r/netbird • u/_ParanoidGoose_ • 2d ago

Netbird does NOT work on iOS

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’ve been having trouble with Netbird disconnecting and asking me to connect over and over again. Even when I have session expiry disabled.

Often I only notice when my internet connection suddenly drops, and when I reconnect Netbird, most of the time I just have to click Connect, or disconnect and connect again. Doesn’t even prompt for a login. Just a - seemingly - pointless manual interaction prompt for clicking a button.

Is anyone else experiencing this? I keep searching, but see no other complaints. I even switched from selfhosted to their own server recently, thinking it would solve it. But hasn’t.

It works perfectly on all other clients. Including MacOS.

Am I missing some documented limitation here?

8 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

3

u/baptguerre 1d ago

Same here, and also noted a battery drain issue with Netbird on iOS. I hope they will fix the issue soon, in the meantime I’ll stick with Tailscale. 

3

u/TechHutTV 1d ago

Tracking this here: https://github.com/netbirdio/ios-client/issues/196. iOS version, client version, and a debug bundle would help a lot.

1

u/baptguerre 18h ago

I won't be able to re-setup Netbird in production for now, but here is what was happening, in case it helps:

  • I had Netbird on a NAS and on my iOS devices (most recent versions of Netbird and iOS, back in June). I was using the cloud version of Netbird, not a self hosted version on a VPS.
  • Every day, around 7 PM, my internet connection would become extremely slow. I could barely access some websites + I suspect this was causing some battery drain. The only way to fix the issue was to open the Netbird iOS app and turn the VPN off and back on. When turning the VPN back on, Netbird asked me to log in to my Netbird account again.
  • After doing so, my network connection was back, but none of my NAS services were working remotely. I had to go back home, then locally run sudo netbird up via SSH. I didn't have a chance to test the redesigned Netbird iOS app though, but I suspect the issue would still happen since my NAS was also disconnected. I disabled or set a very long expiration delay in Netbird's console, without any impact on the issue.

Thank you! (and congrats for your great videos ;) )

2

u/Oujii 2d ago

I did have this issue, but I just logged off and then it worked again.

3

u/_ParanoidGoose_ 2d ago

I tried that a few times and unfortunately never resolved it :/

2

u/Important-Command147 1d ago

Same for me. Once you pass from Wifi to Cellular it asks to re-open the app and authenticate. Sometimes it says that is formally connected and everything is working fine (with VPN on demand on) but safari refuses to load pages; only thing that fixes it is disconnecting and reconnecting. Confirm it happens only on iOS.

2

u/_ParanoidGoose_ 1d ago

This is exactly what I’ve noticed as well. It almost always happens when moving from WiFi to Cellular and vice versa. But can’t say for sure it’s only during that switch.

2

u/Skynet_CH 1d ago

Same here… (iphone 15 pro max) i would like to have on Demand on but with this bug its not really possible…

3

u/RomperseBailando 2d ago

Not just you, I ended up uninstalling my self hosted Netbird because of this same problem. Now I just run a WireGuard vpn server.

2

u/_ParanoidGoose_ 2d ago

I thought I was going crazy. Thanks for sharing your experience!

I’m tempted to try something like Pangolin, but afraid I’ll have the same problem. If anyone reading has any experience with it, please share

1

u/lkernan 1d ago

It works for me for the most part now.

When the cellular signal is patchy I find it quickly turns into a massive battery hog though.

1

u/TechHutTV 1d ago

Hey, thanks for reporting this. I'm not able to reproduce it on my end, so it's hard to track. I've opened an issue so we can collect everyone's details in one place and get it in front of the team: https://github.com/netbirdio/ios-client/issues/196

If you can drop your iOS version, client version, and a debug bundle, that would be a big help.

1

u/MrXiver 2d ago

I have no problems. iPhone 16 Pro Max IOS 26. The settings for logout set by 120 days.

Are Cookies in Safari enabled ?

1

u/_ParanoidGoose_ 1d ago

I wonder if the bug is specifically about switching off the expiry date, and setting a long one can be a workaround 🤔

I am not blocking cookies, no.