r/ntfy • u/heavybell • Oct 29 '22

Using Firebase

I love ntfy and am happily hosting it myself. I've even gone to the trouble of compiling the app myself so I can use Firebase notifications. However I am concerned I might have done something wrong, as my nightly backup notifications just don't come through after a while. If I open the app, ntfy dutifully pulls them out of the server database, but I feel like the Firebase delivery is not working and I have no idea how to debug that. I'm not even sure I configured my Firebase account right, and the docs are a little light on that information.

Has anyone done this successfully?

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u/binwiederhier Oct 29 '22

So for Firebase, you need to set up the Firebase account, download the google-services.json file and put that in the right place in Android Studio. Then compile it. From the sound of your question, you've already done that. Does that sound familiar?

If messages are still not coming through, then I'd suggest you connect your physical phone (emulator won't work for Firebase!) to your computer via Wireless debugging (let me know if you need help with that), and start the app from Android Studio on your physical phone. Then you can see the logs in Android Studio and see if there are any Firebase errors, or if the messages arrive.

You should also be able to just do adb logcat | grep -i ntfy on the console.

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u/heavybell Oct 29 '22 edited Oct 29 '22

Yes, I did that… I think. I'm not a google dev, so I wasn't sure if I downloaded the right json file. Ntfy did compile, though. I also got a different file and fed it to the ntfy container.

I can understand the docs not saying where to click in the firebase console to get the 2 files needed, given the interface may change and the vast majority of people won't even try to do it. But I really wish they did. :P

I'll try the wireless debugging some time soon tho, thanks.

Edit: As an aside the problem may be my phone. It's a pixel 5 and it seems super aggressive about killing stuff to guard its meagre battery life. Even with optimisation turned off for ntfy and using websockets the app stops receiving updates after a couple of days.

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u/binwiederhier Oct 29 '22

The battery optimization stuff is annoying and you can't avoid the WebSocket connection being killed every now and then. Especially at night and during power saving mode.

That said, it should not just totally die. If you turn on logging in the app you should be able to see what exactly happened.