Working on iPad simulator but not on iPhone simulator: Ionic 8, Angular 19, Firebase, AngularFire, Xcode

Hello,

I have an app created with Angular 19, Ionic 8, Capacitor 7, Firebase, AngularFire 19 (all latest versions)

It is fetching data from firestore on the iPad simulator, but not on iPhone simulator, or on a physical iPhone.
(And it is also working on Android simulator..)

The settings in xcode are identical - same project, so no issues with network or anything like that.

I have tested on IOS 17, 17.5 and 18 - same result on all..

There must be a setting somewhere in Xcode (or capacitor config etc.) that is preventing an iPhone from getting data from firestore while it allows an iPad to fetch data from firestore with the exact same code and settings.

I have spent hours testing and debugging - always the same result - works on iPad, fails on iPhone..

Can anyone lead me in the right direction here?

Thanks