Firebase suddenly stopped working, using Anonymous Auth

Question

i have set up firebase storage for my app, and added the code for anonymous auth on the app and on the firebase console.

it worked at first, but i dont know why it stopped working, saying that the user does not have permission to access the object

Anonymous auth is correctly set up and i did see it working, code is almost like Google Firebase docs

logcat:

D/FirebaseAuth: signInAnonymously:onComplete:true
D/FirebaseAuth: onAuthStateChanged:signed_in: (Random auth user id)

... When i request the item from firebase

E/StorageUtil: error getting token java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: com.google.firebase.FirebaseException: An internal error has occured. [Internal error encountered.] I/DpmTcmClient: RegisterTcmMonitor from: com.android.okhttp.TcmIdleTimerMonitor W/NetworkRequest: no auth token for request E/StorageException: StorageException has occurred. User does not have permission to access this object. Code: -13021 HttpResult: 403

Can Someone help?

Declaring Variables

private FirebaseAuth mAuth;
private FirebaseAuth.AuthStateListener mAuthListener;

on the OnCreate method

mAuthListener = new FirebaseAuth.AuthStateListener() {
        @Override
        public void onAuthStateChanged(@NonNull FirebaseAuth firebaseAuth) {
            FirebaseUser user = firebaseAuth.getCurrentUser();
            if (user != null) {
                // User is signed in
                Log.d("FirebaseAuth", "onAuthStateChanged:signed_in:" + user.getUid());
            } else {
                // User is signed out
                Log.d("FirebaseAuth", "onAuthStateChanged:signed_out");
            }
            // ...
        }
    };
    mAuth.signInAnonymously()
            .addOnCompleteListener(this, new OnCompleteListener<AuthResult>() {
                @Override
                public void onComplete(@NonNull Task<AuthResult> task) {
                    Log.d("FirebaseAuth", "signInAnonymously:onComplete:" + task.isSuccessful());

                    // If sign in fails, display a message to the user. If sign in succeeds
                    // the auth state listener will be notified and logic to handle the
                    // signed in user can be handled in the listener.
                    if (!task.isSuccessful()) {
                        Log.w("FirebaseAuth", "signInAnonymously", task.getException());
                        Toast.makeText(SingleMemeEditor.this, "Authentication failed.",
                                Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                    }

                    // ...
                }
            });

and the method that gets from storage:

    Bitmap bmp;
    final Context lContext = context; //getting the MainActivity Context
    final String lFileName = fileName; //filename to download
    final String lCatPath = catPath; //internal categorization folder

    FirebaseStorage storage = FirebaseStorage.getInstance();
    // Create a storage reference from our app
    StorageReference storageRef = storage.getReferenceFromUrl(context.getResources().getString(R.string.firebase_bucket));
    // Create a reference with an initial file path and name
    StorageReference filesRef = storageRef.child("files/" + fileName);
    try
    {
        final File localFile = File.createTempFile("images", "jpg");

        filesRef.getFile(localFile).addOnSuccessListener(new OnSuccessListener<FileDownloadTask.TaskSnapshot>()
        {
            @Override
            public void onSuccess(FileDownloadTask.TaskSnapshot taskSnapshot)
            {
                // Local temp file has been created
                File file = new File(getDirectory(lContext)
                        + File.separator + lCatPath + File.separator + lFileName);
                try
                {
                    Boolean b = file.createNewFile();
                    if(b)
                    {
                        FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream(localFile);
                        FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(file);

                        // Transfer bytes from in to out
                        byte[] buf = new byte[(int)localFile.length()];
                        int len;
                        while ((len = in.read(buf)) > 0) {
                            out.write(buf, 0, len);
                        }
                        in.close();
                        out.close();
                    }
                            Drawable.createFromPath(file.getPath())).getBitmap());
                }
                catch (IOException ex)
                {
                    // Handle any errors
                    Log.e("CopyingFromTemp", ex.getMessage());
                }

            }
        }).addOnFailureListener(new OnFailureListener()
        {
            @Override
            public void onFailure(@NonNull Exception ex)
            {
                // Handle any errors
                Log.e("FirebaseDownloadError", ex.getMessage());
            }
        });
    }
    catch(Exception ex)
    {
        Log.e("FirebaseDownloadError", ex.getMessage());
    }

also i'm using standard security rules:

match /{allPaths=**} {
      allow read, write: if request.auth != null;
    }

Show the security rules for your Storage and the minimum code that reproduces the problem (the flow is rather important here). — Frank van Puffelen
The code does unfortunately not show how you ensure that the user is authenticated before uploading an image. You might want to add a simple check if (FirebaseAuth.getInstance().getCurrentUser !0 null) before starting the actual upload. — Frank van Puffelen
as i'm using anonymous authentication, and i was seeing the Authentication "success" i thought that wouldn't actually be necesary, anyways thanks for the code to ensure the user is authenticated, but as i posted as answer earlier (haven't accepted it as correct because i have to wait a day) the solution was to sign out of the current authenticated "user" — Daniel Andujar

Daniel Andujar Daniel Andujar · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-14T11:46:00

as Benjamin Wulfe hinted, i deleted the App's data on the phone and it worked, which means that some kind of Token data was stored on the phone and Anonymous Auth was getting an old session data.

so i added a sign out code before signInAnonymously

mAuth.signOut();

and done!

Thanks to you all for the help!

EDIT: I found another method which is better than signing out and in again (which lead to hundreds of unused anonymous users on the firebase console, and that because the app is not in production yet, would have been millions).

this is what i did:

if (mAuth.getCurrentUser() != null)
        {
            mAuth.getCurrentUser().reload();
        }
        else
        {
            mAuth.signInAnonymously()
                    .addOnCompleteListener(this, new OnCompleteListener<AuthResult>()
                    {
                        @Override
                        public void onComplete(@NonNull Task<AuthResult> task)
                        {
                            Log.d("FirebaseAuth", "signInAnonymously:onComplete:" + task.isSuccessful());

                            // If sign in fails, display a message to the user. If sign in succeeds
                            // the auth state listener will be notified and logic to handle the
                            // signed in user can be handled in the listener.
                            if (!task.isSuccessful())
                            {
                                Log.w("FirebaseAuth", "signInAnonymously", task.getException());
                                Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "Authentication failed.",
                                        Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                            }
                            // ...
                        }
                    });
        }

this just reloads current authenticated (anonymous) user.

Firebase suddenly stopped working, using Anonymous Auth

4 Answers