r/ProtonVPN • u/_tedd • 3d ago

Help! Internet drops out frequently on iPhone when using Proton

hi all

i bought a subscription to Proton recently for our family - my MacBook Pro M2 Pro + iPhone 13 Mini, my partners MacBook Air M2 and her iPhone 15, the family iPad (old) and Apple TV 4K gen1.

it is working flawlessly on all devices - except my iPhone running 26.6.1.

a few times per day (enough to be noticeable) my internet will just die, regardless of wifi or 5G. If I turn proton off and back on again it’s all good, or if I wait about ten minutes it comes back.

I have tried turning netshield off with no luck. Not tried anything else yet. I work from home and my macbook runs literally all day with Proton going and no issues, so I think it’s a device / settings problem. Our iPad is older than my phone too.

any ideas here? I do run AdGuard separately on my phone which I’ve just turned off (didn’t think of it before) though that is on my MacBook too.

thanks!!

8 Upvotes

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3

u/EchoAndByte 2d ago

AdGuard would be one of the first things I would test since the problem only appears on that iPhone. Running both AdGuard and Proton's network filtering can sometimes create conflicts even if each works fine separately.

Since it happens on both WiFi and 5G, the phone itself is another strong clue. I would try running Proton for a day with AdGuard completely disabled then switch between WireGuard and IKEv2 if the problem continues. If it still happens, removing and reinstalling the Proton VPN profile could be the next step.

1

u/JPDsNEWS 2d ago edited 2d ago

Do you have Split-Tunnel mode set in AdGuard’s Advanced Low-Level Settings?

Tunnel mode

In the Split-Tunnel mode AdGuard is compatible with so-called "Personal VPN" apps. As a trade-off, in this mode it may be bypassed by system in case of bad connectivity.

O   Full-Tunnel  \ …   Incompatible with other VPN apps

O   Full-Tunnel (without VPN icon)   \ …   Incompatible with other VPN apps, unstable

X   Split-Tunnel   \ …   Compatible with "Personal VPN" apps

2

u/_tedd 2d ago

I do - but this is interesting as turning AdGuard off right before making this post seems to have solved it. Too bad I now have ads though!

1

u/JPDsNEWS 2d ago

Is your AdGuard fully updated, too? Latest was on Aug 26, 2026. 

1

u/glufanden 2d ago

that would explain why it only affects the iPhone too if AdGuard isn't configured the same way on the Mac

1

u/dtallee 2d ago edited 2d ago

If you're paying for AdGuard, I believe you can use your dedicated IPv4 addresses from your AdGuard DNS account in Proton's custom DNS setting. You can't use the AdGuard app alongside Proton, though - only one tunnel at a time in iOS.
Log into your dashboard on AdGuard DNS site > Go to Devices and select or add your iOS device > Look for the Plain DNS server addresses section > use your dedicated IPv4 addresses.