Google Clould Messaging (iOS) put files in default app Documents folder

Question

I would like to turn on UIFileSharingEnabled to let users of my app save some files in their pc. The problem is that a Google library is putting files inside the main Documents folder of my app without letting me specify a different destination.

This way, if I turn on UIFileSharingEnabled, this is what the user can see and interact with (download or delete!)

The 3 folders are mine, so I can move them out easily, but the 3 .plist files are a problem. I cannot move them without breaking google functionalities.

I use Cocoapods for loading them inside my project.

pod 'Google/Analytics', '1.0.7'
pod 'Google/CloudMessaging', '1.0.7'

Any idea on how to fix this? I'm stuck in this situation. Thanks

Answer 1

UPDATE: This issue is finally fixed in Firebase version 3.4 from 1 Aug 2016: "plist files used by FIRMessaging are now stored in an ApplicationSupport directory." (source)

Six months later I have the same problem. It turned out GCM developers have failed to fix this bug. I opened another issue (here) and they confirmed this is not fixed yet. In the meantime Google have announced Firebase Cloud Messaging will inherit GCM. I removed GCM form my app and integrated Firebase. However the issue is still reproducible. These four files are created upon app launch:

• com.google.iid-keypair.plist
• com.google.iid-tokens.plist
• g-checkin.plist
• rmq2.sqlite

I've logged a bug request to Firebase support. I'll update my answer when I see this issue fixed.

Till then I do not recommend to use Firebase Messaging in an iOS application. Your app may be rejected from the App Store for writing temp files to Documents directory.