Google has known about a bug that breaks VPN apps for 7 months, leaving users exposed with no warning or error, just a VPN app that stopped working in the background.
If you're using ANY VPN on Android, you can help us by getting Google's attention to fix it.
We first reported this bug to Google in September 2025.
Others like @mullvadnet and Wireguard reported it even earlier, in August.
Google's response? "I don't see anything unusual."
Here's what's actually happening ⤵️
The bug corrupts Android's network stack at the system level after a VPN update, causing users to blame their VPN provider.
Restarting the app doesn't help, with the only fix being a full device reboot or VPN app reinstall, something which most users never figure out.
This affects several VPN providers on Android 16, and only Google has the access to diagnose it properly.
After 7 months of waiting, we're now asking publicly: Google, when are you fixing this?
Making sure I'm reading this correctly:
If you're running Android (or an Android variant) and your VPN app updates, the only way to stop this issue is to:
1. Reboot your phone after the VPN update
OR
2. Keep the phone on, delete the VPN app, and reinstall the app
Am I correct in reading that one or the other approaches will fix this?
IE, restarting your phone after an update eliminates the need to delete and reinstall the app?
(and thank you, and Google wtaf)
Proton
funnymonkey
Dana McFarland 🍁 🔥🐎