This document does not exist and will not appear in queries or snapshots, but identically structured document works

Question

Preface: this question is already asked here but user gave up and gave solution to first answer. This question also differs in that I have two similar collection structures,

Answer 1

A simple fix

A document needs to have at least one field for it to exist. If a document only contains sub-collections, then it is said to be a virtual/non-existent document and for this reason it is not possible for it to appear in queries or data snapshots.

consider adding a field like this

  // initialize firestoreDatabase

    val firestoreDatabase : FirebaseFirestore? by lazy { FirebaseFirestore.getInstance() }

    // set at least one field
    
    firestoreDatabase.collection("territories").
                                  document("6").
                                  set(hashMapOf(
                              "key" to "value"))

do a similar thing to any other document in your database.