The following code works in the emulator but returns an empty array in firebase when includeVideos or includeAudios is false:

let query = db.collection("content");

if (includeVideos && !includeAudios) {
    query = query.where("type", '==', "video").orderBy("type");
}
if (includeAudios && !includeVideos) {
    query = query.where("type", '==', "audio").orderBy("type");
}
if (!includeVideos && !includeAudios) {
    return {empty json....}
}

if (matchingPersonID != undefined) {
    query = query.where("attributionID", '==', matchingPersonID).orderBy("attributionID");
}

//either categories OR matchingSeriesID is always undefined/empty
if (matchingSeriesID != undefined) {
    query = query.where("seriesIDs", 'array-contains', matchingSeriesID).orderBy("seriesIDs");
}

if (matchingCategories.length != 0) {
    // 'OR' LOGIC
    query = query.where("categories", 'array-contains-any', matchingCategories).orderBy("categories");
}

if (lastDocumentID != undefined) {
    await db.collection("content").doc(lastDocumentID).get().then((snapshot) => {
        query = query.startAfter(snapshot);
        log(`starting after document ${snapshot}`)
    })
}

//the code works when this line is removed, but the query needs to be sorted by time in order for pagination to work
query = query.orderBy("upload_date", "desc");

return query.limit(getNext).get()...

I get no error messages in the google cloud logs, and so I have no easy way of creating an index, if that's what I need to do. In firestore, the fields upload_date, attributionID, type, seriesIDs, and categories are all on the same level in the document.

Any help would be much appreciated!!