Firebase storage URL keeps changing with new token

Although this question had been asked for a very long time, but I noticed some people still find it difficult solving this, so I will be providing my solution below.

STEP 1 Since storage URL are always dynamic (i.e the posses token) when changed, what I did was to use generic name for image file stored say avatar for all users

STEP 2 Create a directory in storage for each user as follows: users/{uid}/avatar.jpg

STEP 3 Pull or display the image by using the path in step 2 (see below)

ANDROID

StorageReference storageReference = FirebaseStorage.getInstance().getReference("users").child(userId).child("avatar.jpg");
    
Glide.with(context).using(new FirebaseImageLoader()).load(storageReference).diskCacheStrategy(DiskCacheStrategy.ALL)
                .error(R.drawable.ch_white_icon).placeholder(R.drawable.ch_white_icon).into(imageView);

WEB

var storage = firebase.storage();
    var pathReference = storage.ref('users/' + userId + '/avatar.jpg');
    pathReference.getDownloadURL().then(function (url) {
        $("#large-avatar").attr('src', url);
    }).catch(function (error) {
        // Handle any errors
    });

With this you don't have to worry with the dynamic link anymore, whenever you upload a new image to the above path, it overrides the previous one and the code in step 3 will give you the new image.

PS: For Android Don't forget to change DiskCacheStrategy.ALL to DiskCacheStrategy.NONE if you don't want glide to cache image or you can use timestamp to get new image if cache is allowed.

Since the URL image is stored in the database, you could use a Cloud Function to update the value after a user has updated his picture.

You can trigger a Cloud function in response to the updating of files in Cloud Storage, see:

https://firebase.google.com/docs/functions/gcp-storage-events

You will find examples of Cloud Functions at: https://github.com/firebase/functions-samples

and the full doc at: https://firebase.google.com/docs/functions/