Firestore whereField Query Fails in Production After Using Emulator

[tyler6204]

Description

After switching from Firebase emulators (Firestore, Auth, Storage) to Firebase production, Firestore queries using whereField consistently fail to fetch documents from the production database, while the same queries succeed when using the emulator.

Specifically, the query that filters the households collection using arrayContains on the users field works perfectly in emulator mode but returns empty results or fails entirely when running against Firebase production.

Reproducing the issue

Steps:

Configure Firebase Firestore, Auth, and Storage to use emulators.

Successfully fetch documents from the households collection using a whereField query with arrayContains.

Remove emulator settings and deploy the app connected to Firebase production.

Attempt to fetch documents using the same whereField query in production.

Minimal reproducible example:

@MainActor
func fetchHouseholds(for user: User) async -> [Household] {
    var households: [Household] = []

    do {
        let householdRef = Firestore.firestore().collection("households")
            .whereField("users", arrayContains: user.documentRef)

        let householdDocuments = try await householdRef.getDocuments()

        households = householdDocuments.documents.compactMap { document in
            do {
                return try document.data(as: Household.self)
            } catch {
                print("Failed to parse household document: \(error)")
                return nil
            }
        }

        return households
    } catch {
        print("Error fetching households: \(error.localizedDescription)")
        return []
    }
}

Firebase SDK Version

10.9

Xcode Version

15.3

Installation Method

Swift Package Manager

Firebase Product(s)

Firestore

Auth

Storage

Targeted Platforms

iOS

Firebase SDK Version

10.9

Xcode Version

15.3

Installation Method

Swift Package Manager

Firebase Product(s)

Firestore

Targeted Platforms

iOS, N/A

Relevant Log Output

If using Swift Package Manager, the project's Package.resolved

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If using CocoaPods, the project's Podfile.lock

Expand Podfile.lock snippet

Replace this line with the contents of your Podfile.lock!

[google-oss-bot]

I couldn't figure out how to label this issue, so I've labeled it for a human to triage. Hang tight.

[milaGGL]

Hi @tyler6204, thank you for reporting this issue. I assume all other operators work fine against both emulator and production, except for arrayContains, is it correct?
What is the failure message when the query fails?

[milaGGL]

@tyler6204 alo, can you update the firebase and xcode to a newer version?

[tyler6204]

Hello, I have tested with the newest version and can confirm the issue is still there.

[milaGGL]

I am unable to reproduce this error locally, arrayContains works as expected against both emulator and production. Could you please provide a minimal repro app?