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Troubleshooting

iOS and Android Errors After Installing Firebase in Your Project

How to fix common Firebase setup errors on iOS and Android when integrating with Flutter.

Mxo MasukuFebruary 13, 20252 min read

Setting up Firebase in Flutter is pretty intuitive — simple, really. You only have to follow these docs to get there.

The problem, however, starts when you've done this:

void main() async {
  await Firebase.initializeApp();
  runApp(MyApp());
}

…and you hit flutter run. You'll likely encounter two errors related to Firebase. Here's how to handle them properly.

Assumes your pubspec.yaml has the necessary firebase_* packages set, and you've verified with:

flutter doctor -v

You can also check the platform-specific deployment docs:

Android

Error:

PlatformException(channel-error,
Unable to establish connection on channel: 
"dev.flutter.pigeon.firebase_auth_platform_interface.FirebaseAuthHostApi.registerIdTokenListener")

Fix:

This error is caused by a mismatch between Flutter's configured NDK version and Firebase's minimum required NDK version.

Open: android/app/build.gradle.kts

android {
    namespace = "com.example.mockify"
    compileSdk = flutter.compileSdkVersion
    ndkVersion = "27.0.12077973" // <- update to minimum required
    defaultConfig {
        minSdk = 23 // <- required by Firebase Auth
    }
}

Also run:

flutter doctor --android-licenses

iOS

Problem:

You've updated your deployment target in Xcode but Firebase still complains.

Fix:

  1. Open your project in Xcode:
cd ios && open Runner.xcworkspace
  1. Then in ios/Podfile, update this line:
platform :ios, '13.0' # <- set to Firebase's required minimum
  1. Clean and rebuild everything:
flutter clean
rm ios/Podfile.lock
rm -rf ios/Pods
rm -rf ios/.symlinks
rm -rf ios/Flutter/Flutter.framework
rm -rf ios/Flutter/Flutter.podspec
flutter pub get
cd ios
pod install
cd ..

Long-Term Maintenance

Every time you update Firebase dependencies or Flutter SDK:

flutter doctor --android-licenses

Re-check:

  • minSdkVersion (Android)
  • platform :ios (iOS)
  • ndkVersion (Android)

Reference Docs