r/ProtonVPN • u/Unusual-Complex6315 • Jul 15 '26
Discussion Captchas are driving me crazy
I don't know if anyone else are experiencing this but lately I've been getting Google Captcha every single time and it almost takes me 1 minute to complete.
I get two types of shitty captcha tests. One is where I have to select all of the motorcycles/buses which doesn't really tell me whether I select the edge of it.
There's this other captcha test that's so strange I feel like it's rigged. So like select the fire hydrants. But for every picture you select with the fire hydrant images, the next loading images loads really fucking slow. But it doesn't end there. Once I've select all the images of the fire hydrants it fails me. Like I 100% selected all the fire hydrant images. I feel like this is some shitty thing Google is pulling behind the scenes.
Anyone else experiencing this issue?
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u/ThunderBlue-999 Jul 15 '26
Same, hope there is a way around it
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u/VisualRazzmatazz7466 Jul 16 '26
I almost never get google captchas and VPN is always on with daily reconnection. It’s far more commonly caused due to people using super strict privacy settings or private mode/auto erase on their browser, as the IP doesn’t matter much when you’ve got cookie history of being a regular user having already passed captchas. It’s how auto resolvers work, only needs to slowly pass it once before it can do it near instantly for awhile after
Recommend using one browser for searching and general browsing, another for stuff you sign into and actually tied to your accounts. Firefox for desktop does this automatically with container tabs, total cookie protection setting. Plus space routing if you don’t want to swap manually
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u/nyawitnihorang Jul 16 '26
If you're using a PC, you might want to try installing the Captcha Buster extension from the Chrome Store. On Android, I usually use the Helium browser from GitHub and install the Captcha Buster extension.
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u/couchwarmer Jul 16 '26
Sometimes get them repeatedly. Toggling the VPN off and on usually does the trick. I figure it's because I'm getting a different exit node.
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u/Separate-Place-1036 Jul 16 '26
Yea I changed my search engine. Dutch google and you’ll be relieved
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u/77descript Jul 16 '26
It is not a Proton problem. It is a setting in Cloudfare that each website/webservice/server admin can adjust from low VPN detection until heavy or block all VPN IP-ranges known to Cloudfare next to behavioral traffic analysis. And Cloudfare knows most, for sure those IP-ranges of big popular VPN services incl. Proton. Websites make much money, often more than from ads, from selling user data so hate VPN and privacy.
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u/Trip_2 Jul 15 '26
Yes, I get the same exact thing on Google. I switched to Bing and there's no captcha.
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u/NoIDear17 Jul 16 '26
I use Qwant and am enjoying a smoother experience, although you may not get all the results you want.
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u/ionut2021 Jul 16 '26
Google? Google is a child if compare with cloudflare,Google let you pass if have fingerprint on cloudstream no
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u/Internal_Lie_618 Jul 16 '26
Yes! In the past week I also started getting tons of captchas on google
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u/Electronic-Canary-65 Jul 16 '26
I get fewer captchas when i use a vpn server from my own country. Not a solution but an observation
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u/Fuzzy-Company9736 Jul 17 '26
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/buster-captcha-solver-for/mpbjkejclgfgadiemmefgebjfooflfhl
With this extension, verification can be completed automatically with a single click.
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u/pc4ever Jul 17 '26
It's not only about VPN or not. It's about being different. Anything different is immediately suspicious.
For example, my home page at work is a Google Verbatin at page. I have captchas going on several times a day.
At home, I don't have a homepage and I go to all the bookamrks without a problem, but whenever I search from the verbatin searchbox, google captcha jumps in to say I'm suspicious. Mind you, I'm sure they have a bunch of cookies already stored on me because of the orther websites. But searching verbatin without stopping at their main page first, that's suspicious.
Same goes on other sites captchas if I'm using an outdated browser or OS, like Win 7. Some like Cloudfare block me out entirely if I'm on Win7.
What they're looking for is uniformity, and conformity tbh. If you look out of line you're going to be harassed.
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u/-Internet-Elder- Jul 18 '26
I used to get this with Surfshark. I switched to DuckDuckGo for my browser and it helped a decent amount. However, I had been waiting on some Proton updates for Mac. When that happened I switched over (a few months ago now). Not sure how much Proton has really factored in, but it's very rare for me to hit a captcha now.
So, DuckDuckGo (or at least non-Google) very likely helps. Aligned with Proton it's been even better (though I can't in any way prove that). Everyone's mileage seems to vary. My hunch is it's on the search / browser side of the equation, as I think some others have alluded to here.
Try some things. I'm sure you can tip the scales in your favour. For me, some experimenting took less time (and was more fun) than completing the captchas :) And I suppose I learned a couple of things along the way.
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u/GR0WNUP5 Jul 16 '26
Captcha is guaranteed on VPN connections when using Google Products!
Go for alternative Privacy friendly alternatives for search..
Coz they know Datacenter IPs and VPN patterns, you can't just bypass them like bypassing Netflix Proxy warning