Diagnosing Intermittent Firestore Write Failures in a React Chat App

Below is some background on what’s happening and potential steps to resolve your issue.

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What’s Happening

The error message

  WebChannelConnection RPC 'Write' stream … transport errored: … status: 1

comes from the inner workings of the Firestore web SDK. Firestore uses a WebChannel (an abstraction built on XHR and WebSockets) to communicate with the backend. When you see an error on the "Write" stream, it means that the underlying RPC connection used to send your update or set operation encountered a transport issue. This error can be triggered by:

• Transient Network Issues: Temporary connectivity glitches or network instability may cause the write stream to fail.

• Protocol or Configuration Problems: In some cases, Firebase’s underlying transport (whether default or long polling) might get into a state where writes are not reaching the server. Although you tried options like experimentalForceLongPolling: true, similar misconfigurations or library issues can trigger these errors.

• Concurrent Updates or Infinite Loops: If you’re inadvertently triggering writes (such as via listeners or functions modifying the same document repeatedly), Firestore might be rejecting subsequent writes. Although your code doesn’t show an obvious infinite loop, be sure that any listeners or functions firing on document updates aren’t causing accidental repeated writes.

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Things to Check

1. SDK Version
   Make sure you’re using the latest version of Firebase. Some connection issues have been resolved in later releases.

2. Network Stability
   Confirm that your testing environment has a stable network connection. Transient network drops can cause these transport errors.

3. Avoiding Unnecessary Updates
   Verify that you’re only writing when needed. For instance, if a document listener is also writing updates (especially to the same document), you risk triggering an infinite update loop or unnecessary network traffic.

4. Firebase Rules and Quotas
   Check your security rules and quota usage in case your writes are intermittently rejected for permission or quota issues.

5. Code Flow and Async Operations
   Since you mentioned that some console logs do not appear, it’s a good idea to add additional debug logs or error handling to narrow down whether the failure happens during one specific update. For example, wrap each update operation with a try/catch and log more detailed error data.

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Example for Additional Debugging

You might add more granular logging to better catch where the problem occurs:

JAVASCRIPTCopied
const handleFriendSubmit = async () => {
  console.log("Friend request: ", friendRequest);

  if (!friendRequest) {
    setError("Not valid friend request");
    return;
  }

  if (user == null) {
    return;
  }

  console.log("This after else was called");
  const fUserDoc = doc(firestore, "usernames", user.displayName);
  const sUserDoc = doc(firestore, "usernames", friendRequest);
  console.log("User's display is: " + user.displayName);

  try {
    const fdocSnap = await getDoc(fUserDoc);
    const sdocSnap = await getDoc(sUserDoc);

    // Debug logging the current state of data
    console.log("fdoc sentRequests:", fdocSnap.data()?.sentRequests);
    console.log("sdoc realPendingrequests:", sdocSnap.data()?.realPendingrequests);

    // Create copies of the arrays to avoid modifying data directly from snapshot
    const fArrayData = [...(fdocSnap.data()?.sentRequests || [])];
    fArrayData.push(friendRequest);
    const sArrayData = [...(sdocSnap.data()?.realPendingrequests || [])];
    sArrayData.push(user.displayName);

    await updateDoc(sUserDoc, { realPendingrequests: sArrayData });
    console.log("Second document update should work");
  } catch (e) {
    console.error("Error updating second document:", e);
  }

  try {
    // Using arrayUnion ensures uniqueness and atomic update
    await updateDoc(fUserDoc, { sentRequests: arrayUnion(friendRequest) });
    console.log("First operation worked");
  } catch (e) {
    console.error("Error updating first document:", e);
  }
};

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In Summary

The error message originates from Firestore’s WebChannel RPC layer encountering a transport error—likely due to intermittent network issues, an issue with configuration, or potential conflicts in your update logic. Review the above suggestions, verify your SDK version, and ensure that your application isn’t inadvertently writing multiple times to the same document. These steps should help you isolate and possibly resolve the issue.

If the problem persists after these checks, consider reaching out through Firebase support channels or filing an issue with the Firebase SDK repository with your debug logs and configuration details.

Happy debugging!