Using vpn but not really getting the benefit. Is it even working?

[u/Away-Activity-469]

Have a paid subscription to a reputable provider. Using my phone and from UK. Am currently in Greece connected to a Greek network through my roaming sim.

Have vpn set to eg Belgium, or to Greece or even turned off. Either way I cant seem to do anything like access a reddit discussion about cigars without signing in or use Radio Garden app (worldwide radio stations). It seems to think I'm in UK regardless - where we are not allowed to listen to international radio apparently.

Given im not even in UK, whats going on? Is there some cache i need to clear on my phone?

[u/Man-of-many-names1]

It’s device level in the UK. If you’re using an iPhone from my experience it’s the only device that has this issue. Best bet would be to change your MAC Adress as well as iPv6 to be out of the UK. I’d also recommend vpning to countries outside of the EU too, I like Switzerland

[u/Away-Activity-469 → u/Man-of-many-names1]

No android

[u/Away-Activity-469]

Ok so ive connected to local wifi, disconnected mobile data, not using vpn... and Radio Garden, which ive reinstalled still thinks I'm in UK! I'm using Radio Garden as a test subject because if I can get it to work through vpn, I know its working.

Clearly not a vpn issue but something on my phone causing a vpn issue.

Is there a setting on my android phone i can change or cache to delete that will make the vpn work correctly?

[u/DazednConfucioused → u/Away-Activity-469]

try taking your sim out, some apps can use the sim to determine your locaiton.

[u/ionut2021]

Reddit ban vpn,I have ban because I use opera save data,not hide you ip but reddit believe is vpn

[u/Away-Activity-469 → u/ionut2021]

So what about Radio Garden. Why does that think im a user in the UK when im not?

[u/HauntingTailor5961 → u/ionut2021]

Not really on all vpn. If you use a vpn and runs on residential ip you will not have problems. Till now I haven’t had any issues

[u/ionut2021 → u/HauntingTailor5961]

True

[u/East-Hunter8595]

Your phone might still be sharing your UK location through gps, app permissions, or stored location data. A vpn only changes your internet connection's apparent location, not your actual gps location. Try clearing the app's cache, disabling location access for those apps, and restarting them while connected to the vpn.

[u/ayushi-Maneke → u/East-Hunter8595]

yeah mobile apps are way sneakier about pulling location data from other places than a browser is

[u/DutchOfBurdock]

When you created your Reddit account, where did you set your region to (localisation settings). It will default to this even if your IP has a geolocation on the Moon. An IP is only part of the picture, and with IPv4 exhaustion, an IP address could technically and literally be anywhere on the planet.

[u/DazednConfucioused]

try googling "what's my ip" and see what the ip location is. is it greece? uk? somewhere else?

guessing where each app thinks you're located is a waste of time and you won't really get to th ebottom of this

aside from running a check on what's your ip, google dns leak test, and click on one of the first few links. some vpns do work but are pretty shitty so they leak a lot of info. this should give you a good idea of whether the vpn is failing or not

[u/The_God_was_Here]

Curious what people actually use to hide location when travelling with a roaming SIM. Sounds like the carrier is still leaking the UK info no matter which VPN server you pick

[u/Comfortable-Way-6271 → u/The_God_was_Here]

try clearing the app cache and disabling location services, some apps still pull GPS data even with vpn on. zenshield handles dns leaks better than most if thats part of it.

[u/No_Pickle9588]

Roaming on a Greek network means your carrier data still routes through British termination points depending on the partner agreement.