HA Companion 1.5.1 does not connect when using IOS 12.x.x with or without ssl (lets_encrypt)

I have installed HA Companion on my ipad which has IOS 12.x.x and the latest (today’s) icloud3 version on HA. Using that ipad on an outside network, I can connect to: myname.duckdns.com:8123 through safari and chrome (my router doesn’t allow loopback so I can’t test on my local network). If I try to connect HA companion using http://myname.duckdns.com:8123 I get an error that talks about shared token manager.token error error 1.

I have tried with and without lets_encrypt. With lets_encrypt, I can connect with chrome, but not safari (that’s a separate issue, likely with self signed certificates)…but I get the same error trying to connect HAC using https://myname.duckdns.com:8123

Note: self signed certificates are a real problem with a router that doesn’t support loopback…I haven’t figured that out yet so I’m going to run without SSL for a short time so my inhouse ipads can run HA.

Is there a work around.

More: operation is inconsistent…most of the time I get that shared token manager error; other times I get to sign in, but then it fails in initialization…now I actually connected.

There must be some very strange interactions between home assistant companion, duckdns and Hassio.