Apple Universal Links resulting in 404 error

[mymikemiller]

Website URL

https://puffinlabs.me/events/66b05acdc023d933599444d5

Error Message

InfinityFree’s “404 Not Found” page

Other Information

Tapping that link on an iPhone should launch my app if the user has it installed since I have Universal Links set up. It should navigate directly to the event specified in the URL. It does not even launch the app, so I’m thinking the issue might be on InfinityFree’s side. I have followed all steps to set up the app to receive such links, as well as having an SSL certificate issued by Lets Encrypt and adding my AASA file at https:// puffinlabs dot me/apple-app-site-association.

When I enter my domain (puffinlabs dot me) into a commonly recommended validator, it says “A request to this domain failed.” (sorry for the obfuscation, new users to this forum are not allowed to post more than two URLs)

Any ideas how to get Universal Links working when my site is hosted at InfinityFree?

[Greenreader9]

Redirected to InfinityFree 404 error page

While working on your website, you may be redirected to the InfinityFree 404 error page. This article explains why this typically happens and what you can do to fix this. Why do I get a 404 error When you try to access a file on a website, the server tries to find the matching file to load. By default, it works like this. Suppose you have a website http://example.com which is linked to the folder htdocs in your hosting account. If you then try to load a certain URL, like http://example.com/blo…

[mymikemiller]

Thanks for the response @Greenreader9. I realize that there’s not a file at the link I posted, but there’s not supposed to be. iOS should intercept that link when it is tapped and instead launch my app. This should happen because of the entitlements I gave my app, and the AASA file I put at https://puffinlabs.me/apple-app-site-association.

[Admin]

@mymikemiller

iOS should intercept that link when it is tapped and instead launch my app.

Then you have an app issue, not a website issue, don’t you agree? If the link isn’t supposed to return a web page and it doesn’t return a web page, then everything is working as intended on your website, is it not?

The only other issue I can think of is if the AASA file cannot be fetched somehow. Which could be because of this security system. But maybe you can figure out if that file is loaded correctly by the app.

[mymikemiller]

Ahh, that must be it! Apple needs to be able to cache the AASA file and distribute it via their CDN. My app doesn’t fetch the file, Apple’s servers do. So if Apple’s bots aren’t able to access the file, the feature won’t work. I see in the article you linked that the free version of InfinityFree does not support “Domain ownership verification checks which look at website URLs or HTML code.”

That’s also probably why this AASA validator reports “A request to this domain failed” when I have it validate puffinlabs.me.

The article claims that upgrading to premium would remove the security system. I see that you’re the owner of InfinityFree. Is there any way to test that this will work without actually upgrading my account?

[Greenreader9]

Unfortunately no, but iFastNet does offer a money-back garentee. So you can upgrade and test it, and if it does not work request a refund.

[Admin]

I know with 100% absolute certainty that you will not have this same restriction on premium hosting. However, there is no way to try premium hosting without actually trying premium hosting. So you will need to get a premium account to verify this for yourself.