Missing class com.google.android.datatransport.runtime.ForcedSender in Crashlytics 18.3.0

[c0ff33-b34n]

• Android Studio version: Android Studio Dolphin | 2021.3.1 Patch 1
• Firebase Component: Crashlytics
• Component version: 18.3.0

Describe the problem

If a crash occurs within the Android app (e.g. by throwing a NullPointerException on the press of a button within the app), when restarting the app the app does not load and crashes due to missing the com.google.android.datatransport.runtime.ForcedSender class, which was newly added in this version.

This occurs when updating to 18.3.0, using the crashlytics dependency only.
implementation 'com.google.firebase:firebase-crashlytics:18.3.0'
I am not using the BOM dependency (so do not know if this dependency is resolved when using BOM, but it's definitely missing for the above usage.)

I have reverted to 18.2.13 in the meantime as it is stable.

Steps to reproduce:

What happened? How can we make the problem occur?
By updating to Crashlytics 18.3.0, crashing the app then trying to relaunch.

[argzdev]

Thanks for reporting, @c0ff33-b34n. I was able to reproduce the same behavior.

Adding some stacktraces:

2022-10-20 00:20:39.009 18250-18294/com.argz.issue4176 E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: Thread-2
    Process: com.argz.issue4176, PID: 18250
    java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Failed resolution of: Lcom/google/android/datatransport/runtime/ForcedSender;
        at com.google.firebase.crashlytics.internal.send.ReportQueue.lambda$flushScheduledReportsIfAble$0$com-google-firebase-crashlytics-internal-send-ReportQueue(ReportQueue.java:128)
        at com.google.firebase.crashlytics.internal.send.ReportQueue$$ExternalSyntheticLambda1.run(Unknown Source:4)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:919)
     Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class "com.google.android.datatransport.runtime.ForcedSender" on path: DexPathList[[zip file "/data/app/com.argz.issue4176-ilDe3NXyM92FVsLK9q1V1A==/base.apk"],nativeLibraryDirectories=[/data/app/com.argz.issue4176-ilDe3NXyM92FVsLK9q1V1A==/lib/x86, /system/lib, /system/product/lib]]
        at dalvik.system.BaseDexClassLoader.findClass(BaseDexClassLoader.java:196)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:379)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:312)
        at com.google.firebase.crashlytics.internal.send.ReportQueue.lambda$flushScheduledReportsIfAble$0$com-google-firebase-crashlytics-internal-send-ReportQueue(ReportQueue.java:128) 
        at com.google.firebase.crashlytics.internal.send.ReportQueue$$ExternalSyntheticLambda1.run(Unknown Source:4) 
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:919) 
2022-10-20 00:20:41.031 18250-18299/com.argz.issue4176 E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: Thread-3
    Process: com.argz.issue4176, PID: 18250
    java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Failed resolution of: Lcom/google/android/datatransport/runtime/ForcedSender;
        at com.google.firebase.crashlytics.internal.send.ReportQueue.lambda$flushScheduledReportsIfAble$0$com-google-firebase-crashlytics-internal-send-ReportQueue(ReportQueue.java:128)
        at com.google.firebase.crashlytics.internal.send.ReportQueue$$ExternalSyntheticLambda1.run(Unknown Source:4)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:919)
     Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class "com.google.android.datatransport.runtime.ForcedSender" on path: DexPathList[[zip file "/data/app/com.argz.issue4176-ilDe3NXyM92FVsLK9q1V1A==/base.apk"],nativeLibraryDirectories=[/data/app/com.argz.issue4176-ilDe3NXyM92FVsLK9q1V1A==/lib/x86, /system/lib, /system/product/lib]]
        at dalvik.system.BaseDexClassLoader.findClass(BaseDexClassLoader.java:196)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:379)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:312)
        at com.google.firebase.crashlytics.internal.send.ReportQueue.lambda$flushScheduledReportsIfAble$0$com-google-firebase-crashlytics-internal-send-ReportQueue(ReportQueue.java:128) 
        at com.google.firebase.crashlytics.internal.send.ReportQueue$$ExternalSyntheticLambda1.run(Unknown Source:4) 
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:919) 
2022-10-20 00:20:43.011 18250-18294/com.argz.issue4176 E/FirebaseCrashlytics: Cannot send reports. Timed out while fetching settings.

[mrichards]

@c0ff33-b34n Thanks for reporting this, version 18.3.0 of the Crashlytics Android SDK specifies an outdated version of a dependency. (You will see the same issue if you use the BoM.)

UPDATES:

• Fixes for firebase-crashlytics and firebase-crashlytics-ndk are now available, in version 18.3.1 for both artifacts.
• The Firebase BoM has been updated with the fix, in version 31.0.1.
• The firebase_crashlytics Flutter plugin has been updated with the fix, in version 3.0.2.
• The Firebase Unity SDK has been updated with the fix, in version 10.0.1.

We're working on a fix now. In the meantime, you can either use the prior version of Crashlytics (18.2.13), or explicitly declare the missing dependency in your app's build.gradle dependencies block:

dependencies {
   implementation "com.google.firebase:firebase-crashlytics:18.3.0"
   implementation "com.google.firebase:firebase-datatransport:18.1.7"
   // ...
}

[mrichards]

We will be shipping a new version of Crashlytics that references the correct dependencies shortly. I'll post here when we do.

To summarize the impact: The original crash report should make it through to the Crashlytics servers. The NoClassDefFoundError typically occurs in the background so it will not generally be noticeable to the end-user, though there may be circumstances where customers experience a subsequent crash due to this issue.

[CodeMasterYi]

Long for new release!

[PhilippNowak96]

Could you please update the alert message in the firebase console? Currently it looks like

I guess 18.30.0 should be 18.3.0, right?

[argzdev]

Nice catch, @PhilippNowak96. I'll inform our tech writers right away. Thanks for this!

[dunghn94]

I am using Unity Crashlytics 9.5.0 Which lower should use?

[RoarGronmo]

This message was published for those who use firebase-bom to achieve crashlythics.

[mrichards]

@dunghn94 You are fine with Unity Crashlytics 9.5.0. For the Firebase Unity SDK, the issue is only in version 10.0.0. A fix will be out ASAP, likely 10.0.1.

[DjordjeMancic97]

which Flutter Crashlytics plugin version is safe to use?

[mrichards]

@DjordjeMancic97 Good versions are listed here. Crashlytics Flutter plugin 2.8.13 is safe to use.