ProtonVPN issues on iOS

VPN
1

Hello All, has anyone else had issues with VPN on iOS. The following is what I’m seeing very often (few times per day):

Internet stops working on some / most apps. I go to VPN app and it shows reconnect in the status at center bottom and message at top. Sometimes it reconnects and things start working again. Sometimes it fails to reconnect until I press disconnect and then redo the auto-connect.

I am not using Secure Core, and not using Net Shield (although I’d like to, I disabled NS when these issues started happening to rule it out).

Phone is iPhone 14 Pro, iOs version 16.0.2

Just as a previous datapoint, I was using PIA VPN for a few weeks prior to this and it did not have these issues at all. Not trying to compare the 2, obvious reasons for wanting to get away from PIA but since it worked without these issues I think I may have some settings wrong in ProtonVPN.

Note: may want a VPN flair if requiring for a post.

Edit 12/24/22: I updated to new iOs version a day after I made this post and have had zero issues since. Continuous connection, not resets or connection issues, days a time of uptime only reset by my battery going dead. iOS version 16.2

2

Can you please report your issues through the app, so the proper team can see what’s going on?

Thanks for your feedback. We’re just trying to lead this to the right hands to take the corresponding action when it’s needed.

3

What you describe is par for the course. I’ve been using Proton for years. In the past few months it has been pretty much unbearable, with almost nonstop reconnect issues. You can reach out for support but that will get you nowhere and take forever. In the end, it seems like you are paying for a half-baked service but there is little else out there so you are stuck. And if you expect them to fix their app/implementation any time soon, I have a bridge to sell you.

4

I had a bunch of similar reconnect issues with ProtonVPN on iOS. Lots of people reported similar issues on the subreddit. Long story short I switched to Mullvad where I don’t have any issues.

5

I had quite a few issues, and found changing the protocol from smart helped massively.

6

Yep I have all of the same issues, super unreliable and disappointing to say the least.

7

Same issues that happen every once in a while. Been going on for couples months now. I kinda just ignore them. I would only recommend mullvad for an alternative but their speeds internationally werent the best the last time i used them.

8

I don’t know how anyone uses VPNs. They constantly break either my internet connection entirely, or any number of different sites.

9

You can also use the protonvpn servers with the wireguard app on iOS. This has the added benefit of being able the set conditions in which the VPN will be activated/deactivated automatically.

I have zero connection issues with this setup.

10

Same here, having connectivity issues when using Proton VPN. Normally, changing either server or protocol would help.

11

I have used proton for a couple of years. I have gotten on pretty well with it. Now I am trying to use the package of 4 items (mail, VPN, calendar, drive) available, with iOS update, for proton.me - and I am struggling. Any advice? My phone is Apple 6s, my ability is medium to low, and I feel really stupid! I’ve lost the ability to log in because of pw issues, I don’t understand half of what I’m reading, and am longing for a simplified explanation of this plan that I am now paying for! Is this too much to hope for? Comments please.

12

Proton VPN blocks P2P (e.g. PopcornTime) traffic even when the VPN is off. Because of this I deleted ProtonVPN, deleted all the cookies in Safari and Google Chrome, deleted all the ProtonVPN logs, and deleted/re-installed Popcorntime. Still when I try to open Popcorn Time a message from ProtonVPN pops up blocking Popcorntime (even though ProtonVPN is deleted). Customer support does not know how to fix this yet. Does anyone know a fix?

13

Hi, thanks for the response. I’ve updated my post above, but doing an iOS update the next day resolved these issues completely for me.

14

Will give this a try, slowly trying thing some a time. Started with the latest iOS update. Thanks!

15

This is interesting, will give this a try at some point. Just did the latest iOS update so giving that some time to see if issue improves. Thanks!

16

What exactly are your issues? Can you open a new thread?

17

Thanks for your feedback. Glad to hear it worked out for you.

18

fyi: if you log in to your protonvpn account, there is a section where you can generate wireguard configuration files. Thats what you will need to make this work.

Afterwards you import the generated configuration files into the wireguard app.

19

Not sure I can, but will give it a try.

It seems to be based in pw problems. I know they’ve addressed this in the article “How to update your password manager”, but it seems to have more to do with pws not being remembered by the system when they are new. Every time I try a new one, it winds up being 1 step behind, & by then I’ve forgotten the previous pw so I can’t enter “current” & then update. The new pw is already in the slot in Pw Mgr. Yes, I could keep a written trail of everything, but that seems to defeat relying on the computer for memory. I have a hunch that the problem is in the security level that I now use. Or it may be in VPN which I generally just leave ON. Does this make a lick of sense so far?

Let’s start with this as an answer to your question & see where it goes. Thanks for asking, though. It got me to put the problem at least partially, into words! :slight_smile:

20

I think or suspect this is a problem with how you use the password manager (alias user problem, please don’t take offense) not a Proton related problem. I don‘t know about any instance of Proton not remembering passwords.

Can you once try to manually change the PW and then update your password manager?