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Google Fixes Firebase Bug That Crashed Thousands of iPhone Apps

A malformed analytics payload to Firebase’s iOS SDK caused the crashes; Google applied a server-side patch that requires no developer updates.

Overview

  • Thousands of iPhone and iPad apps began crashing on launch after Firebase’s iOS analytics SDK received an incorrectly formatted payload, according to Google.
  • Google diagnosed the problem and rolled out a server-side fix the same evening, with the initial rollout completed by 7:52 p.m. Pacific and full deployment around midnight.
  • Developers do not need to ship SDK or app updates because the error was fixed on Google’s servers, the company said.
  • Some app instances continued to crash briefly because of caching and propagation, and those cases should have resolved within about four hours after the rollout.
  • The incident highlights how widespread use of Firebase can cause simultaneous failures across many independent apps and left some developers reporting tens of thousands of crash reports.