On static export, links fail but reload works

When I use the static export of my site, all links fail, but if I click reload the page loads.

The problem lies in the getInitialProps where I fetch information from an api endpoint of my server. In development mode it is running and everything works OK.

If I export a static version of my site, all links fail because the server on getInitialProps is not reachable. But if I click reload the page then works fine and renders the information that was fetched when the server api endpoint was available.

System information

• OS: mac osx 10.13.4
• Browser (if applies) chrome
• Version of Next.js: [e.g. 6.0.2]

[timneutkens]

I think this is the same issue as https://github.com/zeit/next.js/issues/3085#issuecomment-471192394

[fgarcia]

After working around this issue I noticed that <Link> causes getInitialProps to run but not a normal link <a>. I could switch to normal links, but doing so will make me loose the SPA features of my app

Currently getInitialProps is called during next export, I expected this information to be used on the generated pages.

The current examples on data fetching do depend on a running server, but none explains what to do if the data fetch depends on a custom next server that is only reachable during next export

Is the only solution to use <a> links? Or is it possible that if I hit a route like example.com/about I could still query the fetched data result that was generated during the export of that page?