ntfy

Send push notifications via ntfy — a simple, topic-based notification service. Use the public ntfy.sh instance or self-host your own server.

Overview

• 🌐 Public or Self-Hosted — Use ntfy.sh for free or run your own server
• 📬 Topic-Based — Subscribe to any topic from any device
• 🏷️ Tags & Priorities — Automatic emoji tags and priority levels based on event type
• 📱 Multi-Platform — Android, iOS, and web clients with push notifications

Configuration

Field	Description	Default	Required
Server URL	ntfy server URL	https://ntfy.sh	✅
Topic	Notification topic name	—	✅
Access Token	Bearer token (for protected topics)	—	❌
Priority	Default message priority (1–5)	3	❌

Setup Guide

Option A: Use ntfy.sh (Public)

The quickest way — no server setup needed:

1. Choose a unique topic name (e.g., dbackup-myserver-alerts)
2. Subscribe to the topic on your device:
   • Android: Install ntfy from F-Droid or Play Store → Add topic
   • iOS: Install ntfy from App Store → Add topic
   • Web: Open https://ntfy.sh/your-topic-name

Public Topics

Anyone who knows your topic name can subscribe to it. Use a long, random topic name (e.g., dbackup-a8f3k2m9x) or use access tokens on a self-hosted instance.

Option B: Self-Host ntfy

Deploy ntfy using Docker:

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  ntfy:
    image: binwiederhier/ntfy
    command: serve
    ports:
      - "8090:80"
    volumes:
      - ntfy-cache:/var/cache/ntfy
      - ntfy-etc:/etc/ntfy
    environment:
      NTFY_BASE_URL: https://ntfy.example.com

volumes:
  ntfy-cache:
  ntfy-etc:

Configure in DBackup

1. Go to Notifications in the sidebar
2. Click Add Notification
3. Select ntfy
4. Enter the Server URL (default: https://ntfy.sh)
5. Enter the Topic name
6. (Optional) Add an access token for protected topics
7. (Optional) Adjust the default priority
8. Click Test to verify
9. Save

Test the Connection

Click Test to send a test notification. You should see a message appear on all subscribed devices.

Priority Levels

DBackup maps events to ntfy priorities automatically:

Priority	Level	When Used
1	Min	—
2	Low	Test notifications
3	Default	Successful backups (default)
4	High	—
5	Max/Urgent	Failed backups (auto-escalated)

Priority Behavior

• Successful backups use the configured default priority
• Failed backups automatically escalate to priority 5 (max)
• Test notifications use priority 2 (low)

Tags & Emoji

DBackup automatically adds emoji tags based on the event:

Event	Tags	Emoji
Backup Success	white_check_mark, backup	✅
Backup Failure	x, warning, backup	❌ ⚠️
Other Events	backup	—

These tags are used by ntfy clients to display emoji icons alongside notifications.

Message Format

Notifications are sent as plain text with Markdown support:

Backup of "Production MySQL" completed successfully.

Job: Production MySQL
Duration: 12s
Size: 24.5 MB
Storage: AWS S3

Authentication

Public ntfy.sh

No authentication needed — just choose a unique topic name.

Self-Hosted with Access Control

If you've configured ntfy access control, generate an access token:

ntfy token add --user=dbackup

Then paste the token into the Access Token field in DBackup.

Troubleshooting

"401 Unauthorized" or "403 Forbidden"

• Verify the access token is correct
• Check that the token has write permission to the topic
• Ensure the topic name matches exactly (case-sensitive)

"Connection refused"

• Ensure the ntfy server is running and accessible from the DBackup host
• Check firewall rules and Docker network configuration
• Verify the URL includes the correct port

Notifications not appearing on mobile

• Ensure the ntfy app is subscribed to the correct topic with the right server URL
• For self-hosted: verify the server's base URL is correctly configured
• Check that the topic name matches exactly (case-sensitive)

Using ntfy behind a reverse proxy

• Ensure WebSocket support is enabled in your reverse proxy
• Set the NTFY_BASE_URL environment variable to match your public URL

Resources

• ntfy Documentation
• ntfy GitHub
• ntfy Android App
• ntfy iOS App