I am trying to connect the Automattic 'Wordpress - Website Builder' app to a new install on an internal network - http://192.168.2.169

Wordpress version = latest 7.1.4

Webserver = nginx 1.26.3, PHP 8.4.27

iOS App version = latest (27.4)

This is a plain vanilla, brand new install following the wordpress.org installation instructions with no additional themes or plugins. There are no firewalls and the site can be accessed and is fully operational via a web browser.

Both the iphone and the wordpress server are on the same internal network. The phone can access the wordpress web interface using both brave and safari.

The issues is when trying to use 'http://192.168.2.169' after clicking 'Enter your existing site address' in the iPhone app which spits out a "Application Passwords is not enabled for this site - this is likely because we cannot establish a secure connection to it. Please add an SSL certificate to this site and try again" error.

I've tried checking xmlrpc from a browser, setting the site to 'local', adding an application password. Adding self-signed certs results in an 'Invalid SSL certificate' error and I don't want to go down the route of having to push a cert onto the phone.

This is a test site for a someone who is sure that they have used the app to access a HTTP wordpress site in the past and they would like to use the app on a site I am about to migrate to their internal network for archival purposes. The goal is for them to self-host the wordpress server and to use the app that they are already familar with using their own wi-fi.