iOS network connection on notification - ios

Question

The following code generally works but throws an SSL handshake failed (-9806) when the device is locked.
- (void)application:(UIApplication *)application didReceiveRemoteNotification:(NSDictionary *)userInfo fetchCompletionHandler:(void (^)(UIBackgroundFetchResult result))handler
{
NSString *roomID = [userInfo objectForKey:#"roomId"];
if (roomID) {
//tell firebase to update this conversation
[self.fb updateChatRoomMessages:roomID withBlock:^(BOOL success) {
/*code gets to here as I can see that with breakpoints,
but before we get here we can see the SSL handshake
error in console (only when phone is locked)*/
handler(UIBackgroundFetchResultNewData);
}];
} else {
handler(UIBackgroundFetchResultNoData);
}
}
Now basically updateChatRoomMessages tries to talk to firebase but I assume the problem is with just about any network connection. Is there known any restriction of the sort?
Any ideas?
Update - rest of the code
(void)updateChatRoomMessages:(NSString *)roomID withBlock:(void (^)(BOOL))completionBlock{
ChatRoomSummary *room = [[DataCollections shared] getChatRoomById:roomID];
Firebase *ref = [[Firebase alloc] initWithUrl:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#/chatdata/messages/%#",
self.baseURL, roomID]];
[ref observeSingleEventOfType:FEventTypeValue withBlock:^(FDataSnapshot *allMsgs) {
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
[room.messages removeAllObjects]; //clearing the list of messages so that we update it
NSDictionary *dict = allMsgs.value;
for(NSString *snapshot in [dict allKeys]) {
NSDictionary *currentSnapshot = [dict objectForKey:snapshot];
[currentSnapshot setValue:snapshot forKey:#"messageID"];
[[DataEventListener shared] onNewMessage:currentSnapshot forRoom:room preventNotification:YES];
}
[Utility notify:NOTIFY_NEW_ROOM];
[self updateBadges:nil];
if (completionBlock) {
completionBlock(YES);
}
});
}];
}