Unable to download form to ODK collect android app

Support
1

1. What is the issue? Please be detailed.

I am unable to download forms i published on my odkcentral server onto odk collect android phone app ( app version : v2026.2.2 )

2. What steps can we take to reproduce this issue?

I have odk central installed on a ubuntu virtualbox vm on my windows pc ( windows pc is host )

I configured odkcentral .env file with a local domain ( i am testing odkcentral locally before deploying it )

DOMAIN= odk.central.local
SSL_type= costumssl ( i also tried with selfsign )

Rest of the config is default

on my windows pc (host) i added a manual DNS entry for odkcentral :

172.20.10.3 odk.central.local

I am able to access odk central web gui with a user i created and promoted to Admin and built a form using the odk template which i was able to publish and preview in a browser

On my android phone i am connected to the same LAN on which odkcentral resides , i am able to access the odkcentral webgui from my android phone browser

When i scan the QR code i created for a mobile survey user for the form i created , the QR code is scanned but when i go to download the form i am not able ( see attached screenshots )

IMG_5991
IMG_59911920×2560 1.25 MB

2

The short answer is that to self-host Central, you need a public domain name (for example, central.example.com) that points to your server.

While it’s technically possible to use a private domain name such as odk.central.local, doing so requires significant additional setup. Because of that complexity, it’s not a configuration we recommend or support.

3

Could you please at least guide me in the right direction or tell me what’s the probable cause , i know odk central requires a public FQDNM but a lot of companies and individuels, for legal and compliance reasons can’t put their data publicly .

Thank you in advance