1928646 - The New Sponsored card cannot be triggered anymore on the NewTab page

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: New Tab Page, defect)

Description

[Alice Varro [avarro], Ecosystem QA]

[Affected versions]:

• Firefox build version: Firefox Beta 133.0b2, en-US locale, Build ID: 20241030091715

[Affected Platforms]:

• Windows 10 x64;
• macOS 14.5
• Linux Mint 21.1

[Prerequisites]:

• Have a new profile with the following prefs from the “about:config” page set: List of prefs
• Have a VPN solution connected to US.

[Steps to reproduce]:

1. Open the browser with the profile from the prerequisites.
2. Open a New Tab page.
3. Observe the behavior.

[Expected result]:

• The New sponsored card is displayed in the first row of the “Recommended by Pocket” section.

[Actual result]:

• The New Sponsored card cannot be triggered anymore on the NewTab page and it is not displayed.

[Notes]:

• The New Sponsored card was not triggered even after using the “Refresh Cache” option from the “about:asrouter” page or after restarting the browser multiple times.
• This issue is reproducible with both UI variants.

Comment 1

[Alice Varro [avarro], Ecosystem QA]

This issue is also reproducible on the latest Firefox Nightly 134.0a1.

Comment 2

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

dmueller reported back that the flight for the medium rectangle on the production server ended yesterday, which is why it's no longer showing.

I think he's looking to extend that. For now, in order to unblock testing, testers can:

1. First add https://ads.allizom.org to the end of the list at browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.discoverystream.endpoints, preceded by a comma, and
2. Set browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.unifiedAds.endpoint to https://ads.allizom.org

And then open up the about:newtab devtools and hit "Refresh Cache".

Comment 3

[daniel mueller]

AdOps just helped updating the test flight in prod, so the medium rectangle will be available there again. The new end date there is end of Nov

Comment 4

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Can confirm on my side too. I think we can close this out as RESOLVED FIXED, avarro, if you're seeing it too?

Comment 5

[Alice Varro [avarro], Ecosystem QA]

I can confirm that the issue is now fixed. Closing this ticket as Verified - Fixed. Thank you!