realm object is empty on first run of app

I have an app that communicates with a read-only server hosted realm. I have tried this via a localhost server on my Mac (ROS v1.7.6) as well as an Amazon hosted Linux server (ROS v1.8.1). I have tried this with realm.js version 1.3.1 - 1.8.3.

If I choose Simulator->Reset Content and Settings from the iOS Simulator (to simulate a user who downloads the app for the first time), my console.log for the realm’s length equals 0 after calling this function. I can call this function multiple times and its always 0 after wipping out the storage. If I hit comand-r to reload the React Native app inside the simulator and then call this function it returns 1300+ (what is expected), and then works for all future runs of the app.

I also tested this same code on the Android simulator. It returns 0 at all times, no matter how many times I reload. I also tested this same code in a blank node.js project with nothing else loaded besides realm and it corectly returned 1300+ records. All “error” objcts are null or undefined and both “user” and “realm” objects look valid when console.logged.

What could be happening that would explain this behavior?

Realm.Sync.User.registerWithProvider(
            "http://localhost:9080",
            "custom/cgpsauth",
            accessToken,
            (error, user) => {
              console.log("error-- " + error);
              if (!error) {
                Realm.openAsync(
                  {
                    schema: [
                      StudentSchema,
                      ParentPhonesSchema,
                      ParentsSchema,
                      ParentAdressSchema,
                      DirectoryFavoritesSchema
                    ],
                    sync: {
                      user: user,
                      url: "realm://localhost:9080/cgps-app-v1"
                    }
                  },
                  (error, realm) => {
                    // Realm is now downloaded and ready for use
                    console.log(realm.objects("Student").length);
                  }
                );
              }
            }
          );

[kneth]

@Damnum It looks like we should have a label called “Chrome Debugger” to track our issues with it. I label it as a bug for now, and we will prioritize to give a better debugging experience.

[Damnum]

@kneth This happens on both Android and iOS, regardless of device or simulator. Specifically, Realm Collection Notifications simply stop working when turning on Chrome debugging (in addition to the empty realm problem). More problems with this are documented in #1089, #1095, #729, and others.