The default Firebase app does not exist. Make sure you call initializeApp()

[christhompsongoogle]

Discussed in https://github.com/firebase/firebase-tools/discussions/5910

From Geoffrey-Pliez:

the script no longer passed in the firebase-frameworks/firebase-aware.

Here is the minimal source code to reproduce the problem.

When I test locally with the prod_preview command (set FIREBASE_FRAMEWORKS_BUILD_TARGET=production&& npm run emulators), it works correctly and the code passes well in firebase-aware.

When I deploy on the server (firebase hosting) via the firebase deploy command, it no longer works and get the message [ssr] Error: The default Firebase app does not exist. Make sure you call initializeApp() before using any of the Firebase services. and guess that on the server the firebase-aware script is no longer called.

I'm not sure but I think it's since upgrading from 11.30.0 to 12.0.0

[steebchen]

Potentially also running into this with next-firebase-auth it seems (although it happens when upgrading firebase and not firebase-tools)

[DellaBitta]

@Geoffrey-Pliez,

I'm from the Firebase Web SDK team. I was looking a bit into this issue and I'm trying to reproduce this here to see if this was a Firebase Web Frameworks issue or a Firebase Admin SDK issue.

I haven't been able to get this to work with the latest or older versions of the firebase-admin and firebase-tools SDKs. All versions seem to have problems at the build step (the same error as you reported) which is fixed by initializing the firebase-admin SDK as described here.

I should note that I was able to reproduce this issue without Firebase Web Framework support (from firebase-tools) simply by creating an Astro app from scratch. I went through these steps:

1. npm create astro@latest and walking through the configuration steps.
2. npm install firestore-admin.
3. Updating the code at the top of index.astro from:

---
import Layout from '../layouts/Layout.astro';
import Card from '../components/Card.astro';
---

to:

---
import Layout from '../layouts/Layout.astro';
import Card from '../components/Card.astro';

import { getFirestore } from 'firebase-admin/firestore'
const firestore = getFirestore()
---

4. npm run build.

This produces the same Error: The default Firebase app does not exist that you reported. The error goes away if I add:

import { initializeApp } from 'firebase-admin/app'
const app = initializeApp();

Could you step me how you've setup your environment past these steps to make this work with the older admin / firebase-tools versions without calling initializeApp first, as is the case in your provided code?

Thanks very much.

[Geoffrey-Pliez]

@DellaBitta

Sorry, I don't remember very well because currently I work around the problem by initializing firebase-admin in Astro middleware.

As soon as I have time, I will try to investigate why it worked before for me.

[aayman997]

Any updates on this issue? I'm facing the same error but in Next.js The default Firebase app does not exist. Make sure you call initializeApp() When I try to initializeApp() inside the API route or middleware?

[DellaBitta]

Hi @aayman997,

We're still seeking a reproducible test case beyond the originally reported one, which I had already detailed how I was able to update the code to make it work. If you have a different issue and setup then please create a new issue. Thanks!

[YusufTezel]

Hi Sorry, but it doesn't work. Can you please be more specific about how to work around this issue which still persists?

[JoaquinFF]

Hello, are there any updates on how to solve this issue? I'm using nextjs and seems to work sometimes and sometimes it doesn't