I use random VPN servers, but I wish there would be a random except US option! I download YouTube videos for watching them later, because the mobile internet is unstable dogshit where I commune, and every time I use a US server, I have problems with websites. Crunchyroll refuses to work, YouTube gives me random bullshit error messages, US VPN servers just terrible generally, specifically because of the geolocation, I don’t have these problems with any other servers.
Regarding YouTube, recently, in order to better violate your privacy, Google decided to start rolling out a requirement to be logged in to watch YouTube. It’s hitting VPN servers at random, because Google has rolled it out to a certain percentage of the internet. It also happens if you are not using VPN, but from the part of the internet where Google has already rolled this out. This is not a VPN issue, but a YouTube issue, in that Google is working on making sure YouTube can violate your privacy better through non-privacy friendly design choices and technical changes such as this.
Some websites are not VPN-friendly and can block known VPN IP addresses. Usually, switching to a different VPN server can help, as it’s not likely that all servers will be blocked.
Additionally, we’d appreciate it if you could let us know with which specific servers you encountered the issue with these websites so we can document your report accordingly for future improvement.
It’s not limited to only the US, I’m pretty sure it’s the majority of their servers around the world. For reference, I’m in Switzerland and over 90% of the time I’m running into the same issues. I always need to try connecting to other servers in the country to find one that hasn’t been „blacklisted“ by websites like YouTube, which screws up all the other browsing tabs I have open. It’s a huge pain in the ass (and yes, I’m a paid user with an Unlimited account)… thinking of migrating to a new VPN provider when my term is up for renewal.
Hey Andy, I encounter server problems constantly that don’t work with Proton VPN. Instead of us needing to email which specific servers have issues with websites, it would be real handy if you had an optional button we could simply click on from the menubar or the app extension to send a report to Proton that captures the problem sites or problem servers. It’s kind of a pain to send an email, open a ticket, etc. when it happens so often. I’m thinking something like Brave Browser has when a site doesn’t work properly. You click the Shields icon and it sends a report and you can optionally write in more details.
You could aggregate the data to get a better sense of what servers/sites/networks are problematic rather than depending on people to open tickets. As long as it’s optional, I don’t see a problem with it.
Additionally, we’d appreciate it if you could let us know with which specific servers you encountered the issue with these websites so we can document your report accordingly for future improvement.
Couldn’t you setup some kind auf automated process that checks each vpn server in regular intervals and tries to connect to some of the big services like youtube, etc to find out if it is blacklisted?
This is such a common problem that it would warrant an automated solution, don’t you think?
Yeah, generally most corporate sites don’t like the fact that they can’t track your cross-site behaviour when you are using a VPN.
Last time it was a US florida server, I’m gonna write it up next time. I got a 403 forbidden message through yt-dlp when I tried to download a video, that’s why I switched to a different random server.
I’m sorry you are having these issues, I’m generally very satisfied with their VPN service otherwise.
After dealing with this issue for awhile now, I tried the suggestion below, to report it to Proton… it’s as much of a pain in the arse as it is to find another server which is not being blocked by the website, so I won’t be doing this again because the suggested responses after submitting/reporting the server/website not allowing me to visit the page, are not helpful or useful. If this was implemented instead, I would do my part to let Proton know… but if not, then I won’t bother reporting anything and will continue to voice my complaints, and hope NordVPN doesn’t experience this issue as much as Proton, because I’m going to jump ship when my term ends with Proton… there’s been too many disappointing experiences with its products… like the Calendar… geez don’t get me started on that disaster… 
It’s not just the tracking, but it can also be a DDOS attack mitigation issue.
Appreciate it, but of course, you have nothing to be sorry about. I also know it’s not really Proton’s fault either since as they mentioned, it’s the websites that generally block not just the one IP address, they probably block a range of them. I’ve heard some other VPN providers, like NordVPN, are generally better in solving this issue (but as to “how”, I do not know…), which is why I’ll look into it more when my term is up with ProtonVPN.
EDIT: I also wish they would implement split tunneling for the macOS. I have to use the browser extension to get that feature, but it sucks as well, because when this issue happens with the extension, it’s a pain in the arse to find a server I know just worked when I was using the desktop app because all the server numbers are randomized in the browser extension… extremely frustrating…
Yeah, they give many different explanations, whether it’s true or not is a different matter entirely.
I also wish they would implement split tunneling for the macOS
That is on the winter 2025 roadmap
A DDOS attack is a bunch of devices generating a lot of traffic to a site in an attempt to overload it. A VPN server hides its users’s IP behind its own IP, so every user connected to the same server is making all their requests from the same IP (from the POV of any other site). So, VPN servers make an abnormal amount of requests, which looks quite similar to an attempted DOS attack. If the site just limits request per device, VPN servers can just get blocked because of that.
Another valid reason to do this is regional content licensing. If I’m a streaming service, I don’t care that you use a VPN to see more shows. Then some movie studio gets mad that my users are watching their movies in India using my service when I only paid for streaming rights in the states. Now I have to try and block VPN usage to avoid legal action or loss of licensing deals.
I don’t really know what explanations “they” give, but these are just two IMO valid ones that come to mind. First one is just a result of how the internet and VPNs work, and it’s pretty common knowledge that content licenses are usually regional. I don’t know how you could dispute these.
I know what a DDOS attack is.
I am not disputing corporate licences, but when I try to log into my Crunchyroll account from a US VPN server, the site does not give me a proper explanation, like you can’t access this site from the US for example. I just get a generic bullshit “something went wrong” message.
A DDOS attack is a bunch of devices generating a lot of traffic to a site in an attempt to overload it. A VPN server hides its users’s IP behind its own IP, so every user connected to the same server is making all their requests from the same IP (from the POV of any other site). So, VPN servers make an abnormal amount of requests, which looks quite similar to an attempted DOS attack. If the site just limits request per device, VPN servers can just get blocked because of that.
A few years ago some mobile internet providers had the same issue as their connections were all behind NAT on a small pool of addresses. I haven’t heard of people having this problem recently so it’s been fixed somehow, either sites whitelisting mobile IPs or mobile phone operators getting larger IP address pools.