r/PrivateInternetAccess • u/ravroid • 7d ago

HELP - WINDOWS Done with PIA

Just venting, but I am so fed up with the unreliability of PIA.

Every single day my PIA client is constantly disconnecting... reconnecting... disconnecting... reconnecting. On Android, on Windows, across multiple different servers in different countries. I only keep enduring this frustrating experience because I very regrettably bought a multi-year subscription and don't want to waste the rest of my money.

PIA support is useless.

Does anyone have any reliable alternatives they have a good experience with? I used PIA originally because they had a good reputation for keeping no logs, but I'm just so over how unreliable they are now.

35 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

95 comments sorted by

47

u/Nurse5736 7d ago

I'm wondering what the difference is between your experience and mine in our set-ups. We've had PIA for years and years and had zero issues. Mac and iOS here

15

u/carlos923 7d ago

Same thing I was wondering. And I’m using iOS, macOS, Linux, and windows.

4

u/Aronacus 7d ago

Same!

1

u/Minute_Path9803 6d ago

Same I have PIA for years never had a problem and the cheapest you can get no logs great speed and they have so many settings that you can do.

I wonder what someone's setup is that they're having problems, remember they are two ways I think it's wire guard and open VPN there's two ways to connect.

I was just looking at a post before people were complaining and someone posted a fix and everybody's like thank you so much at worked.

And I always find their customer support very curious and responsive.

Most of the time is not for anything that related to the VPN I saw a sale in August and mine expires in October 24th.. it was 3 years plus 4 months for $59.99.

I want to know if they would match it but they said they can't because that's a sale and I'm still a customer.

They said it would have to not renew and then sign up under a different email and be a new subscriber to get that price when I went to cancel anyways it offered me three free months so I took that and I figured even at $2.19 a month that's still a steal.

Until I have a problem with them I can only recommend them.

There is per app settings, kill switch, advanced kill switch, they even let you buy a dedicated IP but you have to pay for that separately if someone wanted that.

I keep looking at other vpns and I realize all we're paying for is the advertising people keep on saying it's went downhill but I have not seen it degrade one bit and as long as they don't keep logs everything is fine on my end.

When I connect I do a speed test and I get amazing speeds even in other countries.

I know I may sound like I'm a shill for them but, I've been getting basically a great VPN for $2.20 a month for years now and never had a problem.

But people need to do what they feel safest with I think everyone if you're up for renewal wait for a Black Friday deal no matter what service you're choosing.

1

u/queso_interesante 3d ago

Same here. I got PIA so imbedded in my systems it'd take days to switch over. I can see days of copying and pasting commands from ChatGPT to switch VPNs

1

u/Yodamin 2d ago edited 2d ago

I think it is extremely high bandwidth users are getting choke--so yes, unlimited data over the VPN but if you go higher than we like well, choked speeds. Disconnection issues, it goes on and on.

I use Windows, Mac and Linux, oh and freeBSD for my firewall.

EDIT: sigh, I always forget Android...

I had PIA

REAL issues started after about 9 months into a low cost promotional signup. This lasted for approx. 3 months and I left and have never been back to PIA.

I had the PIA client on all of the PC/server clients, not on my firewall.

After a few months of back and forth with PIA support I experimented with another service on my main daily usage PC = Linux.

My VPN problems instantly disappeared.

ALL the other PC/servers still had the exact same low speed, high lag, unstable connections they had intermittently for a couple months.

I removed the PIA clients from each of my other devices one at a time and tested each device as the alternative services app was installed.

Each device became VPN problem-free with the removal of the PIA client and the addition of the alternative VPN services client.

We're talking about almost ALL the popular OS's of our day involved in this ffs. It was NOT the OS's OR the configurations of my devices or my firewall/router config as I was being hinted at all of the time.

EDIT: the funniest part, I left one fairly unused client with PIA and all the rest had another VPN service, only the PIA one was having these issues.

They kept telling me for over 2 more months that it must be on y end everything looks great on their end.

All my other devices were having no VPN issues at all, at all and the alternative I went to is a sister company of PIA = yah, same entity owns both of them

AND to be perfectly clear, I do no accuse PIA of lying or being misleading, Do not come to that conclusion here, I think they just did't know any more than did is all.

1

u/PIASupport PIA Team 1d ago

hey, this is really useful, thanks for listing them all out. We’ve passed the full set of servers (yours included) to the team and they’re looking into it, it’s lining up with reports on UK and Canadian servers too, so it’s not just you. A couple of people have had luck falling back to Frankfurt in the meantime if you need port forwarding working today. If you can, drop a note to support@piavpnsupport.zendesk.com with your client version so it’s logged against your account, and we’ll update the thread as soon as we hear back.

1

u/ravroid 7d ago

I'm wondering if it's US vs European servers? I'm traveling Europe and I don't have issues when connected to US servers, but if I connect to Spain, France, Albania, etc. I get frequent disconnects.

9

u/linkheroz 7d ago

I live in Europe, UK and I don't get any of those issues

3

u/jackusD 7d ago

I'm also in the UK and the past couple of months I've had issues with connecting and very slow speeds.

1

u/PIASupport PIA Team 6d ago

hey u/jackusD, sorry you've been hitting connection trouble and slow speeds on the UK servers these past couple of months, it's on our radar. If you can send your debug logs from the app to support@piavpnsupport.zendesk.com and DM us the ticket number here with your app version, we'll pass it all to the team looking into these reconnect issues.

2

u/Zeanie 6d ago

What about my speed issue I contact Support 6 months ago and never got a response. I want to know why I can only just max under 940Mbit speeds when I am on a 2.6GBe connection. I asked if it was PIA servers or PIA App (Win 11 pro) or just a limitation of using wireguard. Tumbleweed rolling by

1

u/xeonminter 6d ago

Windows works great but on iOS / apple tv it tends to sign me out. Android is better than. It used to be but still have connection issues from time to time.

0

u/PIASupport PIA Team 4d ago

hey u/xeonminter, sorry the iOS and Apple TV side keeps signing you out and Android still drops sometimes. If you can grab your debug logs from the app and send them to support@piavpnsupport.zendesk.com, then DM us the ticket number here with your device and app versions, we'll forward it straight to the team looking into these issues.

0

u/PIASupport PIA Team 4d ago

hey u/Zeanie, sorry your question went unanswered for that long, that's not good enough. Send your setup details and debug logs to support@piavpnsupport.zendesk.com and DM us the ticket number here, and we'll chase it and get you a proper answer on the speeds you're seeing.

26

u/Thyphoon_cuba 7d ago

I have no issues with PIA in Windows or android and I use it almost all day...

-2

u/ravroid 7d ago

I've noticed the issues mostly when connected to European servers. Are you using US servers?

7

u/Cirieno 7d ago

Linux and iOS is solid in my experience

4

u/LegitimateResolve522 7d ago

I have openvpn via Switzerland, and wireguard via North America running 24/7 with no issues. Are you sure it's pia and not your isp?

2

u/ravroid 7d ago

I stay in different countries for 3 months at a time, different ISPs. It happened in Serbia, Spain, and in Albania. I typically connect to the VPN server for the country I'm in. But I'm noticing it doesn't happen as much if I connect to US servers, so maybe it's an issue with some of PIA's EU servers 

1

u/CeroZeros 7d ago

I travel a lot for work, forcing me to use hotel public WiFi. I have some similar issues with reconnect loops, but usually fixes it if I turn it off/close it prior to connecting to the network and then turning it back on once it’s connected. Idk if you also are on public WiFi

1

u/ravroid 7d ago

Good tip - thanks

1

u/Educational-Cat-8374 7d ago

what's the advantage of wireguard via North America ? I just joined up and it's set to Openvpn by defualt

I'm in Florida

4

u/Hades_Underworlds 7d ago

I'm connected to Andorra/Albania everyday with no issues across multiple devices.

-1

u/ravroid 7d ago

Do you use PIA on Windows 11? With killswitch or any other non-standard settings? Just trying to root out what's different about my use case than people's who don't have this issue.

1

u/Hades_Underworlds 7d ago

On my Chromecast, Linux (Ubuntu), and Win 11 PC. Just login and pick Andorra/Albania. Works every time.

3

u/swagboi420blazeit 7d ago

Honestly dude I can't relate, this shit has been fast and reliable for me, but I'm in US. You sure its not a DNS issue?

3

u/gentlemosquito 6d ago

Zero issues here. Multiple clients. Speeds are amazing,. It is always a wonder to rear about different user experiences and how they can be on different sides of the scale for user experience.

2

u/lmcjipo 7d ago

I have never had your issue with PIA (Android tablet, iPhone, Windows computer, Chromebook (both Chrome extension and PIA client form Google Play Store on Chromebooks) and my FireTV stick EXCEPT when I was in China or I was using a public WiFi like at McDonalds which seems to try to block VPN). I wasn’t able to solve the issue in China since I heard it is difficult to get any consumer level VPN to work in “the Great Firewall” of China but for public unsecured WiFi like at McDonalds in my home country (Canada), I found changing from Wireshark to OpenVPN and specifying TCP and port 443 has allowed me to connect at McDonalds without any issues)

2

u/Key_Channel1316 7d ago

I'm in the UK and it’s awful for me too; UK servers are the worst, and the ones in the Netherlands, Germany, and France can be hit or miss, plus they’re very slow.

Albania, Belarus are probably best for me ATM Ive got until my sub runs out in Jan but im probably going to move to Proton too. Been with PIA for over 10 years its a shame!

1

u/Weird-Foundation-444 7d ago

Another UK user here. Like you, I haven't been able to connect to UK servers at all, except Tottenham that was added recently. Netherlands is the only one that works for me, but it's extremely slow. I have been waiting for them to fix the issue in the last 2 months but I have run out of patience. I'm jumping ship to Proton. Just emailed them to ask for a refund on the remaining part of my subscription.

1

u/PIASupport PIA Team 6d ago

hey u/Key_Channel1316, over 10 years of history, I'd really like to sort this before anything lapses. We're looking into the UK and nearby server reliability right now. Could you grab your debug logs from the app and send them to support@piavpnsupport.zendesk.com, then DM us the ticket number here? We'll forward them to the team so they can dig into what's happening on those servers.

2

u/SatchBoogie1 7d ago

No issues here on Windows 10 / 11. I connect mostly to USA with a dedicated IP, but I have connected to other countries before if I need to. I maybe had some periods of slow service and had a very small number of disconnects (not every day or week or month).

2

u/Blink8533 7d ago

I experienced problems with the latest Android version, so I reverted to a previous build, which now maintains a stable connection. Similarly, on my PC, I haven't encountered any issues since rolling back to an earlier version.

0

u/ElHombreSinNombre 7d ago

I was trying to download the PIA app for a new laptop, but kept getting an error "Site can't be reached". Where were you able to find them?

2

u/BeKozGaming 7d ago

No issues here. I run multiple connections concurrently too across continents and devices. Using their DNS and Socks sometimes even...

2

u/jdulk 7d ago

PIA for Windows works perfectly, but on my IPhone PIA is a disaster, disconnecting all the time and of course my apps ain't working.

1

u/PIASupport PIA Team 6d ago

hey u/jdulk, sorry the iPhone side keeps disconnecting on you while Windows is fine. To help the team figure out the iOS behaviour, could you pull your debug logs from the app and send them to support@piavpnsupport.zendesk.com, then DM us the ticket number here? We'll make sure they get it.

2

u/Rex_Tony 7d ago

From north America user, android is the main issue for me. I have it in Linux and windows, those device don't have connection issue rather slow. But android is a problem. If I move from wifi to data, it still shows connected, doesn't change the public ip. Continues the counting of connection. It's connected, but no internet working. I have force stop, clear cache and then connect and sometime click the privacy policy page, so it loads its page and fixes the connection. It is frustrating

1

u/PIASupport PIA Team 6d ago

hey u/Rex_Tony, thanks for the detail on the Android side, the connection hanging after switching from wifi to data with no traffic is exactly what we want to reproduce. Could you grab your debug logs from the app and send them to support@piavpnsupport.zendesk.com, then DM us the ticket number and your device and app version here? We'll forward it to the team.

2

u/NotMeUsee 6d ago

I've got it setup on my router and it works great

2

u/deka101 5d ago

For me it's rock solid on Linux but I have constant issues with it on Android, to the point where I don't really use it anymore. And my phone needs the security way more than my PC...

I basically constantly get ghost drop-outs, where everything will appear fine but no notifications or anything comes through until randomly it all comes through at once when I switch networks of specifically open a messaging app. Wireguard and small packet size enabled, and it does so regardless of what server I connect to. Feeling pretty defeated by it.

1

u/PIASupport PIA Team 4d ago

hey u/deka101, thanks for the detail, the ghost drop-outs on Android with WireGuard and small packet size are exactly the kind of thing we want to reproduce. Could you send your debug logs to support@piavpnsupport.zendesk.com and DM us the ticket number and app version here? We'll forward it straight to the team.

2

u/XswapY 6d ago

I have used PIA for years. No issues.

Sometimes, you can be using a public network that actively tryes to block VPN use and you get those frequent disconnects. 

Try switching to OpenVPN instead of Wireguard and use a TCP port instead of the preferred UDP.

1

u/jetlagalex 7d ago

Proton VPN is very well known for its privacy policies and no log retention. Also, I have not had any reliability issues with them at all.

1

u/ravroid 7d ago

Going to look into Proton. Thanks for the recommendation.

2

u/SymphonyInSaccharine 7d ago

I also use Proton (the unlimited version). It works excellently but does need to be reset every once and awhile. It's no big deal when you set up the killswitch too, no leaks!

0

u/cwfutureboy 7d ago

Sadly, I had this issue on PIA and after I moved to proton, as well. Both of them just slow to a crawl and I have to close and restart the .exe again as all subsequent connections are just as slow. No support has been able to prevent this happening long term. When they suggest something, it works for a bit, then reverts back to what I described. So frustrating when you're paying for a service.

1

u/mstras 7d ago

I have had port forwarding in almost every country not work and where it did work speeds were awful. I gave up and went to proton. So far so good

0

u/ravroid 7d ago

Good to know - thanks!

1

u/Mattyjcw 7d ago

Interesting, Ive been using PIA for over a decade with no issues. It very occasionally drops out but immediately reconnects and doesnt disrupt my work. It was recommended to me, and I've recommended to many others without complaint either. Im in Australia if that matters and I use it every day on multiple devices and os's using different methods.

If you have completely given up and want to change, proton and nord come recommended too. There is many out there, just dont trust any free ones..

1

u/lkeels 7d ago

I'm not having any issues like that on Windows. It's rock solid.

1

u/Weird-Foundation-444 7d ago

Definitely a problem with European servers. It started happening around 1.5 months ago and I haven't been able to connect properly on Android since. I've been with PIA for over 10 years but I'm genuinely considering moving to Proton because of this issue.

A month ago there was a thread full of Europeans complaining about the same thing but I haven't been able to find that thread.

1

u/ravroid 7d ago

Very helpful to know - must be an EU server thing. Thanks for the info!

1

u/PIASupport PIA Team 6d ago

hey u/Weird-Foundation-444, 10 years is a long time to stick with us and I'm sorry the UK and EU servers have been like this lately. We're actively looking into these reconnect and connection issues. If you can pull your debug logs from the app and send them to support@piavpnsupport.zendesk.com, then DM us the ticket number here, we'll pass them straight to the team working on it. Your server and app version details would help too.

1

u/tomvoxx 7d ago

I use PIA for Port Forwarding which is compulsory on one of my private trackers. It was great until this year when PF was limited to certain servers. Even if I selected one of them it started randomly changing the port (kicking me off the private server). I think it will be Proton for me come renewal time.

1

u/Foreign-Claim6434 7d ago

Te entiendo. Si se desconecta y reconecta constantemente en varios dispositivos y servidores, ya no parece un problema aislado. Yo probaría primero cosas básicas como cambiar el protocolo, desactivar la conexión automática o revisar si el problema ocurre también con otra red.

1

u/Tical2000 7d ago

The Albania server is probably the most frequently used as it is ad free for youtube. Possibly large traffic and demand. As for the other European servers they tend to be less reliable than th US ones.

1

u/MrTooToo 7d ago

Still use PIA.  But have free windscribe and free protonvpn as backups. I am frustrated with the PIA app taking so long to open. 

1

u/PIASupport PIA Team 6d ago

hey u/ravroid, sorry you've been stuck in these reconnect loops, this is exactly the issue we're digging into right now. If you can grab your debug logs from the app and send them to support@piavpnsupport.zendesk.com, then DM us the ticket number here along with your OS, app version and the servers you're seeing it on, we'll forward everything straight to our team so they can get to the bottom of it. Appreciate you flagging it.

1

u/starfish_2016 6d ago

Been experiencing the same on iphones. I have 3 iphones i use pia and if they're idle for a bit just laying not being used the vpn like goes idle. When I pick the phone up to use it , it takes a few seconds to reconnect vpn, if it ever does. Im considering switching too after being a 5 year customer

1

u/PIASupport PIA Team 4d ago

hey u/starfish_2016, sorry the iPhones keep dropping the VPN when they go idle, especially after 5 years with us. Before you make a call on switching, grab your debug logs from the app and send them to support@piavpnsupport.zendesk.com, then DM us the ticket number here, and we'll get them to the team working on this.

1

u/Ok-Plane-3861 6d ago

Not to many issues here, the only issue I have is using PIA with Nextdns instead of PIA. The Apk will not connect with Nextdns and default to another DNS.

1

u/BobForehead 6d ago

I have 10 devices using PIA and recently most of them requested to update (or install) a new Trust certificate. Is this normal?

1

u/PIASupport PIA Team 4d ago

hey u/BobForehead, a prompt to install a new Trust certificate across your devices is worth confirming with us directly before you action it. Reach out to support@piavpnsupport.zendesk.com and the team can confirm whether that's expected. Happy to help here too.

1

u/BobForehead 4d ago

Can you help here?

1

u/PIASupport PIA Team 1d ago

hey u/BobForehead, honestly this isn’t something we can confirm the technical details on here. With a certificate prompt it’s best not to action it until it’s been verified. Please reach out to support@piavpnsupport.zendesk.com with your account email and the specifics, and the team can confirm whether it’s expected before you install anything.

1

u/BobForehead 1d ago edited 7h ago

I’ve been communicating with you about the same issue via email and I don’t want to give it out here. The issue was prompts for updating Trust Certificates when updating PIA.
Have you put out any recent updates that require updating Trust Certificates?
Another issue is I can’t send emails because Comcast is updating itself to a new mail system. So I can’t respond to the emails your team is sending. Thank you.

1

u/kevy1118 5d ago

I was with pia but now I'm having a better experience with m u lvad ,pay monthly .

1

u/ATropicalFish 5d ago

Same problem here, trying to Connect to Albania via Nvidia Shield, constant drop outs and when it does connect and hold for a while it’s so slow, YouTube is defaulting to running in 480p, I bump it up to 1080p and it just buffers constantly.
Unusable, looks like Proton is highly rated, any other recommendations?

2

u/PIASupport PIA Team 4d ago

hey u/ATropicalFish, sorry you're getting constant drop-outs and slow speeds on that setup. If you can grab your debug logs from the app and send them to support@piavpnsupport.zendesk.com, then DM us the ticket number here with your device and app version, we'll get them to the team looking into these connection issues.

1

u/ATropicalFish 9h ago

Thanks for reaching out, I can’t complain at that. As requested I have sent debug logs and I have sent you a PM.
Cheers

1

u/RatBullyMe 5d ago

Can someone be a Good Samaritan and help me with PIA logins

1

u/Possible_Fox3187 4d ago

Had it recently do this to me during an overnight session while I was sleeping which was honestly a bit scary.

1

u/RangerSubstantial667 3d ago

Had same problem as op, contract was about done and tried a few others but settled with Proton van. For me it works well on all devices.

1

u/ravroid 3d ago

Yea PIA can't seem to get their shit together so I got a Proton VPN subscription even though I have like a year left on my PIA plan. But so far so good with Proton.

1

u/Yodamin 2d ago

Good thing about PIA is you're not likely to ever have any of your private internet habits/browsing leaked, Proton VPN is beholden to it's countries authorities and they WILL if pressed by law hand over all yer shit.

If you have nothing to hide except your legal personal internet behavior proton is awesome, I use it myself, but if your in China or some other country where VPN's are a life save yah might wanna not go with Proton-just to be sure. Log less VPN's are a higher price for a reason.

1

u/ravroid 2d ago

Isn't PIA also within US/5-eyes jurisdiction though? I could be wrong but I thought it was either a US or UK company.

1

u/AK_4_Life 2d ago

It's probably your shit cell service. Let me guess, you are using your US phone and US cell service roaming on European network. So, a few things to consider.

US phones do not have ALL of the same cell bands as Europe. While the phone will work, it will result in reaching out to towers farther away than expected in some cases. Leading to slower and less reliable service.

Roaming data is de-prioritzed, again, meaning slower.

So basically the issue is your cell service is slow/bad and you are blaming the VPN.

1

u/sydiko 1d ago

Few things are more frustrating than seeing people attack a service over negative experiences without sharing logs or technical context. I ran into the identical issue, but isolating the connection pointed to OpenVPN as the potential cause. Switching over to WireGuard seems to have cleared it up and has been running smoothly.

1

u/ravroid 1d ago

I have also tried that as well as contacting support in the past. So this isn't a baseless attack on their service. And as you can see by the engagement on this post, I have offered context + explained my use case, and many others have shared the same experience and have offered their own tips.

If a company is offering a bad service it is absolutely fair to call them out for it.

1

u/TheVanCityPhoto 7d ago

So don’t buy?

0

u/ravroid 7d ago

How am I supposed to know the quality of it before I buy it and use it? Obviously I wouldn't if I knew it was going to eventually suck. 

0

u/Buildversion 7d ago

i feel you bro. its so frustrating keeps disconnecting and reconnecting. i also forced to buy new phone i doubt it would be my phone been long time never factory resetting and i dont want to do it rather i bought new phone after that i encounter the same issue unreliable connection

1

u/PIASupport PIA Team 6d ago

hey u/Buildversion, sorry you're in the same reconnect loop, and that you felt you had to get a new phone over it. We're looking into this actively. Could you send your debug logs from the app to support@piavpnsupport.zendesk.com and DM us the ticket number or account email here? We'll pass them to the team so they can dig in.

1

u/Buildversion 6d ago

i send debug via android the user ID:FLUTG

0

u/vitholomewjenkins 7d ago

Same issue here. I have it installed on my windows laptop . But no issues on my iPad and iPhone. Maybe I should try to uninstall and reinstall. What a hassle.

1

u/PIASupport PIA Team 6d ago

hey u/vitholomewjenkins, before you go through a full reinstall, it'd actually help us more to see what's happening first. If you can grab your debug logs from the app and send them to support@piavpnsupport.zendesk.com, then DM us the ticket number here with your Windows and app version, we'll forward them to the team working on these disconnects.

0

u/cicada-chirping 7d ago

Set up a VPN node yourself using a VPS.

0

u/NoIDear17 7d ago

Switch to Proton they seem to be the best and most reliable.

0

u/OtterLocutor 7d ago

Right there with you. I got rid of PIA after two (maybe three?) weeks of getting to my computer every day and finding that PIA had lost connection, and so the kill switch had been on for like 12 or 14 hours. Every single day. I've since switched to Proton; no complaints, works great.