iOS Podfile generates invalid FirebaseFirestore dependency causing build failures

[sdschroeder]

Can we access your project?

• I give permission for members of the FlutterFlow team to access and test my project for the sole purpose of investigating this issue.

Current Behavior

FlutterFlow's iOS code generation includes a problematic custom FirebaseFirestore dependency in the Podfile that causes undefined symbol errors and version conflicts during iOS builds.

The generated Podfile at line 37 contains:
pod 'FirebaseFirestore', :git => 'https://github.com/invertase/firestore-ios-sdk-frameworks.git', :tag => '11.13.0'

This causes:

1. Undefined symbol errors: OBJC_CLASS$_FIRSnapshotListenOptions and OBJC_CLASS$_FIRVectorValue
2. Version conflicts with FirebaseSharedSwift (11.13.0 vs 11.15.0)
3. Installation of incorrect binary frameworks (FirebaseFirestoreBinary, FirebaseFirestoreGRPCCPPBinary) instead of proper source packages (FirebaseFirestoreInternal, gRPC-C++, gRPC-Core)

The cloud_firestore Flutter plugin already manages Firebase dependencies correctly via its native podspec. This custom line interferes with that and breaks the build.

Expected Behavior

The Podfile should use standard Firebase dependencies without custom git sources. The flutter_install_all_ios_pods call should handle all Firebase dependencies automatically based on the pubspec.yaml configuration and the cloud_firestore plugin's podspec.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create or open any FlutterFlow project with Firebase/Firestore integration
2. Export/download the project for local testing OR use FlutterFlow's local test mode
3. Navigate to the ios directory
4. Run: pod install
5. Observe: "Pre-downloading: FirebaseFirestore from https://github.com/invertase/firestore-ios-sdk-frameworks.git"
6. Run: flutter build ios --simulator OR flutter run
7. Build fails with:
   • Error (Xcode): Undefined symbol: OBJC_CLASS$_FIRSnapshotListenOptions
   • Error (Xcode): Undefined symbol: OBJC_CLASS$_FIRVectorValue
   • Error (Xcode): Linker command failed with exit code 1

Reproducible from Blank

• The steps to reproduce above start from a blank project.

Bug Report Code (Required)

IT40kPLqy4hJpbxD7arqcvlahio5KVh9bLg7j+1BaCgoF5jpD7MAdvWkN05vXbC7T2NfMUSmmkwxpMrIvYaWJvA3CzmubKJgz7oJZjmWQmOue5OBCZOKVHNfEd1MJnKw0p6JhRNSNvVoSF4G2lOQN9yRdBTaQpDUImdISq/LZO4=

Visual documentation

Error:
Error (Xcode): Undefined symbol: OBJC_CLASS$_FIRSnapshotListenOptions
Error (Xcode): Undefined symbol: OBJC_CLASS$_FIRVectorValue
Error (Xcode): Linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)
Could not build the application for the simulator.

CocoaPods Version Conflict:
[!] CocoaPods could not find compatible versions for pod "FirebaseSharedSwift":
In snapshot (Podfile.lock):
FirebaseSharedSwift (= 11.15.0, ~> 11.0)

In Podfile:
FirebaseFirestore (from https://github.com/invertase/firestore-ios-sdk-frameworks.git, tag 11.13.0) was resolved to 11.13.0, which depends on
FirebaseFirestoreBinary (= 11.13.0) was resolved to 11.13.0, which depends on
FirebaseSharedSwift (= 11.13.0)

Specs satisfying the FirebaseSharedSwift (= 11.15.0, ~> 11.0), FirebaseSharedSwift (= 11.13.0) dependency were found, but they required a higher minimum deployment target.

Workaround:
Manual fix required after every code generation:

1. Edit ios/Podfile
2. Remove line 37: pod 'FirebaseFirestore', :git => 'https://github.com/invertase/firestore-ios-sdk-frameworks.git', :tag => '11.13.0'
3. Run:
   cd ios
   rm -rf Pods Podfile.lock
   pod install
4. Build succeeds with correct packages: FirebaseFirestoreInternal, gRPC-C++, gRPC-Core (not binary versions)

However, this workaround is lost every time FlutterFlow regenerates the code or when running flutter commands.

Created a fix script that must be run before every build:
https://github.com/FlutterFlow/flutterflow-issues/issues/[to be filled]

Environment

- FlutterFlow version: Version 6.3.41 (6.3.41)
- Platform: MacOS Desktop
- Browser name and version: Brave/Chrome
- Operating system and version affected: MacOS 15.5

Additional Information

This is a critical issue that affects:

• All FlutterFlow projects using Firebase/Firestore
• Local testing in FlutterFlow
• Exported projects for manual builds
• CI/CD pipelines
• App Store/TestFlight deployment

Root Cause:
The custom git source points to binary framework distributions that are incompatible with the standard CocoaPods Firebase SDK distribution. The invertase/firestore-ios-sdk-frameworks repo provides pre-built binaries that cause linker errors.

Recommended Solution:
Remove the custom pod line from FlutterFlow's iOS Podfile template. The cloud_firestore plugin (v5.6.9) already correctly specifies Firebase dependencies in its podspec, which will automatically pull the correct Firebase SDK version (11.13.0) from CocoaPods trunk.

Impact: HIGH - Blocks iOS development for all Firebase users
Cannot build iOS app without manual intervention after every code generation

Standard FlutterFlow project with Firebase integration

[Alezanello]

Hi there! 👋

It looks like there might be a mismatch between the Flutter version used in FlutterFlow and the one installed locally. Could you please share the output of the flutter doctor -v command from your local machine? That’ll help us identify what’s causing the issue.

[sdschroeder]

Thanks for the speedy reply! Been trying to get my local test environment working for a very long time. Worked beautifuly for a bit, then stopped. Hasn't worked since.

Here ya go!

[!] Flutter (Channel [user-branch], 3.32.4, on macOS 15.5 24F74 darwin-arm64, locale en-US) [870ms]
! Flutter version 3.32.4 on channel [user-branch] at /Users/[user]/Library/Application Support/io.flutterflow.prod.mac/flutter
Currently on an unknown channel. Run flutter channel to switch to an official channel.
If that doesn't fix the issue, reinstall Flutter by following instructions at https://flutter.dev/setup.
! Upstream repository unknown source is not a standard remote.
Set environment variable "FLUTTER_GIT_URL" to unknown source to dismiss this error.
• Framework revision 6fba2447e9 (4 months ago), 2025-06-12 19:03:56 -0700
• Engine revision 8cd19e509d
• Dart version 3.8.1
• DevTools version 2.45.1
• If those were intentional, you can disregard the above warnings; however it is recommended to use "git" directly to perform update checks and upgrades.

[✓] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK version 34.0.0) [2.9s]
• Android SDK at /Users/seanschroeder/Library/Android/sdk
• Platform android-35, build-tools 34.0.0
• Java binary at: /Applications/Android Studio.app/Contents/jbr/Contents/Home/bin/java
This is the JDK bundled with the latest Android Studio installation on this machine.
To manually set the JDK path, use: flutter config --jdk-dir="path/to/jdk".
• Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 21.0.8+-14018985-b1038.68)
• All Android licenses accepted.

[✓] Xcode - develop for iOS and macOS (Xcode 16.4) [1,596ms]
• Xcode at /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer
• Build 16F6
• CocoaPods version 1.16.2

[✓] Chrome - develop for the web [13ms]
• Chrome at /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome

[✓] Android Studio (version 2025.1) [12ms]
• Android Studio at /Applications/Android Studio.app/Contents
• Flutter plugin can be installed from:
🔨 https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/9212-flutter
• Dart plugin can be installed from:
🔨 https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/6351-dart
• Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 21.0.8+-14018985-b1038.68)

[✓] VS Code (version 1.99.3) [10ms]
• VS Code at /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents
• Flutter extension version 3.104.0

[✓] Connected device (4 available) [7.6s]
• sdk gphone64 arm64 (mobile) • emulator-5554 • android-arm64 • Android 16 (API 36) (emulator)
• iPhone 16 Pro (mobile) • 3BF5C1B8-2F77-4A1C-A386-1AF683C63250 • ios • com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimRuntime.iOS-18-0 (simulator)
• macOS (desktop) • macos • darwin-arm64 • macOS 15.5 24F74 darwin-arm64
• Chrome (web) • chrome • web-javascript • Google Chrome 141.0.7390.107
! Error: Browsing on the local area network for iPhone 16 Pro Max. Ensure the device is unlocked and attached with a cable or associated with the same local area network as this Mac.
The device must be opted into Developer Mode to connect wirelessly. (code -27)

[✓] Network resources [353ms]
• All expected network resources are available.

! Doctor found issues in 1 category.

[Alezanello]

Hello!! 👋

I just downloaded the code and noticed one issue in the caregiverAssessmentPageView — the Page State variable is named context, as shown in the image below.

On the build side, there don’t seem to be any problems related to Firebase. You could try running the following commands locally to reset your environment:

[✓] Flutter (Channel stable, 3.32.4, on macOS 26.0.1 25A362 darwin-arm64, locale en-AR) [662ms]
    • Flutter version 3.32.4 on channel stable at /Users/User/Documents/flutter/flutter
    • Upstream repository https://github.com/flutter/flutter.git
    • Framework revision 077b4a4ce1 (3 months ago), 2025-07-08 13:31:08 -0700
    • Engine revision 72f2b18bb0
    • Dart version 3.8.1
    • DevTools version 2.45.1

[!] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK version 35.0.0) [2.5s]
    • Android SDK at /opt/homebrew/share/android-commandlinetools
    • Platform android-36, build-tools 35.0.0
    • ANDROID_HOME = /opt/homebrew/share/android-commandlinetools
    • ANDROID_SDK_ROOT = /opt/homebrew/share/android-commandlinetools
    • Java binary at: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/temurin-17.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java
      This JDK is specified in your Flutter configuration.
      To change the current JDK, run: `flutter config --jdk-dir="path/to/jdk"`.
    • Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment Temurin-17.0.16+8 (build 17.0.16+8)
    ! Some Android licenses not accepted. To resolve this, run: flutter doctor --android-licenses

[✓] Xcode - develop for iOS and macOS (Xcode 26.0.1) [1,068ms]
    • Xcode at /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer
    • Build 17A400
    • CocoaPods version 1.16.2

[✓] Chrome - develop for the web [10ms]
    • Chrome at /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome

[!] Android Studio (not installed) [9ms]
    • Android Studio not found; download from https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html
      (or visit https://flutter.dev/to/macos-android-setup for detailed instructions).

[✓] VS Code (version 1.105.0) [9ms]
    • VS Code at /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents
    • Flutter extension version 3.120.0

[✓] Connected device (2 available) [12.4s]    
    • macOS (desktop) • macos  • darwin-arm64   • macOS 26.0.1 25A362 darwin-arm64
    • Chrome (web)    • chrome • web-javascript • Google Chrome 141.0.7390.108

[✓] Network resources [799ms]
    • All expected network resources are available.

[sdschroeder]

Thanks! I fixed that issue and ran the suggested commands, and my local test environment now works! Thank you very, very much for your help. It's been a loooooong time since I've had this working.