VPN disconnects when iPhone goes into auto-lock ?

It's a great analogy, the other things work because the iPhone and iPad were designed that way. If VPN automatically reconnected that would be very unsecure. Both of you Foxmajik and G J Piper answer me this, when was the last time your computer (not iphone or ipad) was in sleep mode and you receive emails and push notification?

Excellent last posts, I think there finally some understanding of why phone does not stay connected to VPN (intended behavior) while in standby/sleep. Now if you could just read last sentence of my previous post

"If enough people feedback apple that wi fi connection/VPN is more important to them then battery life😉, apple will change that."

Do you really think it is going to happen? There thousands of people on that very same community complain about their battery life, especially after updates and there handful of VPN users. But if you want that to happen, feedback.

If Apple is going to have VPN on our IOS devices then clearly they understand the need for secure traffic. Why on earth when it is enabled do they not have an option to NOT PERMIT TRAFFIC without VPN connection?

People who use VPN are doing so for a reason and Apple closing the connection and permitting traffic without it makes it even more of a security risk because you don't realize when it happens.

For example, your at an airport and turn it on to secure your wifi data and a few moments later while your checking your email or doing some banking it turn off and your in the clear.

The post I was replying to talks about launching the app once and confirming the first prompt which appears to change some underlying settings which may help with the issue described in this thread (and in fact did for me) even if you do not use the app/have a cisco router (which I don't).

But whatever. If you think it's more effective to complain to people sharing their solution, do that instead.

For what its worth, this works VERY well for me....

There is a new app in the store called OpenVPN Connect. If you can create a proper profile for your VPN provider then the VPN will stay persistent thru the device lock.

I signed up with www.privateinternetaccess.com for $39/year which was about the cheapest I could find (and they keep NO logs). I then browsed their forum and found a way to create the profile that makes the above app work. This is very easy to do but VERY geeky to figure out. Some VPN companies have their own apps and maybe they work as well but if you happen to be using the one I chose, here is a link to the posts about the simple text edit to create the profile and make the app use that profile to keep things under VPN persistently. This is needed so your phone or IOS device isn't in the clear when it autolocks and you wander around an open wifi area that you previously were logged into under VPN initiated using Apple's VPN switch.

Here is the link for the PIA discussion. Hope it can be extrapolated by those in the know for other services....

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/comment/3848 #Comment_3848

I'm not sure if you can get to this link unless you are a subscriber to their service but maybe searches on OpenVPN connect and profile setup in Google will tell you about your provider....

For what its worth.....

This is ofcourse a wonderfull thing. But it is a lot of mumbo to get it actually working and it only works when you are, like me, a happy privateinternetaccess user.

However once you are connected to their network on openvpn your internetconnection gets as speedy as a slow slow snail.....

Wouldn't it be nice if apple makes the service on the iPhone work, as it should, for all?

I've not really seen significant speed differences. I have to admit that they routed everyone to the US East and I find, at least for me, that the Chicago server is consistently twice at fast. Also, the Toronto one is speedy too. I ended up putting 4 different profiles in for different servers. I don't notice speed losses at all except on my Mac Pro if one of the servers slows down. IOS seems fine all the time for me....

I don't have the beta, but with Apple's (welcome) obssession with extending battery life in iOS7, it wouldn't surprise me if these still got closed-off when the iPhone/iPad is locked. It'd be great to have the choice whether to spend the battery life when locked though and choose between persisten connection or 'only when active'.

This is a serious issue....battery. While the method I described above works great on both my iPad 1, iPad 3 and iPhone 5, I have noticed that my phone battery drain is quite noticeable. Since I'm retired, I have ample opportunity to change the phone but even with that, I wouldn't want to just leave VPN turned on 24/7. While the secuity isn't needed at home, the anonymity would be welcome (marketeers annoy me!) but I just don't want to be watching the battery all the time. I think with IOS7 and the easy control panel to turn off unneeded battery eating services it might be tolerable to leave VPN on all the time but not likely.

On the other hand, the larger battery on the iPad makes it reasonably tolerable. Ie, the ipad seems to hang in all day, even with the VPN on constantly.

Still, as you said, having the choice would be nice. LTE (and my grandfathered in unlimited plan) makes wireless sort of uneeded on the fly with the phone but sitting in hotels and watching Netflix or browsing on my WiFi only ipads makes having it available really reassuring.

Ah well, we'll have to see what IOS7 really brings.....but I can live with what I have if Apple doesn't break it!

I found a workaround that works using the OpenVPN Connect client which you can download in the App Store:

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/comment/4958 #Comment_4958

This is geared toward Private Internet Access VPN but should be adaptable to other VPN providers.

I have tested and found that the OpenVPN Connect client stays connected when the screen is off as opposed to the iOS built-in client which drops the connection and then does not re-establish it when the screen is unlocked.

Yep,

I posted this a few messages upstream and after more testing I've found it to work well also. The VPN pauses when you go off wireless and resumes most of the time when you jump back on. I've tested it using four of PIA's many servers on an iPad 1 under ios 5 as well as on an iPad 3 and iPhone 5 under ios 6.x. All worked fine for me. PIA support doesn't support this though because it apparently doesn't work for everyone. They are fine with our using it but don't want to troubleshoot for user issues if it doesn't work. My guess is that might become official someday if ios 7 doesn't provide a better path.

Very handy

I see people discussing the problem as far back as 2010. Three years and no resolution. That's a long time to have an unfixed bug. Clearly Apple cares not one iota about the issue. And by extension, those of us trying to use VPNs.

My company had to get rid of all our iPhones and iPads because of this VPN problem.

What's more, we informed several other companies in the SF bay area of the problem and they are getting rid of their Apple mobile devices and replacing them with Android devices which do not have this problem.

Please help us to spread the word. As it turns out switching to Android devices is pretty easy and they are more easily managed in a corporate environment.

I am a disappointed iPad Air user for this meaningless VPN defect. I believe that they are legelly responsible for this. A main function on in internet device does not serve its purpose.

I live in Turkey. We have a surveillance state. We have strict censorship online. We need VPN.

OpenVPN app users, do you have this problem? Which VPN service do you use?

Can I use a prepaid VPN service with Cisco Anyconnect if it is a solution? Which one do you suggest?

Any other idea?

Dear Apple, it is 2014. We pay lots of money for your devices. Please make them work as they should be! Please hear your customers once in a while!

If I knew this, I would not buy this product. I don't know if I should apply to a court for a refund. I am not sure courts would understand how important VPN is... It is unlikely to get a positive result. If they would not, I must also bear proceedings expenses...

Too bad, reallly. This device is useless without an internet connection.

Maybe I just should sell the device with a big price drop as I have my name on its back... :)

I feel like an idiot for buying this. :)