WIFI disconnects when using VPN

grezly

I've currently updates my IOS to 11.2.5 for my iphone.
When i'm now trying to use VPN it connects to it but disconnetcs WIFI so that i'm tunneling through 4g instead of WIFI.
Does anyone know if this is a known 'bug'? Or how to solve this?
Searching google (including this forum) didn't show me an answer.

moose77

While I don’t know how to solve this I have noticed that I’m experiencing the same thing. Between this and the battery drain that I’ve noticed I’m not too impressed with the recent updates.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

ordex

grezly wrote I've currently updates my IOS to 11.2.5 for my iphone.
When i'm now trying to use VPN it connects to it but disconnetcs WIFI so that i'm tunneling through 4g instead of WIFI.
Does anyone know if this is a known 'bug'? Or how to solve this?
Searching google (including this forum) didn't show me an answer.

How do you verify that the connection is going over mobile data? I want to check if sometimes I experience the same

seanob

I'm having this issue as well. Doesn't occur all the time but it's intermittent. Disconnecting from the VPN and reconnecting doesn't resolve it. Here is what happens:
1. VPN on (connected) and connected to WiFi.
2. Issue occurs: WiFI showing as "Not Connected" in settings. Showing LTE in top of screen, but still connected to VPN.
3. Disconnect from VPN, WiFi reconnects automatically.
4. Connect to VPN, WiFi disconnects - showing as Not Connected in Settings.

To overcome this I know of 2 workarounds.
1. Reboot phone
2. Remove OVPN configuration and re-add it

tent_icle

Hi all,

I reported the same issue some time ago: https://forums.openvpn.net/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=25793

I can confirm the data definitely goes over the cellular connection instead of Wifi (confirmed by both Settings -> Mobile Data -> Data Usage and by my telco's usage app).

I tested many, many different variations of VPN client/server configs and iOS VoD mobileconfig profile configs in an attenpt to resolve this issue... unfortunately without success. The next troubleshooting step is probably to check the console logs but that requires Xcode and I don't own a Mac.

For what it's worth, I think this might actually be an iOS bug rather than an OpenVPN Connection bug. There are similar reports on a number of other sites - for example:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7921902
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8116153
https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/forum/discussion/22564/enabling-pia-vpn-disconnects-wifi

I did report this via the Apple Feedback form, but in my experience that channel never gets any traction. If anyone knows a better way to report this to Apple, it would be much appreciated!

tent_icle

Hi all, I just wanted to close the loop on this thread by letting you know I never was able to solve this problem.

Having run out of options, we ultimately replaced OpenVPN with a strongswan server. Although IPSEC obviously has its has its own limitations, the benefit is it integrates with iOS natively. This completely removed the issue of the WiFi connection being dropped that we were experiencing with OpenVPN.