VPN not working on Android: what to check on the phone itself

Your VPN is not working on Android: the app will not connect, drops by itself, or says “connected” while there is no internet. Android has causes of its own — system switches, battery saving that differs by brand, Private DNS — and they are worth checking before you change services. Below are those checks in order, with our own numbers where we have them. Everything here is as of 4 October 2026.

First, tell three pictures apart

• It does not connect. The switch flips back within a second — usually the phone: the slot is taken or a permission was not given. “Connecting…” hangs for tens of seconds — the connection does not reach the server. Symptoms step by step — “Why a VPN won't connect”.
• It connects, then drops after a while. Most often the phone has put the app to sleep to save battery: the section below and the guide with numbers, “VPN keeps disconnecting”.
• “Connected”, but no internet. The first cause is expired access; the rest are in a separate article.

If no app of this kind connects at all, not just yours, that is a different picture, with causes on the network side: why no VPN works.

One slot: a second VPN app and Always-on VPN

Android keeps one such connection for the whole phone. Normally a new one pushes the old one out, but an app that has Always-on VPN turned on in Settings does not give up its slot — and the new connection will not come up however often you tap. This is not theory: our log has a person who never managed to connect because of a forgotten second app and deleted the account 49 minutes after signing up (the case).

How to check. According to Google support: Settings → Network & internet → VPN; if there is no such item, search Settings for “VPN”. The list shows every app that can create such a connection. Each has a gear icon: open it for the apps you do not use and turn Always-on VPN off. Even simpler — uninstall forgotten apps altogether.

“Block connections without VPN”: no internet at all

Next to Always-on VPN sits a second switch — “Block connections without VPN”. While there is no tunnel, the phone has no internet at all: neither through the VPN nor directly. It looks like “the VPN broke the internet”: you turned the app off, and sites still do not open. Turn this item off for the app you are not using right now (how to turn a VPN off without losing the connection).

The switch has a price, and a use: with it the phone cannot open a hotel Wi-Fi login page, and any failure on the service's side turns into no connection at all. More in the section on Always-on VPN.

Battery saving and autostart: Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, vivo and OPPO

By default Android limits apps' background work, and for an app that holds a tunnel this takes away exactly what it runs for. How common that is shows in our log: from 7 to 31 August 2026 our app ran 158 connection checks on real phones, and in 143 of them background work was restricted. Of the 17 checks where something was wrong, eight named exactly this as the cause — more than any other (table by model).

What to do on any Android. Settings → Apps → the app → Battery → lift the background restriction. The item is called differently: Unrestricted, “Don't optimise”, “Background activity” — look for the meaning. Turn battery saver off for the duration of the test as well.

Brand skins add rules of their own on top of the system ones, and until the app is on their list, the skin will put it to sleep in its own way:

• Samsung Galaxy — the “Never sleeping apps” list and the Unrestricted battery mode: where to find them in One UI.
• Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO — autostart and battery saving per app: paths from Xiaomi's help pages.
• Huawei and Honor — their own background list: what to turn on.
• vivo and OPPO — the same under their own names; on vivo, our log showed a restriction in 24 checks out of 28. We have no separate articles on these brands, and we do not invent paths we have not seen: search Settings for “autostart” and “battery” and check the manufacturer's help.

Private DNS

Android Settings have a Private DNS item. If a custom server is entered there, the phone may ask for addresses somewhere other than where the VPN app expects. To be honest, we have not reproduced this case on a phone. But the check is cheap — set the item to Automatic or turn it off, reconnect and see whether anything changes. If it starts working, leave it that way or use a DNS filter inside the VPN app itself, if it has one.

Date and time

Secure connections check certificate validity against the phone's clock, and with a badly wrong clock they will not be established. Clocks drift after the battery runs flat or when the time has been set by hand. Turn on automatic date and time from the network. This is a general property of secure connections, not our measurement.

App version and where it was installed from

• Update the app. Old builds of many services do not know connection methods that appeared later, and on some mobile networks that makes all the difference.
• One app, one source. The Google Play version cannot be installed over the version from the service's website and vice versa: the signatures differ. If the phone refuses an update, this may be why — what Android says for each installation refusal.
• Android 7.0 or later — that is what our app requires; other services have their own minimum, see the app's store page.

A five-minute routine

1. Try again. In our log from 21 August to 22 September, of 58 failed attempts that people started themselves, 37 succeeded on the very next attempt by the same person (the numbers).
2. Check the slot: Settings → Network & internet → VPN — is there a second app with Always-on VPN or “Block connections without VPN”?
3. Check the access in the app itself: has the term run out?
4. Switch networks: Wi-Fi to mobile data and back. A different result means the network; if only listed services open on mobile data, it is the whitelist mode.
5. Drops in the background: lift the battery restriction and add the app to the brand's autostart list.
6. Private DNS and time: DNS on Automatic, time from the network.
7. Update the app from the same place you installed it from.
8. Write to the service's support: which of the three pictures, phone model, operator and what you have already checked.

Mayak on Android: what it does by itself

• Four attempts instead of one. The app tries paths by itself: directly over a new-style address, directly over a regular one, through an entry point in Russia, and a backup channel. In the seven days to 20 September 2026, of 1,171 connections 1,050 came up on the first two attempts, 95 on the backup channel and 26 through Russia (how we counted).
• “Check the connection” in Settings goes through the steps in turn and names the one that failed instead of a generic “could not connect”. If the system has cut the app's background work, the check says so and offers a button to lift the restriction.
• “No protection — no internet” in Settings → Protection opens the system Always-on VPN screen. Turn it on together with Auto-connect in the app itself: the system service alone does not bring up the connection.
• “Always use the backup channel” — for a network where the direct path never gets through.
• Version as of 4 October 2026 — 0.7.40, the same on Google Play and as a file on the home page; Android 7.0 or later.
• What we do not promise. That it “always works”: your network is your own. In the mobile whitelist mode Mayak will not connect.

What we checked

• The path to Always-on VPN — from Google's Android help, read on 4 October 2026.
• Background restriction — 158 connection checks on real phones in our app, 7–31 August 2026.
• The retry — our connection log, 21 August to 22 September 2026.
• Shares of the four attempts — our log for the seven days to 20 September 2026.
• App version — our version file, 4 October 2026: 0.7.40 on the website and on Google Play.

What we don't know

• How Private DNS affects the connection. We have not reproduced this case on a phone.
• The exact menu items on vivo, OPPO and other skins. They change between versions; tested paths are only in the articles about Samsung, Xiaomi and Huawei.
• How often a wrong clock broke a connection. This is a general property of secure connections; we have no measurements of our own.
• How your network behaves. Only you can see it. If it does not work, write to us with your phone model, Android version, operator and city (contacts).

Quick answers

Why is my VPN not working on Android? Most often: the slot is taken by another app, the phone puts the app to sleep to save battery, the access has expired, or the network does not let the connection through. The five-minute routine tells them apart.

Why does the VPN on Android turn on and immediately off? Usually another app with Always-on VPN holds the slot, or the system permission was not given. How to check.

I turned the VPN off on Android and lost the internet? The app still has “Block connections without VPN” switched on. Turn it off.

Why does the VPN on Android disconnect by itself? The phone puts the app to sleep to save battery. Lift the background restriction and turn on the brand's autostart: how.

The VPN works on Wi-Fi but not on mobile data? That is the network, not the phone: what we measured on operators.

Why is the VPN not working on Xiaomi or Samsung? Most often because of the brand's battery saving: Xiaomi, Samsung.