No static method com/google/protobuf/GeneratedMessageLite#registerDefaultInstance

[REQUIRED] Step 2: Describe your environment

• Android Studio version: 4.1
• Firebase Component: firebase-config
• Component version: firebase-database:19.3.1, firebase-auth:19.3.2, firebase-perf:19.0.8, firebase-crashlytics:17.1.1, firebase-common:16.0.4, firebase-cloud-messaging:20.2.3, firebase-analytics:17.4.4

We don’t use firebase-config directly in our app. We assume that it is one of the transitive dependency of the other Firebase libraries that we are using.

[REQUIRED] Step 3: Describe the problem

Application Crashes on Launch after upgrading the Firebase Libraries.

Fatal Exception: java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: No static method registerDefaultInstance(Ljava/lang/Class;Lcom/google/protobuf/GeneratedMessageLite;)V in class Lcom/google/protobuf/GeneratedMessageLite; or its super classes (declaration of 'com.google.protobuf.GeneratedMessageLite' appears in base.apk!classes3.dex)
       at com.google.firebase.remoteconfig.proto.ConfigPersistence$PersistedConfig.<clinit>(ConfigPersistence.java:813)
       at com.google.firebase.remoteconfig.proto.ConfigPersistence$PersistedConfig.parseFrom(ConfigPersistence.java:402)
       at com.google.firebase.remoteconfig.internal.LegacyConfigsHandler.readPersistedConfig(LegacyConfigsHandler.java:340)
       at com.google.firebase.remoteconfig.internal.LegacyConfigsHandler.getConvertedLegacyConfigs(LegacyConfigsHandler.java:196)
       at com.google.firebase.remoteconfig.internal.LegacyConfigsHandler.saveLegacyConfigsIfNecessary(LegacyConfigsHandler.java:151)
       at com.google.firebase.remoteconfig.RemoteConfigComponent$$Lambda$4.call(RemoteConfigComponent.java:2)
       at com.google.android.gms.tasks.zzz.run(zzz.java:2)
       at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1167)
       at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:641)
       at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:919)

Steps to reproduce:

• Install the app that uses older LegacyConfigHandler-PersistedConfig
• Update the app to latest Firebase SDK that stores values as JSON

The legacy SDK stores configs in the App’s disk space as a {@link PersistedConfig}. The new SDK stores values as JSON

Relevant Code:

As the documentation says,

1. The olders SDKs store the config as PersistedConfig probably using google ptorobuf config.
2. The newer SDKs store the config as JSON.

We never declared google protobuf as one of the dependencies of the Application Module. So, we believe it has been resolved transitively. Now after the library upgrade, we are facing a crash as protobuf is not available at runtime

The crash is happenning when PersistedConfig.parseFrom is called.

private PersistedConfig readPersistedConfig() {
    if (context == null) {
      return null;
    }
    PersistedConfig persistedConfig;
    FileInputStream fileInputStream = null;
    try {
      fileInputStream = context.openFileInput(LEGACY_CONFIGS_FILE_NAME);
      persistedConfig = PersistedConfig.parseFrom(fileInputStream);
    } catch (FileNotFoundException fileNotFoundException) {
      Log.d(TAG, "Persisted config file was not found.", fileNotFoundException);
      return null;
    }

[ckarthick-tnl]

@venkatn41

It would be something like below

implementation(Deps.Firebase.performance)
    {
        exclude(group = "com.google.protobuf", module="protobuf-java")
    }

Run ./gradlew :app:dependencies > dependencies.log on your project to understand which all libraries transitively dependend on protobuf.

[venkatn41]

@ckarthick-tnl could you please share your configuration for exclude, I am also facing the same issue.