was getting the ~/public_html/public/.htaccess: Option FollowSymlinks not allowed here
error in the apache logs.
So I sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/website.mydomain.com.conf
and changed
<Directory /home/<username>/public_html/public>
Options -Indexes +IncludesNOEXEC +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
Require all granted
AllowOverride All Options=ExecCGI,Includes,IncludesNOEXEC,Indexes,MultiViews,SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
</Directory>
to
<Directory /home/<username>/public_html/public>
Options +FollowSymlinks +IncludesNOEXEC -Indexes
Require all granted
AllowOverride All
</Directory>
restarted Apache
And now my app works fine now. I wonder if there was a way to do this from within Virtualmin…