Troubleshooting

Common issues and solutions for Firepanel — find answers to frequent problems and error messages.

This page covers the most common issues users encounter with Firepanel and how to resolve them.

Authentication & Login

Note:

If your issue is not listed here, contact Firepanel Support.

I can't sign in — "Invalid credentials" error

Cause: Incorrect email or password.

Solution:

  • Double-check your email address for typos
  • Use the Forgot Password link on the login page to reset your password
  • If you were invited by a team member, make sure you accepted the invitation email and completed account setup before trying to log in

I accepted an invitation but can't access the project

Cause: The invitation may have expired, or your account was not fully set up.

Solution:

  • Ask the project owner to resend the invitation from Settings → Users
  • Make sure you sign in with the same email address the invitation was sent to

Projects

My Firebase collections are not appearing

Cause: The service account key may have insufficient permissions, or Cloud Firestore is not enabled in the Firebase project.

Solution:

  1. Verify that Cloud Firestore is enabled in the Firebase Console
  2. Confirm the service account has the Cloud Datastore User role (or Firebase Admin role) in Google Cloud IAM
  3. Go to Settings → General and re-upload the service account key

"Permission denied" errors when accessing collections

Cause: The service account key does not have sufficient IAM permissions.

Solution:

  • In Google Cloud Console, navigate to IAM & Admin → IAM
  • Find the service account associated with the key and ensure it has one of these roles:
    • Firebase Admin
    • Cloud Datastore User + Firebase Rules Admin
  • Wait a few minutes for IAM changes to propagate, then retry

The project wizard fails at the Firebase connection step

Cause: The uploaded service account JSON file may be invalid or belong to a different project.

Solution:

  • Re-download a fresh service account key from Firebase Console → Project Settings → Service Accounts
  • Ensure the JSON file has not been modified
  • Check that the Firebase project has not been deleted or suspended

Content

A collection appears empty but Firestore has data

Cause: The Firepanel user's role may not have read permission for that collection, or the content type is linked to a different collection path.

Solution:

  • Check Settings → Roles and confirm your role has View permission for Content
  • Open Content Types, find the content type for that collection, go to the Collections tab, and verify the collection path is correct (e.g., posts not Posts)

Document fields are missing in the editor

Cause: The field exists in Firestore but has not been added to the Content Type definition.

Solution:

  • Open Content Types, find the relevant content type, and go to the Structure tab
  • Add the missing field with the correct key name (must exactly match the Firestore document key)
  • Click Save

Rich text / markdown content is not rendering correctly

Cause: The field type may be set to text instead of richText or markdown.

Solution:

  • Open the Content Type and edit the field
  • Change the type to richText (for the visual editor) or markdown (for raw Markdown)
  • Note: changing a field type does not convert existing data — existing values will still display as plain text until re-saved

Storage

Files are not appearing in the Storage browser

Cause: The Firebase service account may not have Storage access, or the Storage bucket is not configured.

Solution:

  1. Confirm Cloud Storage is enabled in the Firebase Console
  2. Check IAM permissions — the service account needs the Storage Admin or Storage Object Admin role
  3. If using a custom Storage bucket (not the default), ensure it is set in the project configuration

Uploads fail with "Storage quota exceeded"

Cause: Your Firebase project's Storage quota has been reached (common on the Spark free plan).

Solution:

  • Upgrade your Firebase project to the Blaze (pay-as-you-go) plan
  • Delete unused files from the Storage bucket to free space

Messaging (FCM)

Notifications are not being delivered

Cause: FCM token may be outdated, or the app is not registered correctly.

Solution:

  • Verify the FCM token for the test device is current — tokens expire when the app is reinstalled or app data is cleared
  • Check that your app initialises the FCM SDK and registers a token on startup
  • Confirm the Firebase project has Cloud Messaging enabled

Campaign shows as delivered but users don't see the notification

Cause: The notification was delivered to FCM but may have been blocked by the device OS.

Solution:

  • Check that the app has notification permission granted on the device
  • On Android, verify the notification channel is configured correctly
  • On iOS, confirm the APNs certificate or key is uploaded in the Firebase Console under Project Settings → Cloud Messaging

Full-text search returns no results

Cause: The search index has not been built, or the cloud function has not been deployed.

Solution:

  1. Go to Settings → Search and confirm the search cloud function is deployed
  2. Click Reindex to rebuild the search index from scratch
  3. After indexing completes, try searching again

Search is not finding recently added documents

Cause: The search index is updated asynchronously — new documents may take a short time to appear.

Solution:

  • Wait 30–60 seconds and try again
  • If the document still doesn't appear, trigger a manual Reindex from Settings → Search

Billing & Limits

I hit the project or record limit

Cause: Your current plan has a limit on the number of projects or Firestore records.

Solution:

  • Upgrade your plan from Account → Billing → Plans
  • See Plans for a comparison of limits per plan

My subscription payment failed

Cause: Expired card, insufficient funds, or bank block.

Solution:

  • Go to Account → Billing → Payments and update your payment method
  • Contact your bank if the card details are correct but the payment still fails
  • Firepanel will retry the payment automatically — your service continues during the retry period

Still stuck?

If your issue is not listed here, contact Firepanel support. When submitting a ticket, include:

  • A description of the issue and steps to reproduce it
  • The Firepanel project name
  • Any error messages or screenshots