Fixing common VPN errors and connectivity issues

Here you’ll find quick-fix solutions to common Bitdefender VPN connection errors on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, or iPadOS. You will also find steps to take in the event the VPN is blocking an application, or if you can't access a website while VPN is active. Kindly note that some websites have implemented a system to detect VPNs and do not load or display errors if the Internet connection is filtered through a VPN. We cover this scenario as well. Regional restrictions may be involved and we have included a list of locations where VPN is banned.

Read the articles below to find out more.

Fix Bitdefender VPN errors 2, 4, 9, 12 and more on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/11311/

Apps can’t connect over Bitdefender VPN? Try this:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/30765/

Can’t access a website when Bitdefender VPN is active? Here’s what to do:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/13353/

Bitdefender VPN Regional Restriction: Countries where VPNs are illegal or banned:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/8249/

Why is Bitdefender VPN slow? 7 Tips to Speed up your VPN connection:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/82366/

If you found these articles helpful, hit the "Like" button below and let us know.

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Comments

Regarding Ticket #: 1007246107

Now getting error code 12. Attempted to fix via the link: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/11311/

And got a string of useless text.

Hello @DKotlow,

I have located your ticket. The Technical Team will provide a response in the shortest time possible.

Best regards.

I have error code 2 on my VPN and i tried all the methods that are provided on this page and still nothing work. Can anyone help or how to i can contact the Technical Support Team

Hello @Mike_L,

I am sorry to hear that.

You can get in touch with our engineers by choosing one of the contact methods available here:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and choose how you wish to interact with the engineers. You can contact them via phone, live chat or by opening a ticket.

Stay safe.

I went through the list to fix error code 12 but after removing the VPN I can't re-install it.

"Bitdefender VPN encountered an error and is diabled. Please restart your device and try again."

After restarting I still have the same error. powered down numerous times to no avail

Hello @crashdemo,

I have noticed you are using the Premium VPN. What is the operating system on which you are attempting to install the VPN? Currently, you have two active devices assigned to the VPN.

I subscribed to Premium VPN. I updated it as required today but it has an error message "VPN - error code 12" and now I could no longer use it. I could not find or raise ticket for support anywhere except the long list of links which really could not help. I hope this is the right platform. In any case please assist or fix my problem. Thank you

Hi Ridwan_5564

To start the process of working with support, you can get ahold of them here.

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/#contact

You may receive a reply here in this thread, but starting a ticket will be helpful in moving things along.

Hi @Ridwan_5564 and welcome to the Community!

Scott is right, If the above articles did not help solve the issue, it is recommended to contact the Support Teams for in-depth troubleshooting. Error 12 however is pretty common, have you tried to follow the steps from the below article? These usually do the trick.

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/11311/

Thank you for your feedback in regards to the Support articles. The web developers are working to improve the structure of the content and materials displayed.

Best regards.

uniformbeige1

my VPN keeps disconnecting unticking the although I have the settings on my iphone 7

also I cannot connect to some sites when VPN is on.

can anyone advise me on these problems please,

uniformbeige1

I should have read my previous comment before I sent it

I meant to ask why does my VPN keep disconnecting although, I have ticked the automatic connect box.

Hello @uniformbeige1,

In regards to websites that cannot be accessed with the VPN enabled, some websites have implemented a system to detect VPNs and do not load or display errors if the Internet connection is filtered through a VPN.

Concerning the connectivity issue, there can be a couple of reasons why Bitdefender VPN fails to connect. Have you granted the necessary permissions to the Bitdefender VPN app? For a more in-depth analysis, I would recommend getting in touch with our Support Teams.

You can reach our engineers by choosing one of the contact methods available here:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/

Stay safe.

ticket no: 1007417109

if this is what PREMIUM is with your company, I am total disappointed. I have read several "fixes" to my problem, but I would prefer a simple link to click on and let the folks I am paying to fix it. I have sent emails and screen shots.... the big B hasn't sent me anything to help.

If I have to take the laptop to a computer repair store... will the big B pay??

Kirk

Hello @justkirk and welcome to the Community!

I have taken note of your open inquiry and raised the priority of the case. It appears that the commercial teams could not find the root cause and the ticket was escalated to the technical engineers. Our colleagues will provide a response shortly.

Premium VPN is not part of the Premium Services offered by Bitdefender, if you are referring to Premium remote assistance. Nevertheless, the response timeframe for submitted tickets varies between 24 to 48 hours, depending on the number of incoming requests and available resources. In the event a remote session is required to troubleshoot the issue, the engineers will carry out the operation without any additional costs, of course.

Please do keep us updated on the resolution.

Best regards

Hello, as off yesterday for some reason when i use telegram while my Bitdefender VPN is active telegram just seems to stop loading anything and seemingly refuses to connect. This was a rather recent development and its worked before in the past.

For some reason its only on desktop as well and works perfectly fine on my phone even though i have the same VPN active on there. Any ideas on why or how to fix this?

Hello @Nitroz and welcome to the Community!

I have noticed you've raised a ticket with our Technical Support Teams. The engineers have stated that Telegram might be blocking VPN usage in this case. Depending on their blocking mechanism, some VPN providers may still work, however, it is very likely that they will be blocked as well in the future. The Bitdefender VPN solution can be used to view geo-blocked content, but if the website/platform specifically blocks VPN usage, we cannot guarantee it will be accessible.

As per our engineer's advice, it is best not to use a VPN connection with Telegram. In the event you are using a VPN connection quite often, you can apply split tunneling to bypass VPN while on Telegram. You can find out more on how to do this by accessing the link below:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/13353/

Scroll down to the Split tunneling section in the article.

Split tunneling is available for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.

Regards

When trying to connect to VPN I don't get an error code. It just reverts back to the "Turn on to secure your connection" screen.

I would check the internet connection first.

There are a few general causes for connection errors encountered by Bitdefender VPN:

You are not connected to the Internet and can’t access the Internet via Wi-Fi or Ethernet cable. Make sure you have Internet access before using Bitdefender VPN.
A strictly configured firewall is preventing VPN connectivity (e.g. 3rd party firewall software, router’s built-in firewall). If you are not sure if your router comes with a dedicated firewall or how to turn it off please refer to its manual, contact the manufacturer or your ISP.
Another VPN or Proxy is running when you try to connect. In this case, disable the other VPN/Proxy solution.
You’re on a public Wi-Fi such as work, school, airport, etc. which may have blocked the ports required by Bitdefender VPN. You need to contact the network administrator to try and change their firewall settings.
The port used for the VPN connection is closed. Depending on the device you’re currently using, the port 443 UDP must be open.

Does it occur only on mobile data or wi-fi or both?

Regards

I love Bitdefender, but one thing that has been really annoying is the VPN app for PC. I am currently running the latest version of Win 11 on my computer at the moment. But I have tried this on other Win versions and once enabled. The VPN literally shuts down all access to any connection. Have no clue why but please fix this ASAP.

Thank you!

What other versions of Windows are you having this issue with?

Kind regards,

Scott

Hello @Landonez

Have you tried multiple servers as well? What app version do you have? Does the connectivity issue occur on WI-FI or data or both? We would require more information in order to advise accordingly.

Regards

VPN WILL NOT CONNECT.

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/313486#Comment_313486

@Tweedledee50 have you checked these possible causes? Have you also followed the steps from the articles above? What symptoms does the VPN show when trying to connect?

Regards

UPDATE: there has been indeed an outage and the situation was fixed by the development teams just recently, so if your VPN was in an endless connectivity loop, this has already been acknowledged and solved. Restart your device, open VPN and try to establish a connection now and let us know how it goes. Make sure to test multiple servers as well.

Regards

VPN keeps shutting off after a while, why?

Hello @McCoy,

Just following up on this, can you tell us if the issue persists and what steps have you already applied in your attempts to correct this? My first recommendation would be a clean reinstall of the standalone VPN app, then check if your internet connection is stable, look for any errors displayed in the VPN app and also make sure the port 443 UDP is open. Try multiple networks and different servers too.

Also, check if your router comes with a dedicated firewall and see how to turn it off. Make sure no firewall is preventing VPN connectivity (e.g. 3rd party firewall software, router’s built-in firewall). There can be multiple causes behind this behavior and more information might be required for accurate troubleshooting. If the connection still drops, I would advise contacting the Technical Support Teams for a more detailed investigation. You can get in touch with our engineers using the link below:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/help/

Thank you

VPNs are insecure because they expose entire networks to threats like malware, DDoS attacks, and spoofing attacks. Once an attacker has breached the network through a compromised device, the entire network can be brought down.

Hello @Adamjason,

Reputable VPN networks usually employ the strongest and latest protection and fallback mechanisms to block any unwanted access that could compromise the security or privacy of any user while also ensuring top performance and quality of services. The privacy stance is enhanced by policies such as "zero logs" which acts as a failsafe, in the unlikely event that the network is breached, there would be no logs or data that could pose a risk for the user.

Regards

I was losing my mind with a VPN error code 2. After attempts to uninstall, reinstall and reboot my computer I found something I never imagined was the problem. I rebooted my internet modem. After the modem finished its reset the VPN connected immediately. I spent hours trying to diagnose the problem. How often does this happen and what causes it?

To start out I don't know that much about computers so I bought BitDefender because it was recommended and for the most part have been happy with the features. My problem is now when I go to connect to my VPN it will not connect and this just started happening a few days ago before that it was fine. I have not change anything or done anything differently. I have tried ALL the steps that were suggested and still have the same problem. This is on my desktop running Windows 10. I have an Android phone and the VPN works fine, I don't know what to do now, I cant talk to a live person which I think sucks to fix the problem or do a remote to get it fixed. Any more suggestions ?

Hello @Tarheel 714 and thanks for joining us here.

I'm sorry to hear this. In the event the basic troubleshooting steps don't fix the connectivity issue you are experiencing and you couldn't find a solution on the forum, you can of course contact the Bitdefender engineers directly by using the link below:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/help/

State your contact reason, then choose from the available contact channels, chat, phone and email/ticket. Chat would be the fastest way to reach them.

When contacting them, make sure to provide them with the following mandatory information, to help speed up the troubleshooting process:

The OS and version on which the VPN is running;
The affected account;
Whether the problem occurs on a specific location or all locations;
IP of the affected server - the IP displayed in the VPN interface will prove very helpful;
Whether the problem occurs only on mobile data/Ethernet or only on wifi or present on both;
App version.

Let us know how it goes.

Regards,

Alex

I am weighing in on this issue in hopes of an actual solution. Like so many responding here, once the VPN changed to the new format (large window, with maps, etc.) it has given me nothing but problems. At work it kicks off other apps on the computer when I try to connect it and remotely it will not connect at all, giving me error 9 most often. I've tried most of the fixes listed without success. This is very frustrating since it worked just fine before the upgrade and now it looks like I will need to pay for IT help to "fix" the problem….

Do hope Bitdefender will take note of all the problems folks are having and provide us with a viable solution.

Its been over one month and my VPN on my iphone is always not connecting.. i have to keep manually reconnecting to a new connection to get any data from my Iphone. I have switched different protocols and move to different wifi connections and its always the same. even when im not on any wifi, i have to keep reconnecting. its really annoying. can someone help me with the settings to stop this..? if not i will be forced to move to a different VPN and canceling any business here. The computer VPN does not have any issues.. its the Iphone

The first step would be to use the link below to download and install the latest version of the Bitdefender VPN application for iOS:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/7090/

Because I suspect the issue you are encountering may be related to this:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/99218/

If migrating to the latest version doesn't solve the issue, head to the link below to get in touch with Bitdefender Support and they'll take care of this for you:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/help/

State your contact reason / choose request category, then choose from the available contact channels, chat, phone and email/ticket. Chat would be the fastest way to reach them.

Let us know what worked for you.

Regards,

Alex

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