Native Ad rendered on top of random elements on iOS

[christianrank]

MAX Module Version

react-native-applovin-max >= 9.3.0

React Native Version

0.79.6 with new architecture

Device/Platform Info

iOS 26.0.1

Current Behavior

After updating all my dependencies, I noticed native ads appearing randomly on top of other elements like buttons for example, after the NativeAdView is already unmounted. It can also be clicked and still opens the ad. This only happens on iOS.

The last version where this doesn't happen is react-native-applovin-max 9.2.1. This issue currently prevents me from upgrading to a newer version than that one.

Expected Behavior

It should destroy itself correctly on unmount and not appear again.

How to Reproduce

Render native ad. Switch to another screen so it unmounts. (I use react-navigation). See that the ad image appears on top of a random element.

Reproducible in the demo app?

No

Additional Info

I have seen that there is a new destroyAd method which I tried calling in the return of useEffect (on unmount), but this does not work because there is no ref being set by ref={nativeAdViewRef}, or it is already unavailable in the unmount handler.

In my opinion it should always destroy on unmount as this is the expected behaviour, if this should be prevented for some reason I would suggest adding a prop to do that for that specific use case.

[JonathanLiuApp]

Hi @christianrank, we are aware of this bug and are currently investigating this issue. We will let you know here when there is an update.

[IsaacBentata]

Hi @JonathanLiuApp - what is the latest here?

[benji-jo]

@JonathanLiuApp
How is the progress going?

[cemtuver-applovin]

Hey all! We are still working on and will provide an update as soon as we can.

[benji-jo]

What is the current status??

@cemtuver-applovin

[MonuCarpenter]

Yes in the iOS the ads are random, im seeing ads on the pages where I didnt implemented/added. its weird

[MonuCarpenter]

@christianrank @cemtuver-applovin I tried downgrading to 9.2.1 but we are still facing this issue; the ads are coming over other components like slider, containers/divs, button, etc. please fix it asap else I will have to move to other platform

[christianrank]

@MonuCarpenter when downgrading, make sure you have "9.2.1" in your package.json and not "^9.2.1", else it would still get the latest 9.x version. Maybe you have made this mistake, as it is very common and I made it myself a couple of times already.

[MonuCarpenter]

@christianrank I'm aware about that, im not using "^". but still in some devices its too weird experience the app is not usable anymore.

[MonuCarpenter]

@christianrank also I checked in the mediation debugger its exactly 9.2.1; in older iPhones [not with iOS26] it work fine but in latest phones; im seeing ads in random places where we didnt added that.
the fault is not just from applovin but the new arch. that reuses components causing this. I will try with <9.x.x let's see if it works else I will have to move for others.

[MonuCarpenter]

im gonna further downgrade to 8.2.0 lets see if it fixes this issue as they added frabic and turbo modules in 9.x.x.