AdMob Linking Broke? The Fixes That Actually Work — WordsByEkta🌿
AdMob Linking Went Wrong? Here's What Actually Fixes It
The duplicate app trap, the Firebase lock, the cross-account nightmare — and the exact steps that finally worked. Written from real Jaap Karo experience at 2:48am.
Your App Is Fine. The Console Is Not.
Your app is live. Your ad units are real. Your code is correct. Ads were even showing — maybe just a few cents, but showing. You weren't panicking. You were just doing one small finishing task inside AdMob console.
And then something went wrong.
Maybe you ended up with two AdMob app entries when there should be one. Maybe AdMob and Firebase refuse to link. Maybe you have everything on different Google accounts and nothing is talking to each other.
And now you're sitting there wondering if you have to rebuild the entire app. Reinstall the SDK. Change the App ID in your manifest. Republish.
You don't. Nothing in your app code is broken. This is purely a console fix — AdMob, Firebase, Google Analytics. No Android Studio. No new AAB. No republishing.
The Exact Navigation Paths You'll Need
Before getting into what went wrong and why, here are the exact paths inside AdMob you'll use throughout this guide. Save this section.
To access your app's settings
To delink Play Store from a wrong app entry
To link Play Store to the correct app entry
To link AdMob to Firebase
To delink Firebase when it is blocking you
The One Everyone Warns About
If you have read any AdMob guide at all, you have probably seen this warning. When you go to link your Play Store app inside AdMob after publishing, you will see two options. One says Link to existing app. The other says Create new app.
Every guide tells you — click Link to existing app. Never click Create new app. Here is exactly why.
When you first set up AdMob before building your app, you created an app entry manually. That entry has your real App ID — the one sitting inside your AndroidManifest.xml right now. That App ID is what connects your live ad units to your running app. It is irreplaceable without a code change and a full republish.
The fix if this happened to you
- 1
Go to the wrong new entry — Apps → the wrong new entry → App settings → App store details
- 2
Check for Firebase first — if Firebase is already linked to this wrong entry, you must delink it before proceeding. Go to Linked services → Manage linked services → toggle Firebase off. Then come back here.
- 3
Click Clear shop details — this detaches your Play Store listing from the wrong entry and frees it up.
- 4
Go to your original correct entry — Apps → your original app entry → App settings → App store details → link your Play Store app from the Google Play section.
- 5
Hide the empty wrong entry — go back to the now-empty wrong entry and toggle its visibility to hidden so it stops cluttering your Apps list.
The One Nobody Warns About
Here is what happened. I was on the AdMob main dashboard — not inside my specific app. From the dashboard there is a prompt to link your app to Play Store. It looks helpful. It shows a "Link to existing app" option. I clicked it, searched for Jaap Karo on Play Store, selected it.
The fix steps are identical to Trap 1. But the lesson here is different.
Firebase and AdMob on Different Google Accounts
This is a separate problem entirely. No duplicates involved. Just two Google accounts that need to talk to each other — and don't know how.
My situation with Jaap Karo: Firebase was set up on one Google account. AdMob was on a different one. Completely normal if you created Firebase early in development under one email and AdMob under another. But linking them is not obvious, and the steps that seem logical don't always work in the order you'd expect.
Here is exactly what I tried, what failed, and what finally worked.
Step 1 — Invite your AdMob account to Firebase as Owner
- 1
Go to Firebase Console → Project Settings → Users and Permissions → Add member.
- 2
Add your AdMob Google account email. Give it Owner access — not Editor. Owner matters here.
- 3
Your AdMob account will receive an email invitation. Open that inbox and accept the invite.
Step 2 — Try linking AdMob inside Firebase (this may not work)
- 1
After accepting the invite, open Firebase Console logged in as your AdMob account.
- 2
Go to Project Settings → Integrations → AdMob → Link.
- 3
In my case this showed the wrong account and did not work. If it works for you — you are done. If not, keep going.
Step 3 — Link Play Store inside Firebase
- 1
Still inside Firebase Console → Project Settings → Integrations → Google Play.
- 2
Link your Play Store app here. Firebase will start showing the Play Store connection on its side. But when you open AdMob it may still show red. Keep going.
Step 4 — The step nobody mentions: Google Analytics
- 1
Go to analytics.google.com.
- 2
Find the Google Analytics property linked to your Firebase project.
- 3
Go to Admin → Property Access Management → Add users.
- 4
Add your AdMob Google account email here as Administrator.
Step 5 — Link Firebase inside AdMob from the correct place
- 1
Go back to AdMob. Navigate to Apps → your correct app entry → App settings → App store details → Linked services → Manage linked services → Manage app links.
- 2
Click the dropdown. This time — after the Google Analytics step — your Firebase project will appear in the dropdown where it was not appearing before.
- 3
Toggle it on. AdMob will now show green for Firebase. The connection is complete.
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me
Things nobody tells you
- Never do linking tasks from the AdMob main dashboard. Always go through Apps → your specific app → App settings. The dashboard shortcuts exist but create duplicates silently even when you click the correct button.
- "Apps linked to Firebase are not allowed to be relinked" is not a dead end. Delink Firebase first, clear shop details, then relink everything in the correct order.
- If Firebase and AdMob are on different accounts, the Firebase invite alone is not enough. You also need to add your AdMob account as Administrator inside the Google Analytics property linked to Firebase. That is what makes the Firebase project visible in AdMob's dropdown.
- The Google Analytics Administrator step is the hidden key. Every guide skips it. It is not optional when your accounts are separate.
- Your app code is never the problem in any of these scenarios. No manifest changes needed. No new AAB. No republishing. Everything lives in the consoles.
- Once you fix the duplicate — hide the wrong entry. It has no ad units and no App ID that matches your app. Leaving it visible will confuse you every time you open AdMob.
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