# MediaTailor ad skipping troubleshooting guide
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Ad skipping is one of the most common issues that MediaTailor customers report. This guide helps you identify ad skipping issues and provides step-by-step troubleshooting procedures.

## Symptoms and impact
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When ad skipping occurs, you might observe the following symptoms:
+ Ads don't appear during expected ad breaks
+ Ad breaks show content instead of advertisements
+ Inconsistent ad playback across different viewing sessions
+ CloudWatch logs showing `AdSkipped` events with various skip reasons

Ad skipping directly impacts revenue and can create poor viewer experiences. Address these issues promptly to maintain optimal performance.

## Identifying skip reasons
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Use CloudWatch Logs Insights to query the `MediaTailor/AdDecisionServerInteractions` log group for skipped ads:

```
fields @timestamp, avail.availId, skippedAds.0.skippedReason, skippedAds.0.creativeUniqueId
| filter eventType = "FILLED_AVAIL" and ispresent(skippedAds.0.skippedReason)
| sort @timestamp desc
```

This query returns the most recent ad skip events with their specific reasons to help you identify patterns.

**Topics**
+ [Symptoms](#ad-skipping-symptoms)
+ [Skip reasons](#identifying-skip-reasons)
+ [NEW\_CREATIVE skipping](troubleshooting-new-creative-skipping.md)
+ [ADS timeout skipping](troubleshooting-ads-timeout-skipping.md)
+ [VAST parsing skipping](troubleshooting-vast-parsing-skipping.md)
+ [Duration mismatch skipping](troubleshooting-duration-mismatch-skipping.md)
+ [Session variable skipping](troubleshooting-session-variables-skipping.md)
+ [Monitoring ad skipping](monitoring-ad-skipping-issues.md)
+ [Prevention best practices](preventing-ad-skipping-best-practices.md)
+ [Reference materials](ad-skipping-reference-materials.md)