Firebase Storage IAM Permissions

Question

I tried to create a storage product category in Firebase - the "Chat App" tutorial said "Production" mode so that's what I did. I immediately got the following error:

Due to recent security improvements to Cloud Storage for Firebase, you must update your project settings.

The spinner never really stops spinning. If I press the "Fix Issue" button, then I get the message "Due to a recent security improvement in Cloud Storage for Firebase, you need to grant an additional IAM role to a service account in this project."

If I click "Attach Permissions", I get yet another error message:

The console will not allow me to delete the storage, add new storage, or do anything else.

How do I fix this?

Answer 1

Since I ran into this issue in February 2025 I figured it's worthwhile posting my solution which was sent to me by Firebase support.

• go to this page in the Firebase official documentation
• On that page, there are some instructions, you must add a string on the right side of the page where it says “Try this method”.
• The documentation mentions that the string must be projects/{project_number}/buckets/{bucket_id}
• Click the “execute” button and wait a few minutes.

I found my project number at https://console.firebase.google.com/u/1/project/[projectname]/settings/general/web

The bucket name was [project_name].appspot.com but best check yourself on Firebase > Storage

Answer 2

Firebaser here. This is a known issue with our Console that we're planning to fix in the near future.

In the meantime, you can follow this FAQ to repair your project: https://firebase.google.com/support/faq#storage-accounts

In particular, you'll need to call the AddFirebase endpoint to re-link one of your storage buckets (e.g. your default appspot.com bucket). This should solve the permissions issue for you.