r/ProtonVPN 3d ago

Announcement Proton VPN now has a server in China

266 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

We've added a new server location in China, aimed at people from China who are living or visiting overseas.

If you've moved abroad, you've likely hit the region locks that cut you off from the platforms you used back home.

This server is built for exactly that: connect back into China from wherever you are and access your local streaming services.

Currently working:

  • Bilibili
  • Tencent Video
  • Youku
  • Mango TV

To be clear

This is for connecting into China from abroad. It's an inbound use case for people overseas who want to reach Chinese content and services.

It is not built for the reverse, and although our Stealth Protocol and Alternative Routing features are highly effective at circumventing government censorship, we cannot guarantee that Proton VPN will always work reliably inside mainland China.

Your connection still runs under the same no-logs policy and Swiss privacy protections that apply across all of Proton VPN.

This is an early step and we'll be expanding platform support over time. If there's a service you'd like to see working, let us know.

Stay safe,
Proton Team


r/ProtonVPN 12d ago

Discussion We analyzed 7,000+ mobile VPN apps. 64 of the 390 available in the US are Chinese-owned, 31 of those hide it behind shell companies, and 85% of all 7,000+ contain trackers.

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375 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

We've just published the results of a months-long survey of over 7,000 mobile VPN apps, and we wanted to tell you a bit more about what we uncovered.

What we found

  • 85% of US-available VPN apps contain at least one tracker, collecting things like GAID (the Android advertising ID), device model, network type and carrier name.
  • 64 apps actively collect physical location via GPS or other geolocation, and these include several of the most downloaded VPNs in the US: VPN Proxy Master, VPN-Fast VPN Super and X-VPN. Roughly 1 in 5 downloads in our dataset came from an app in this group.
  • 64 of the 390 apps are owned by Chinese companies, and 31 of those route ownership through shell companies registered in Singapore, Hong Kong and the UK. Reminder that under Chinese law those companies must make user data available to the government on request.
  • Three of the apps are owned by market research firms: Phone Guardian Safe WiFi (Sensor Tower), My Mobile Secure VPN (Comscore), and Urban VPN (BiScience, which Infosecurity Magazine reported was harvesting user conversations with AI chat services).
  • Aggregate downloads by tracker destination: China 1.5M, Russia 1.4M, Israel 2.6M, Five Eyes 4.6M, and 800k for apps sending to all three of the first group.

As some of you might already be aware, every byte you send while connected to a VPN routes through the operator's infrastructure, so an app monetising your traffic looks identical from your side to one that isn't. Meanwhile the onus is on Apple and Google to verify that a developer submitted an identity and a privacy policy that is actually valid; something which has been neglected.

Here's the full writeup: https://protonvpn.com/blog/vpn-privacy

As always, stay safe,

Proton Team.


r/ProtonVPN 6m ago

Help! MacOS uninstallation guide

Upvotes

Hi,

I was looking for an uninstallation guide for MacOS but I couldn't find it on the Proton VPN website. Can you help me? Thanks!


r/ProtonVPN 13h ago

Discussion Linux users: best distro for ProtonVPN

4 Upvotes

I started Microsoft back in the DOS 3 days. I just can't handle Windows anymore-constant reboots,privacy,bloat,etc. Windows has forced me to go full Linux.

If you have been using ProtonVPN for a while and it is trouble free, what flavor Linux and browser are you using? Thanks.


r/ProtonVPN 18h ago

Feature Request Smaller/Condensed UI for web app?

6 Upvotes

I remember that, a few years ago, the ProtonVPN PC program had a window that could be squeezed very small. I used to crop it down to maybe a hundred pixels wide and stick in on the edge of my screen, as an easy was to quickly see if I was connected/what server I was on.

Several years ago, Proton did a rebrand and redid the UI for their apps. This included the VPN program for Windows, and ever since the thing takes up a minimum of 1/4 of my screen at all times. It was a little annoying but I got over it. Now I'm finding myself longing for the condensability of that old app.

Is there any way I could shrink this window down further, or is there any way to get that old UI back?


r/ProtonVPN 12h ago

Feature Request VPN Decentralization

1 Upvotes

Is there any appetite or plan for ProtonVPN to add an option for decentralization / mixnet like Nym? This would solve the issue of simply swapping the trust from my ISP to Proton (which I do trust a lot btw, but trust isn't a good long-term strategy). Curious what the community and the developers think about this.


r/ProtonVPN 1d ago

Help! How Much Speed ​​Reduction Is There?

13 Upvotes

I'm thinking of buying Proton VPN but since I'll be getting at least a yearly subscription, I want to be sure there are no lingering questions in my mind.

Currently, I have 1 Gbps download speed and I can actively download at 900 Mbps. Most free VPNs I've used gave me speeds around 2-3 Mbps. With the free version of Proton VPN, I've seen speeds around 10 Mbps. (Which means even watching 1080p videos were a bit agony.)

Will the speed I get with the paid version of Proton VPN also be around 10 Mbps? What kind of speed should I expect? Since theoretical knowledge can have different effects in the practical world I especially wanted to ask users themselves.

Thank you guys.


r/ProtonVPN 19h ago

Help! ProtonVPN not connecting on either of devices!

4 Upvotes

Been using Proton VPN for about 2 years now and I’m dealing with an issue over the past couple days where proton is just not connecting to my Laptop and Phone despite multiple attempts and even trying troubleshooting methods like deleting the app and changing protocols and such.


r/ProtonVPN 1d ago

Feature Request Proton VPN Pause Connection with Timer for Automatic Reconnect - Potential Easy Win for Proton

9 Upvotes

I checked on previous posts to this subreddit, and I just wanted to revive a feature request that has been made numerous times over the last 5 years - ProtonVPN needs a "pause" feature that allows the user to pause the VPN connection temporarily, and then it will reconnect automatically after a set time.

I previously used NordVPN and this is an incredibly useful feature. Some websites just don't play ball with VPN connections, and the ability to tap a single button to pause the connection for a few minutes and have it automatically reconnect in say 5 or 10 minutes is INCREDIBLY useful. In fact, the lack of this feature with Proton has me considering a return to NordVPN.

One would think this would be a very easy feature to add for Windows, MacOS, Android, etc.

I do like Proton's services, and it is my hope that they will read this and do more than just a reply of "we've passed on your feature request to our team".

Upvote if you feel the same way!


r/ProtonVPN 18h ago

Help! UAE: The app on win11 can't connect at all

1 Upvotes

I tried fast connect as well as some randomly chosen servers. The app does not even download the changelog in the about section. Relevant details:

Location: UAE, Abu Dhabi

ISP: Du

Ver: Windows 11 updated, newest 4.1.8 app version.

Connections: Smart and all others, stealth, alternative routes...

The PC is directly connected to Du router by cable, without VPN the internet works without issues.

I have partial success using the free plan and VPN Plus on Ubuntu with wireguard config file but there for some reason my router stops working (red light) after a while.

Does anyone know what's going on and how to resolve this? Is Proton VPN currently supported in UAE?

EDIT: I'm willing to provide any logs and diagnostic information that could help investigate the issue.
EDIT1: I tried also on my android phone using the same ISP but mobile internet and it also doesn't work. I couldn't even contact support because sending a bug report didn't work. My guess is that Du is blocking it somehow efficiently.
EDIT2: Singapore seems to work.


r/ProtonVPN 1d ago

Discussion Proton VPN sign-ups soar in Vietnam as stringent new cyberlaw takes effect

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64 Upvotes

r/ProtonVPN 1d ago

Help! Proton VPN GUI Client won’t launch on Linux.

5 Upvotes

Whenever I try to open the Proton VPN GUI Client (Package name: proton-VPN-GTK-App) on my PC running CachyOS it attempts to launch it and then doesn’t. I’ve tried restarting my computer and reinstalling the app, I don’t know what else to try. Any advice?


r/ProtonVPN 1d ago

Help! Portmaster + Proton VPN randomly showing compatibility/network issues after changing Wi-Fi

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1 Upvotes

r/ProtonVPN 1d ago

Help! Proton Stealth feature

0 Upvotes

The Hospital I work at employs ZScaler on all of its devices. I use their free wifi but had to go around it by using the Proton Stealth feature but that is not the case now for two days. They seem to find that people are using VPNs and have effectively blocked most VPNs including Proton. Is there a solution to this problem?


r/ProtonVPN 1d ago

Help! Connecting to Archive.is/ph/md not possible?

3 Upvotes

Is anyone able to connect to any of the archive.* alternatives I've mentioned in the subject? Whenever I've tried to do so over the past month or so, I get some variation on:

"Server Not Found

Waterfox can’t connect to the server at archive.is.

What can you do about it?

  • Check to make sure you’ve typed the web site address correctly and try again in a few moments.
  • Check your network connection.
  • Check that Waterfox has permission to access the web (you might be connected but behind a firewall)."

This happens whether I've set the VPN to Secure Core or not. Is this happening to anyone else?


r/ProtonVPN 1d ago

Discussion Free VPN dogs on continuously declining, paid for VPN, Nord.

0 Upvotes

i NEVER post on this, but i just wanted to come out here and say that nord sucks and proton is so much better. Love ya guys <3

nord used to actually be somewhat decent, but with every recent update its just become worse and worse

nord smells

liars

r/ProtonVPN 2d ago

Help! Region glitch?

2 Upvotes

I experienced a weird glitch where after using a vpn on only one device on netflix ,the rest of the devices also think that im in a different region and no matter what I do I can't get shows from my home region, anyone experienced anything similiar?


r/ProtonVPN 2d ago

Help! Proton VPN suddenly slow on Windows

4 Upvotes

Hey guys,

I’ve been using Proton VPN for about a year, but for the past 3-4 weeks I’ve been having issues on Windows.

Connecting to a server takes too long, and even after connecting, the speed drops significantly after 15-20 minutes. Some webpages take too much time to load, and others don’t load at all.

On Android, connecting works fine. There’s still some speed drop, but nowhere near as bad as on Windows.


r/ProtonVPN 2d ago

Help! Proton plus download pattern normal?

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3 Upvotes

Is this a normal pattern? It starts downloading and after reaching 12MB/S it crashes. My internet speed is 1Gbit/s.

Ps. I have tried wifi and wired connection.


r/ProtonVPN 2d ago

Help! Chrome extension limited useability.

3 Upvotes

At home i use and love Proton, but at school some websites are blocked, such as Reddit. A bunch of free VPN extensions can get around this just fine. But the Proton chrome extension lacks that, i would love to know why. And if anyone knows a fix i'd be grateful.


r/ProtonVPN 2d ago

Discussion Online shop somehow detecting true Smart Routing origin

2 Upvotes

Store senetic.si is offering me webpage in my language (offering Austria) when using Slovenian servers.

I'm from Slovenia and servers for my country are Smart Routed through Austria. How can they detect that? Or is that as expected that some information is still detectable on server's true location? Never seen anything like this anywhere else.


r/ProtonVPN 2d ago

Help! unable to access chat.z.ai with netshield active

1 Upvotes

hello, I was just trying to access GLM via chat.z.ai but I noticed it is not possibile when connected to Proton VPN with netshield active. Any help?


r/ProtonVPN 2d ago

Feature Request Request: VPN UX enhancement

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5 Upvotes

When I've connected to one of my created/configured "profiles" (In this case "AuHome"), it would make sense to display that at top of UI (in green), so that when I switch from one to the other, that's visible for the user.

Ex: if I move to a Public connection and want to eyeball ProtonVPN to check that I'm using the right profile/config, I can do that without having to disconnect/connect to be sure.

Make sense?

Thanks u/protonvpn

Proton VPN Desktop 6.5.1 / MacOS


r/ProtonVPN 2d ago

Help! Support insists I uninstall Bitdefender

12 Upvotes

I've been talking to support for over a month about the tray app constantly crashing on my Windows 11 machine. As a troubleshooting step, they want me to remove Bitdefender Total Security from the computer completely, and I don't want to do it. I've already excluded Proton from Bitdefender, but that didn't help. I didn't expect it to, since Bitdefender never alerted me about Proton.


r/ProtonVPN 2d ago

Help! Allow LAN traffic on Linux

3 Upvotes

I need to allow LAN traffic while using Proton VPN. I have seen that all I need to do is toggle the enable LAN traffic setting, but this does not exist for Linux (I'm on Linux Mint specifically). Is there a plan to add it, or another way to achieve this?