Game IDs for iOS & Android in Unity Editor
  1. Added a test device in LevelPlay
  • Test ads have never loaded once on that device
  1. App is now live on both App Store & Play Store
  • Switched from test ads → real ads
  • Still no ads shown on production builds
  1. Added all missing SKAdNetwork IDs to Info.plist
  • Unity Dashboard still shows the warning:“You have missing SKAdNetwork IDs from your Info.plist”
  1. In the Unity Editor:
  • LevelPlay initialises correctly
  • Test ads show normally
  1. On real devices:
  • Ads always fail to load
  1. Unity Dashboard auto-created two extra projects (I didn’t create them):
  • One with the ironSource iOS ID
  • One with the ironSource Android ID
  • I don’t know why they exist, whether they affect ad serving, because only one project can be linked to Unity Hub, so not sure if I should archive them or leave them.
  1. My ironSource / LevelPlay account is approved: Ad units are active, Apps are live, so I expect that real ads should be able to serve.

My questions:

  • Why would ads work in Editor but never load on real devices?
  • Do I need to configure something extra on:
    • App Store Connect?
    • Google Play Console?
  • Could the duplicate Unity projects be blocking ad delivery?
  • Is there a common LevelPlay setup mistake I’m missing?

Any guidance, checklist, or similar experience would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

2

Get the device logs as they may contain pointers why the ad load failed.

3

Thanks for the pointer. I checked to logs. The thing is ads are loaded in Unity Editor with LevelPlay initialised successfully, so test ads can be loaded in Editor or simulator. But they are not loaded in real devices.

For example, some logs from Editor.log:
[LevelPlay]: Added SKAdNetwork Id for: Unity Ads
[LevelPlay]: IronSource - Update project for IronSource
[LevelPlay]: IronSource build postprocessor finished

I was looking for LevelPlay and ads in the logs. Any other keywords I need to look for?

4

It may be a Game ID / App Key mismatch.

Make sure the Game ID is perfectly added in LevelPlay and used Level Play App Key inside project.

Also, I strongly recommend using Android Logcat and checking the exact error logs. Track

• Initialization success/failure

• OnAdLoadFailed error message

• Any adapter or dependency errors

Editor test mode can work even when real device configuration is wrong, so device logs are very important here.

I created a very simple step-by-step LevelPlay + Unity Ads implementation guide because nowadays there’s a lot of confusion between Unity Ads and LevelPlay setup.

I hope it saves you some time.

Hope this helps :+1:

Unity LevelPlay Mediation Complete Setup (2026)