Notionet

If you are reading this post, probably you have been facing this problem too;

” My phone has been downloading some promotional photos and video ads in the gallery automatically. Some are bible verses, others are from gambling sites while others are from gaming apps”Looking at my gallery, I can tell they are coming from a folder called unity ads but to locate this folder is the problem. I tried searching for answers on google but did not get one that was helpful. Later, I was able to remove the ads using a simple way am going to share with you here”

First things first, what is unity?

Unity is a digital gaming platform just like you have WordPress for creating blogs and sites. With unity one can create 2d/3d games from scratch, learn how to create games and connect with other game developers. Unity is the platform behind popular mobile games like temple run 2, subway surfers and others. That means the ads you are seeing are probably coming from a game app installed in your phone.

The reason why the ads are now downloading automatically is because you happened to view or clicked an ad in the game you were playing. This automatically created a folder called unityadscache. This is the folder that stores all the ads that are viewed or downloaded via a certain game app.

How to remove the folder

First, you need to locate the folder, to do that, go to the file manager of your phone. Then search unityads and you will find unityadscache in one of the results. If you click this folder, you will get what is in the folder but what you need to do is delete the folder itself. To delete it go back (click the back button) then you will spot the unityads folder among the other folders. Long press it then select delete to move it to the trash bin.

Another way to delete it is to go directly to the file manager then select to open the android folder, in the android folder there you will find folders for games and other apps you have installed in your phone. It could be in any of the game apps but its best if you start with the most likely ones. For example those you play most of the times. Then open the data folder of the game app you have chosen then go to cache and there you will find the unityadscache folder. Delete the folder.

After deleting it, the ads are supposed to stop. If they don’t, make sure to delete all the adscache folders in the other apps. If the games insist on creating these folders to show ads, you can either block the ads or just uninstall the game.

Why do they show ads and why these specific ads to me?

Most apps are free to download on google play and other app stores. So, to make money the game developers display ads in the app and earn revenue per view, click or sale. The money is paid to them by advertisers either directly or via adnetworks.

Most apps don’t have specific ads that they display. They rely on the cache stored in your phone. The cache holds data on your past online and offline activities. If you have been searching for shoes, then ads you will see will probably be about shoes. They can also show ads depending on your location i.e country and other apps you have installed in your phone.

Featured Image, Character vector created by vectorjuice – www.freepik.com