Auth state lost after service worker terminates despite successful sign-in

[phalgun]

Operating System

macOS (also reported on Windows)

Environment (if applicable)

Chrome 120+ (Manifest V3)

Firebase SDK Version

10.11.1

Firebase SDK Product(s)

Auth

Project Tooling

• Chrome Extension with Manifest V3
• Service Worker background script
• Webpack bundler
• React for popup UI

Detailed Problem Description

We are using firebase/auth/web-extension as documented for Chrome extensions with Manifest V3. Users successfully sign in with Google OAuth (via signInWithCredential), but after the service worker terminates and restarts (which happens after a few minutes of inactivity), onAuthStateChanged returns null even though the user was previously authenticated.

Expected behavior: Auth state should be persisted in IndexedDB and restored when the service worker restarts.

Actual behavior: Auth state is lost. Users have to sign in again after the service worker terminates.

We have added diagnostic code that checks IndexedDB directly when onAuthStateChanged returns null. In some cases, we observe that IndexedDB contains auth data but Firebase SDK fails to restore it.

We would like to understand how to persist the Firebase SDK authentication and connection in Chrome extension with manifest v3 specifically.

Steps and code to reproduce issue

1. Install a Chrome extension using Manifest V3 with firebase/auth/web-extension. You can use ours (https://simplehuman.email/install) -> it is an extension with free trial for Gmail.
2. Sign in with Google
3. Verify user is authenticated (onAuthStateChanged returns user object)
4. Close the extension popup and wait for the service worker to terminate (~5 minutes of inactivity)
5. Reopen the extension or trigger service worker restart
6. Observe that onAuthStateChanged returns null (user is logged out) -> You can see this in the extension Settings page where "Simplehuman Tabs" doesn't work as the Firebase connection isn't working anymore.

Only a sign in with Google again fixes this. But then after a few minutes of inactivity, the Firebase connection is lost again.

[DellaBitta]

Hi @phalgun,

Can you check this response to a issue with a simlar configuration to yours (Manifest v3, service worker environment, local storage issues) to see if it's applicable to your case? Thanks!

[phalgun]

hi @DellaBitta I did look at this issue already in my own troubleshooting of this problem. OP in the issue seems to have resolved it after upgrading their firebase library. This was back in 2023, I'm on much more later version of the Firebase SDK version so the resolution did not help for me.

[DellaBitta]

Hi @phalgun,

Ok, I'll let the Auth team know about this issue. Thanks.

[jbalidiong]

Hi @phalgun, apologies for the delay and thank you for providing the details. Due to our security policies, we generally aren't allowed to download third party chrome extensions. I would like to try building the extension and install it locally. If you could provide and share an MCVE, that would be great.