Android app will not connect to Ghost

[tigattack]

FILL THESE DETAILS FIRST:

• Ghost version: 3.0.0
• App version: 1.2.4

---

I recently downloaded the Android app to use with my Ghost blog. I'm hosting the blog myself. It's available at https://blog.tiga.tech I entered this URL into the Ghost app, but it just shows the loading symbol seemingly indefinitely. I also tried entering https://blog.tiga.tech/ghost, but this produced the same result.

[neilyboy]

I am having the same issue. I just created a new virtual machine and re-deployed everything. I have a feeling the app is not updated to work with version 3. If I tail my nginx access log I see im getting a 404 error on /ghost/HTTP/2.0 and 404 on /ghost/api/v0.1/configuration/HTTP/2.0

If its supposed to work with ghost v3 I would love to know the fix as I am having the same issue. Neil

[tigattack]

@neilyboy Yeah, I also suspect this is the case, but I do hope not. Quite disappointing if so, it would make no sense for them to have released Ghost 3, knowing it would break their own app.

[jozic]

if someone is going to fix that, please make sure the app still works with ghost 2.x. thank you

[apavlinovic]

Same problem here, the App doesn't work with Ghost 3.0

[brooxta]

Me too. This is a showstopper for posting from mobile because mobile web browsers are not supported by the post editor.

[daviddarnes]

Hi all 👋

The Ghost Android app is an open source project, meaning it relies on contributions from the developer community. If anyone sees this and is willing to dive into the code they are very much welcomed 🤗

In the interim, people who are having trouble using the app may benefit from using more dedicated alternatives. Apps such as Ulysses https://ulysses.app/ and iA Writer https://ia.net/writer will provide a dedicated mobile writing experience you're looking for ✍️

[tigattack]

@daviddarnes one of those apps is iOS payware. Bear in mind this repo is Ghost-Android 😛 I understand it's opensource, and I love that, but a project being opensource does not mean it has to rely on community contributions. Many opensource projects have dedicated development teams behind them.

Semantatics aside, it's really quite disappointing that Ghost isn't even trying to maintain this, considering it's hosted on their repo and branded as the "official" Ghost app for Android. It reflects quite poorly on them when they're putting zero effort into one of their official applications.

I suppose in the meantime, I'll try some other apps. I'll check out iA Writer, thank you for the recommendation.

[daviddarnes]

@tigattack we do have a dedicated team, but their main priority is the main Ghost application which is the underlying application used by the Android app: https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost

[BurgerhoutJ]

Still not working.

[brooxta]

The workaround now is that mobile editing works in the latest update of Ghost 3.2.0. If you can upgrade to that you're sorted for the time being.

[GeCol1]

I've upgraded to v3.2.0 and when I go on the posts page it says that the mobile version does not work and use the desktop one instead.

[mightywomble]

Ok, what do we need to do to get this fixed? It's pretty obvious what needs to happen, it's still not working on Ghost 3, and I'd like to move this forward? I'm not a coder, I can test.. this is the official ghost app and it kinda sucks that it doesnt work. Especially as it seems to be related to the API.

[YR-ZR0]

Just a observation from a look over the code the issue is that the api address is hardcoded to look for the v0.1 API path which is depreceated, one approach to move forward is to make the api path dynamic to the version of ghost (If possible to query for that information from the server or even just a drop down for chosing a version) and construct the URL that way.

Mostly adding this in for pointers, due to wanting to return to ghost after a few years and what made me love the experience was the mobile app back when it was called quill and was an unofficial app.

[jbouduin]

@tigattack we do have a dedicated team, but their main priority is the main Ghost application which is the underlying application used by the Android app: https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost

Of course they focus on the main application. Without that one, the Android app would be useless. Nevertheless, the server is running fine and pretty stable. So, investing a little time to solve this severe, 4 months old issue should be possible, no? BTW: I really love using Ghost. But this issue and the way it is handled (read: not handled) is disappointing.

[tigattack]

Is this on the road map to be fixed at any point soon? We're now over 8 months in and it's still broken.

[Happyfeet01]

Not working, it would be nice if we can write on mobile devices. IA Writer has no android support for ghost

[kocielnik]

Bounty added: $30

https://app.bountysource.com/issues/82824241-android-app-will-not-connect-to-ghost

Still relevant and valuable for me on Ghost 5!

[kocielnik]

For now, just trying to build the project gives me the following error:

gradle

FAILURE: Build completed with 2 failures.

1: Task failed with an exception.
-----------
* Where:
Build file '/home/patryk/Workshop/things/Ghost-Android/app/build.gradle' line: 15

* What went wrong:
A problem occurred evaluating project ':app'.
> Failed to apply plugin 'realm-android'.
   > Android Gradle Plugin SimpleAGPVersion(major=4, minor=1) is not supported. Upgrade to Realm Java `10.15.0` or later.

* Try:
> Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace.
> Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.
> Run with --scan to get full insights.
==============================================================================

2: Task failed with an exception.
-----------
* What went wrong:
A problem occurred configuring project ':app'.
> compileSdkVersion is not specified. Please add it to build.gradle

* Try:
> Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace.
> Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.
> Run with --scan to get full insights.
==============================================================================

* Get more help at https://help.gradle.org

BUILD FAILED in 904ms

Nix file used:

# default.nix
{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {
    config.android_sdk.accept_license = true;
    config.allowUnfree = true;
  }
}:

let
  androidSdk = pkgs.androidenv.androidPkgs_9_0.androidsdk;
in
pkgs.mkShell {
  buildInputs = with pkgs; [
    androidSdk
    glibc
    gradle
    openjdk
    kotlin
  ];
  LOCALE_ARCHIVE = "/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive";
  # override the aapt2 that gradle uses with the nix-shipped version
  GRADLE_OPTS = "-Dorg.gradle.project.android.aapt2FromMavenOverride=${androidSdk}/libexec/android-sdk/build-tools/28.0.3/aapt2";
  TARGET_SDK_VERSION = 26;
}

Haven't tried building inside the Docker image yet.

Perhaps that's the preferred way of developing this app?

Repo with the most obvious errors fixed: https://github.com/kocielnik/Ghost-Android