Can't connect to homeserver

[pdc1]

Steps to reproduce

Note: Element (not X) can connect to my home server, but Element X cannot. My home server is not federated, it's just for my family to chat.

1. Where are you starting? What can you see? What do you click?

Here are the steps I am taking in Element X:

• Welcome screen: tap Sign in manually
• Tap Change account provider
• Tap Other
• Tap Find an account provider:
• (enter my account provider, https://xxxx -- note: no domain)
• Tap on the hostname that appears next to a magnifying glass icon
• Wait a few seconds...
• Receive Error: We couldn't read this homeserver. [etc]

Outcome

What did you expect?

I expected to get to a login screen where I can enter my credentials and chat.

What happened instead?

I got an error message.

I looked at the logs on my server, and the only thing was a "GET /.well-known/matrix/client HTTP/1.1", which returned a 404 error. I tried creating a client file but aside from the get succeeding, there were no other "Element X" messages.

XX.XX.XX.XX - - [26/May/2025:13:17:24 -0500] "GET /.well-known/matrix/client HTTP/1.1" 200 864 "-" "Element X/25.05.3 (Google Pixel 6a; Android 15; BP1A.250505.005; Sdk b5b2450ea)"

My server is running the Debian packages published by matrix:

# cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/matrix-org.list
deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/matrix-org-archive-keyring.gpg] https://packages.matrix.org/debian/ bullseye main

The web server is Apache, and I have a reverse proxy handling the https and exposing the service to my intranet.

Apt reports: matrix-synapse-py3/unknown,now 1.130.0+bullseye1 amd64 [installed]

I am willing to send logs, but without being able to log in, there is nothing to send.

With no server logs, and no helpful info from the app, I am not sure how to proceed. Please advise!

Your phone model

Google Pixel 6a

Operating system version

Android 15

Application version and app store

Element X 25.05.3 Google Play

Homeserver

Local home server: matrix-synapse-py3 (from matrix packages) 1.130.0

Will you send logs?

No

Are you willing to provide a PR?

No

[spaetz]

EXA requires a .well-known file, as far as I remember. Is yours valid now, pointing to your server? It might be that you need to delete the app cache after modifying the well-known as it catches it or some time

[escix]

I haven't checked and may be wrong, but when I change provider it was always like matrix.org not https://matrix.org.

What is your server name in synapse config?

Steps to reproduce

Note: Element (not X) can connect to my home server, but Element X cannot. My home server is not federated, it's just for my family to chat.

1. Where are you starting? What can you see? What do you click?

Here are the steps I am taking in Element X:

* Welcome screen: tap Sign in manually

* Tap Change account provider

* Tap Other

* Tap Find an account provider:

* (enter my account provider, https://xxxx -- note: no domain)

* Tap on the hostname that appears next to a magnifying glass icon

* Wait a few seconds...

* Receive Error: We couldn't read this homeserver. [etc]

Outcome

What did you expect?

I expected to get to a login screen where I can enter my credentials and chat.

What happened instead?

I got an error message.

I looked at the logs on my server, and the only thing was a "GET /.well-known/matrix/client HTTP/1.1", which returned a 404 error. I tried creating a client file but aside from the get succeeding, there were no other "Element X" messages.

XX.XX.XX.XX - - [26/May/2025:13:17:24 -0500] "GET /.well-known/matrix/client HTTP/1.1" 200 864 "-" "Element X/25.05.3 (Google Pixel 6a; Android 15; BP1A.250505.005; Sdk b5b2450ea)"

My server is running the Debian packages published by matrix:

# cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/matrix-org.list
deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/matrix-org-archive-keyring.gpg] https://packages.matrix.org/debian/ bullseye main

The web server is Apache, and I have a reverse proxy handling the https and exposing the service to my intranet.

Apt reports: matrix-synapse-py3/unknown,now 1.130.0+bullseye1 amd64 [installed]

I am willing to send logs, but without being able to log in, there is nothing to send.

With no server logs, and no helpful info from the app, I am not sure how to proceed. Please advise!

Your phone model

Google Pixel 6a

Operating system version

Android 15

Application version and app store

Element X 25.05.3 Google Play

Homeserver

Local home server: matrix-synapse-py3 (from matrix packages) 1.130.0

Will you send logs?

No

Are you willing to provide a PR?

No

[pdc1]

EXA requires a .well-known file, as far as I remember. Is yours valid now, pointing to your server? It might be that you need to delete the app cache after modifying the well-known as it catches it for some time

I am not sure what is needed in the well-known file, but I found a sample and created a file under the www root directory, and set Apache to serve it as application/json:

# cat /var/www/html/.well-known/matrix/client 
{
    "m.homeserver": {
        "base_url": "https://snack"
    }
}

I also created a server file ({"m.server": "snack:443"}) but I have not seen it accessed in the Apache log.

I can see the contents of the client file in a web browser, and the logs show http status 200 when Element X accesses it, but there is no additional traffic afterwards (expecting access like /_matrix/client/v3/)

I haven't checked and may be wrong, but when I change provider it was always like matrix.org not https://matrix.org.
What is your server name in synapse config?

You might be on to something... A while back (more than a year) I changed servers, and there's a note in the config about not being able to change server name, so my current server hostname is 'snack' but the server_name is 'raspi4':

server_name: raspi4

# The server_name cannot be changed later so it is important to
# configure this correctly before you start Synapse. It should be all
# lowercase and may contain an explicit port.
# Examples: matrix.org, localhost:8080

Reading up in well-known at https://matrix.org/docs/older/understanding-synapse-hosting/ I added a redirect on my old server to send /.well-known/matrix/* to my new server.

I then cleared the app cache and tried again with just entering raspi4 as the server. I now see access of the well-known client file on both servers, so the redirect is working, but I do not see any further traffic and still get the "can't connect to homeserver" error in the app.

Any other ideas? I wish there were better log files available on the client, it is frustrating to just get the general error with no hope of figuring out what might be wrong.

Thanks!

[escix]

did you try raspi4 as your account provider?

[pdc1]

did you try raspi4 as your account provider?

I tried entering it as the host, but got the same response. The server logs were the same, although now raspi4 also shows the access of the well-known client file.

Is there some way to get log files or additional error information from the client app?

[escix]

When you access in web browser

https://raspi4/.well-known/matrix/client

what is the output.

This should tell the client where the actual server address is:

{
"m.homeserver": {
"base_url": "https://snack"
}
}

do you have a local dns running? otherwise the client won't be able to reach https://snack or https://raspi4.

[pdc1]

When you access in web browser

https://raspi4/.well-known/matrix/client

what is the output.

This should tell the client where the actual server address is:

{ "m.homeserver": { "base_url": "https://snack" } }

do you have a local dns running? otherwise the client won't be able to reach https://snack or https://raspi4.

Yes, I have a local DNS to serve the client names. Accessing https://raspi4/.well-known/matrix/client provides the following output:

{
    "m.homeserver": {
        "base_url": "https://snack"
    },
    "m.identity_server": {
        "base_url": "https://snack"
    }
}

(I added the identity server part just in case that would help, but it does not)

Also, when accessing from raspi4, I do see the successful access of the well-known client file on snack.

I am also using self-signed certs, but I have the CA cert loaded in Android so that should not be a problem ... unless Matrix X is doing more advanced checks?

[pdc1]

Is there any way to find out what is failing? I tried logcat but it seemed to be reporting more "internal" information about the app and not the network traffic. Is there something I can do with adb or Android developer settings?

It's just so weird that there is no web server traffic like /_matrix/client/v3/, which suggests something fundamental is not happening. Meanwhile, the Element app (not X) just keeps on working.

[escix]

what happens when you access homeserver via browser in android, is there any cert error?

[pdc1]

what happens when you access homeserver via browser in android, is there any cert error?

The results are mixed: Chrome, Brave, and Kiwi do not report any cert error, but DuckDuckGo does.

I have tried some experiments removing the https but I have been having some problems getting that to work (e.g. https://snack/_matrix/client/versions doesn't report the versions) so I have some more configuration things to try there.

[pdc1]

Okay, I made a plain http service available, and it works! I don't really need intranet traffic to be encrypted anyway, and there is no federation on my service, so I think I am good to go!

[pdc1]

To summarize: It appears that Element X is more strict about CA cert validation, and for a self-signed non-federated system, using http to access the server will allow it to connect.