Mozilla VPN stays in “Connecting....” state on iOS

[data-sync-user]

Affected versions:

• Mozilla VPN 2.6.1 (2.202111151353);

Affected Platforms:

• iOS;

Prerequisites:

• Have a FxA account with an active subscription for Mozilla VPN;
• Have Mozilla VPN app installed and opened;
• Be signed in;

Steps to reproduce:

1. Turn the VPN;
2. Observe the behaviour;

Expected result:

• The VPN is successfully turned on;

Actual result:

• The VPN stays in “Connecting...” state;

Notes:

• This is a blocker issue because the VPN cannot be turned on;
• The internet is not working while in “Connecting…“ state;
• After swipe-killing the app while in connecting, it appears as connected after reopening, but the internet is still not working;
• Reproducible for both Production and Staging servers;
• See the attached logs.

┆Issue is synchronized with this Jira Task ┆Reporter: Madalin Cotetiu

[data-sync-user]

➤ Andrea Marchesini commented:

I don't know what is going on here, but I see the following:

1. the VPN seems to be connected:

   [17.11.2021 11:35:11.810] Debug: (controller - Controller) Controller activated with status: 1 connected: 1 connectionDate: Wed Nov 17 11:34:41 2021

2. note that the date: the VPN has been connected for 30 seconds. The app starts at 11:35:11, but the network-extension was connected since 11:34:41.

3. Warning: QHttpNetworkConnectionPrivate::_q_hostLookupFinished could not de-queue request, failed to report HostNotFoundError

   All the following requests fail.

4. the app is restarted, but we are always in the same scenario.

5. no error messages at the network-extension level.

[data-sync-user]

➤ Owen Kirby commented:

I’m not sure what commit was used to build this iOS candidate on testflight, but it was probably missing the fix for the catch-all IP address in https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/mozilla-vpn-client/pull/2257 ( https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/mozilla-vpn-client/pull/2257|smart-link ) (I only just cherry-picked that fix last night).

Could that be the problem here?

[data-sync-user]

➤ Moritz Birghan commented:

Yes I suspect that it is. I was not able to reproduce it using a local build of releases/2.6.1

Baku already has a new TestFlight build uploaded which is in processing right now.

[data-sync-user]

➤ Andrea Marchesini commented:

The new build is available on test-flight. See 2.6.1 number 4.

[data-sync-user]

➤ Valentina Virlics commented:

Verified this on the last VPN 2.6.1 (2.202111171518) build from TestFlight.

The VPN app can be turned ON with success.