VPN Lock on Android cuts off connection when switching networks

[filarakia 1]

Hi everyone, I'm a recently new user of AirVPN.
It's going great on desktop. Last night I started testing it on Android, and found that with VPN lock on, every time my network changes from WiFi to mobile data or back, internet access is cut off completely. It doesn't matter if I start the VPN while connected to WiFi or mobile data, the internet is cut off when I switch to the other network.
Reading around the forums I understand that's NOT supposed to be the case. Is there any other setting I should be aware of, or else what am I doing wrong?

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

If VPN lock is on, it seems very right that this happens. The smoothiest solution can only be achieved on Android 8 and up where you can enable a system-wide persistent VPN mode. The device will only be able to connect to the outside when the specified VPN app established a connection to a server.
On Android 7 and lower, in Eddie, only disabling VPN lock will help, but that is something I wouldn't blindly recommend to anyone. Also I don't know whether Eddie will reconnect then. It's an explicit setting in other apps like OpenVPN for Android.

[filarakia 1]

12 hours ago, giganerd said:

If VPN lock is on, it seems very right that this happens.

Thank you for replying.
That doesn't sound right though - surely the logical thing to do would be for Eddie to re-establish the VPN connection as soon as I connect to the (different) network, instead of curring me off. Do I have to set the 'Always On VPN' in the system VPN settings for that to happen?
I'm on Android 9.

[Staff 9973]

1 hour ago, dinosm said:

Thank you for replying.
That doesn't sound right though - surely the logical thing to do would be for Eddie to re-establish the VPN connection as soon as I connect to the (different) network, instead of curring me off. Do I have to set the 'Always On VPN' in the system VPN settings for that to happen?
I'm on Android 9.

Hello!

If the disconnection from the previous network did not cause an unrecoverable OpenVPN error Eddie would re-connect, of course, because the VPN would have remained paused and the tunnel up (no leaks possible).

Otherwise what you suggest would be terribly wrong, as it would expose you to traffic leaks during the re-connection.

Anyway, since you run Android 9, you can enable proper options in your system to prevent traffic leaks outside the VPN tunnel and then disable VPN lock from "Settings" view. Doing so will let Eddie re-connect in any case, and you will not suffer traffic leaks outside the tunnel, not even during re-connections caused by unrecoverable OpenVPN error.

Kind regards
 

[filarakia 1]

3 minutes ago, Staff said:

did not cause an unrecoverable OpenVPN error

I see. So it seems I get this kind of unrecoverable OpenVPN error every time my phone loses Wifi and switches to mobile data? I will run more tests to be sure.
 

4 minutes ago, Staff said:

you can enable proper options

Are you referring to enabling 'Always On VPN' in the system VPN settings? Or are there more options (and what are those please)?

[Staff 9973]

@dinosm

Hello!

1. Yes, it's possible and the only explanation we can think of (you can check the log anyway, if in doubt feel free to send it to us).

2. Please enable both "Always On VPN" and "Block connections without VPN". After that you can disable "VPN Lock" in Eddie's "Settings" > "VPN".

Kind regards
 

[frisbee 3]

I came here looking for the same thing. It seems that "Block connections without VPN" also block local network traffic Ev en if it's excluded from the Eddie app. Is there any way around this?

Thanks!
.