Some apps say no internet connection

Something to think about→Don't use VPN services. · GitHub

The intended purpose of VPN is to allow access to a private network such as a school or business when you are not on site. Any other use is risky, and can lead to problems like the one discussed in this thread. VPN disguises your location by making you appear to be somewhere else in the world. But you can’t control that “somewhere else”, and if it is in a location that an app isn’t approved for the app won’t work. Plus the fact that the provider of the VPN knows everything about you and your location, as well as what sites you access through the VPN. So you are totally dependent on the VPN provider’s honesty. As a start, if the VPN is free, DON’T USE IT. The provider has to make money somehow, and if you aren’t paying them then they are selling you to make money. But even those that charge can’t necessarily be trusted.

sandhopper58 wrote:

Who knew. Even without the VPN app fully downloaded it caused this network connection issue AND it prevented me from downloading certain other apps. Not only that it stopped my ability to live stream my outdoor Blink camera system which their support staff could not figure out. Fully deleted app and now everything is good.

VPN frequently creates more problems than it solves. But one important fact is that when you install VPN it configures itself to the specific hardware, iOS version and network that the phone uses. If any of those change it can break the VPN. So any time you change any of these you may need to delete the VPN app and profile, restart your phone then add them back (if you still want to use VPN) so it can configure itself to the new environment.

Here's Apple's advice on VPN→

Check VPN (Virtual Private Network) and third-party software to help resolve network connectivity issues - Apple Support

Something to think about→Don't use VPN - GITHUB

There are two legitimate purposes for using VPN:

• To allow access to a private network such as a school or business when you are not on site. 
• To allow access outside of a country with a repressive government that has restricted Internet access. (This has suddenly become more important)

Any other use is risky, and can lead to problems like the one discussed in this thread. VPN disguises your location by making you appear to be somewhere else in the world. But you usually can’t control that “somewhere else”, and if it is in a location that an app isn’t approved for the app won’t work. Plus the fact that the provider of the VPN knows everything about you and your location, as well as what sites you access through the VPN. So you are totally dependent on the VPN provider’s honesty. As a start, if the VPN is free, DON’T USE IT. The provider has to make money somehow, and if you aren’t paying them then they are selling your private data to make money. But even those that charge can’t necessarily be trusted. For example, a few years ago Avast was caught selling user browsing data. They claim they have stopped doing so. 

You don’t really need VPN when using public Wi-Fi, because all communications between your device and the servers it accesses are end-to-end encrypted.

If you want VPN for privacy about the sites you visit, that’s not a good choice as discussed; instead you should download and use the TOR browser.

The other use for VPN is to “steal” content that is not available in your area. I leave this question to your personal ethics.

With iOS 15.2 and later for iOS/iPadOS and MacOS Monterey 12.2 and later Apple now has iCloud+ Private Relay, which is not VPN, but provides a safer browsing environment than VPN, and it doesn't spy on you→About iCloud Private Relay - Apple Support

elwood290 wrote:

Yes it was my VPN as well. Thanks so much for posting. I worked and worked to get on Zelle. Fianlly. It's seems crazy VPN is supposed to keep hackers out not me and my apps.

Here is a basic explanation of VPN:

VPN does not keep hackers out. The iPhone itself keeps hackers out. VPN disguises your actual location and encrypts your communications. VPN routes your communications to a distant location that could be anywhere in the world, so if you use VPN the banking app will get a false location for your phone, and it will assume that it is a hacker (possibly in another country) trying to impersonate you.

VPN also encrypts your communications, but the iPhone encrypts all communications, so VPN is redundant for that feature.

There are only two legitimate uses of VPN:

1. VPN to a corporate “inside” network lets you access data and resources on your company’s network when you are out of the office.
2. If you are in a country with a repressive government it allows you to access Internet resources outside of your country that might be blocked by the government.

Those are the ONLY two valid reasons to use VPN; well, except perhaps for accessing p o r n anonymously, and the TOR browser is better for that.

Using VPN actually increases privacy risks, because the VPN provider knows everything you access over their VPN. Do you trust them? If you are not paying to use VPN then you should definitely not trust them; they need to stay in business somehow, and they do so by selling your metadata. But even paid VPN can spy on you, and some do. Avast, for example, was caught spying on their users a couple of years ago (see→Avast is spyware).

Here’s additional information on VPN→Don't use VPN services. · GitHub

Well, I stand corrected. I found a VPN hiding out in my settings, although supposedly not enabled. Deleting it solved my issues. Thanks!

marshafromhanover wrote:

Deleting the VPN from my iPad and iPhone did fix the problems with wifi and apps, but doing that will cause quite a problem when I go to a public place and NEED to use a VPN! I won't want to download it from a public internet!

I understand that you do need your data centrally collected, logged, and your traffic and activities monitored, and providers in this position will certainly at least be tempted to re-sell your network access activities—this data logging and resale was confirmed with an anti-malware package a while back—for the added revenues.

As for the state of the security business, some VPN providers claimed no logs were kept, though were later found to be logging after those providers' logs were subsequently disclosed. And VPN providers have been breached, as well.

Based on an earlier discussion here, some of the VPNs discussed here do seem to install a digital certificate as trusted, and that could quite conceivably allow even your SSL/TLS encrypted traffic to be decrypted and accessed f by an intermediate host with the associated private key for that trusted certificate—and this interception would explain some of the issues folks are having accessing pinned and secure websites, too; that an intercepting host is being detected and blocked by the target server.

There are of course other and possibly even easier ways to have all your connections intercepted by little-known providers and your activity both logged and resold, so I'd suggest starting with those; with removing the VPN client, and finding a different means to disclose your activities.

As for the current state of things? Your existing network connections using SSL/TLS are already encrypted and tunneled. This is part of why folks have been encouraging everybody off of unencrypted mail connections, for instance. (And various of the commercial VPN providers also use widely-known VPN credentials, which makes intercepting and decrypting the VPN-wrapped network traffic rather easier for attackers so inclined.)

As for where this is all headed later this year, iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 arriving later this year provides both IP masking, and an added VPN capability, both provided via Apple. This alleviates some of the concerns around the privacy and marketing of data by third-party entities providing the existing VPN services.

If you need a solution between now and this fall, VPN servers using open source and your own hosted VPN servers include both the Streisand and Algo projects. These allow you more control over the VPN server and its activities.

Links to some details and concerns and trade-offs around the VPN industry, and links to some of the alternatives mentioned above:

• https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29
• https://greycoder.com/stresiand-makes-installing-your-own-vpn-easier/
• https://www.wyden.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Wyden%20Letter%20to%20NIST%20Re%20Gov%20Use%20of%20Secure%20VPNs.pdf
• https://mobile.twitter.com/kennwhite/status/1186075645962526720
• https://www.theregister.com/2020/03/06/nordvpn_no_auth_needed_view_user_payments/
• https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/vpn-and-ad-blocking-apps-sensor-tower
• https://mobile.twitter.com/CiPHPerCoder/status/1044625129278443522

nb: above does not apply to VPNs and add-on VPN clients used to connect directly into the private network of an organization that you are associated with. That VPN can and does have value.

I was advised by someone on this thread to delete VPN and it worked! My issues went away. bizarre b/c it was never enabled in the settings but in a buried General / VPN / Better VPN area, it had some 'connect automatically' that i disabled and then I just deleted the whole dang thing. problems solved.

Who knew. Even without the VPN app fully downloaded it caused this network connection issue AND it prevented me from downloading certain other apps. Not only that it stopped my ability to live stream my outdoor Blink camera system which their support staff could not figure out. Fully deleted app and now everything is good.

First, if you have a VPN app installed, delete it. Then go to Settings/General/VPN & management profiles, tap on VPN and delete anything that says “VPN”. Then restart your phone.

I have the same issue and i was frustrated after trying every solution mentioned above, even i don't have VPN.

What really worked with me is setting time and date to automatic.

I wanted to screen record an app on my iphone for a tutorial with time and date set to manual with old date, then i forget to set it back to auto, then there it goes. Spent few days trying every possible solution without result.Twitter wasn't loading, google maps and some other important apps. I even thought of bying a new device but once i remmemberd that it was set on an old date and changed it (Viola) everything back to normal.

Mch877 wrote:

Delete any VPN from your Settings. Even though I had VPN turned off, I kept having the issue until I deleted some VPN I didn’t install myself, then the problem cleared up.

Who installed VPN if you didn’t? VPN is never a default installed by Apple. In fact, Apple discourages use of VPN for exactly the reasons here, except to access a business private network or to avoid snooping by a repressive government.

I had the exact same issue on i8 plus, needed to delete my VPN settings( Even though VPN was turned off 🤯) Settings / search/ VPN and Device management/ Delete all files.

problem solved after hours of mucking about.

This just happened to me as well and when I read that it might be VPN related, I opened NordVPN app and it showed it was continually connecting/disconnecting. I usually have VPN off so I don’t know if that condition started on last use and didn’t properly disconnect or it started doing it on its own. What I did to resolve was actually press connect and it successfully connected. I checked apps and they were working again. I then disconnected and made sure it wasn’t in that weird state and checked apps again and they were still working.

thank you for posting this resolution, since it only affected some apps for me and was driving me crazy

I just solved a similar issue on my iPhone 11. I had just downloaded an app which warned me that it only worked on iOS 14 or higher, so I had to update my phones iOS from 13.xx to 15.3.1. I downloaded the app but when I tried to launch it, I got repeated warnings that it couldn't connect to the internet and would go no further. After reading this thread I did a search and found this article concerning iOS 15 and its new pseudo VPN for iCloud users:

https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-use-private-relay-safari-ios/

I went to Settings : Apple ID : iCloud : Private Relay (Beta) (as described in the linked article)

Enabled Private Relay and checked "maintain general location" under IP address location.

Tried the app once more and it successfully opened and ran.

After 8 days of angst, going to my Verizon store, trying every fix known, I found this chat room. Though my VPN was off, I found I had an inactive VPN lurking in my settings. Once deleted, every app worked like a charm!