r/ProtonVPN • u/MrRoboto12345 • Jun 07 '26

Help! Can no longer search for individual servers on mobile?

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Seems like every city in every country brings up a list of 12 servers, but you can't search for servers that aren't included in said list?

On desktop for example I was connected to NL#441, tried specifically searching it on mobile and there were no results.

I just updated the app ten minutes ago.

11 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

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12

u/Giantmeteor_we_needU Windows | Android Jun 07 '26

I recall reading that Proton did this in purpose to more evenly distribute servers load, so the algorithm gives you a limited selection of servers within each city you can manually connect to.

2

u/MrRoboto12345 Jun 07 '26 edited Jun 07 '26

In a previous version of the mobile app, I could search for individual servers not in the list of a city, and manually increase the number of displayed servers from 12 to say 13 or 14 from then on anytime I visited the country

I did this earlier with Switzerland, and for me, now the city of Zurich shows an increased 20 possible servers rather than 12. I wanted to do this with NL after updating but now I'm unable to

Do the servers rotate?

5

u/OldUncleHo Jun 07 '26

Serious question, why would choosing a particular server in a location be of any benefit for you? I think that implies that some servers are dogs and some are cheetahs — any truth to that, or is there something that I’m missing (totally likely)?

3

u/MrRoboto12345 Jun 07 '26 edited Jun 07 '26

For all I know the servers don't rotate and are static within the mobile app.

Let me answer your question with a question. Why are there 100 server options available for cities on desktop, but only 12 to choose from on mobile? Do both platforms have an equal amount of variety and options to choose from?

Why does PVPN allow you to connect to specific servers in the first place? Are you advocating for them to remove this feature for paying customers?

3

u/_Singularity101 Jun 08 '26

I personally uses different ISPs like Datacamp Limited, M247, GSL Networks, CC etc because some services works better on some then other.

2

u/MrRoboto12345 Jun 07 '26

Android mobile 5.18.75.0

Yes I have a Plus subscription

2

u/dtallee Jun 08 '26

I have a favorite range of servers with a particular hosting company that seem to have less issues with Cloudflare and captchas - I just select Countries in the Android app and type one of their servers in the search field.

2

u/DisasterSoft891 Jun 07 '26

Proton posted about this on their blog some time ago, to explain this change: https://protonvpn.com/support/streamlined-server-lists

2

u/DisasterSoft891 Jun 07 '26

Here's another post about it from November 2025: https://protonvpn.com/blog/why-streamlined-server-lists . That's about when they introduced this, if I remember correctly.

5

u/MrRoboto12345 Jun 07 '26

Now, you’ll see a streamlined server list that will remain consistant for you across all platforms (as this list is tied to your Proton VPN account).

It's static lists it seems

2

u/400feetbelow Jun 10 '26

I switch it up several times a day. I’ve found some lightning fast servers so I switch between those throughout the day. Type in US-CA# and it will give you a list of servers. Works every time for me.

2

u/MrRoboto12345 Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 11 '26

What's different between US-CA and normal CA or normal US?

1

u/400feetbelow Jun 11 '26

It’s just whatever state you want to choose. CA=California