VPN doesn't connect, it gets stuck on connecting and then it shows either "background service error" or "Server unavailable" error message.

[gus8923]

Description After upgrading to version 2.13 user cannot connect to the VPN, getting stuck on connecting, then it shows either "background service error" and "Server unavailable". It started with 2.13 (updating to 2.14 and rolling back to 2.12 has not helped). User is connecting via home WiFi that is not his own and has an integrated firewall (changing the router firewall settings has not helped).

Does it impact functionality or aesthetics? Yes Does this endanger users? What would be compromised and how likely is the threat? No How annoying is this for affected users? Very annoying. The user is unable to use the VPN protection at all. Does it degrade the user experience significantly? Yes Is it legally sensitive? Y/N

Centrality Core functionality.

Technical Information

Platform: Windows 10 FX product: Mozilla VPN Version: 2.14 Network type: Home Wifi and celular hotspot

Steps to Reproduce

Step 1 User turns on their computer Step 2 User opens the VPN app Step 3 User clicks on the switch to turn on the VPN Step 3 The VPN never connects

....

Actual Results

When the user click on the toggle the VPN gets stuck on connecting status, then it shows either "background service error" or "Server unavailable" error message.

Expected Results

The VPN should connect,

Support Info

Logs: mozillavpn-2023-4-24.txt

Screenshots:

Can Support reproduce or not? No

We've tried the following troubleshooting:

1. They do not have any third-party firewall/antivirus or VPN installed on the device
2. Restarting VPN broker
3. DNS flush
4. User was advised to install system updates
5. Soft reset, deleting app data files. and full reset (using developer options)
6. User connected the computer through a hotspot network (cellphone) and the behavior persists.

┆Issue is synchronized with this Jira Bug

[data-sync-user]

➤ Gustavo Aguilera commented:

Juan Zapata

[data-sync-user]

➤ Betty Fleming commented:

Not 2.15 blocker

[data-sync-user]

➤ Betty Fleming commented:

Santiago Andrigo can you add a priority?

[data-sync-user]

➤ Santiago Andrigo commented:

Marking this as Medium as it’s quite central to the service but it’s support low which makes me think this is some corner case setup.

[data-sync-user]

➤ Juan Zapata commented:

[^mozillavpn-2023-6-10-1.txt]

Issue still occurring on V 2.15. Attaching fresh logs for review

[data-sync-user]

➤ Naomi Kirby commented:

It seems that the error happening here is that the Wireguard tunnel process (not the tunnel broker) is refusing to start, which results in an error message of Debug: The tunnel service exited with status code: 1066 - Unknown error Unfortunately, this is not a particularly helpful error message as it doesn’t report the reason why the tunnel process failed due to a faulty conversion of the error codes. I have created a PR here ( https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/mozilla-vpn-client/pull/7344 ) which should improve the error messaging a bit and might enable us to find out a bit more information about why the process failed to start.

[data-sync-user]

➤ Juan Zapata commented:

[^mozillavpn-2023-7-7_1-3.txt]

Attaching another set of logs with a different user experiencing same issue. Logs show the same error with Wireguard Debug: The tunnel service exited with status code: 1066 - Unknown error

[data-sync-user]

➤ Juan Zapata commented:

attaching Logs from original user. Issue persists after updating to 2.16

[^mozillavpn-2023-8-8-1.txt]

[data-sync-user]

➤ Juan Zapata commented:

issue with original user is still ongoing with 2.17. Attaching new set of logs

[^mozillavpn-2023-9-28(1).log]

[data-sync-user]

➤ Juan Zapata commented:

[^mozillavpn-2023-11-20(1).log]

Attaching fresh logs with issue still persisting on 2.18

[Sturmlocke86]

I'm having this exact same issue on openeSUSE Leap 15.6 + Mozilla VPN 2.30. I just subscribed to Mozilla VPN and installed the Flatpak yesterday, and was met with the exact same red error message (background service error) as seen further above in the screenshots. Closing the app and restarting, or simply just waiting long enough, makes the red error message go away, but I am unable to connect to a VPN server, because it results in the same error message as seen above: server blocked, check firewall settings.

I've tried nearly all of the troubleshooting steps that gus8923 already posted:

• They do not have any third-party firewall/antivirus or VPN installed on the device
• Restarting VPN broker
• DNS flush
• User was advised to install system updates
• Soft reset, deleting app data files and full reset
• Minus this one (untested yet): User connected the computer through a hotspot network (cellphone) and the behavior persists

I wrote Mozilla tech support an e-mail yesterday. Currently waiting for them to respond.

Update 20. Sept.: Mozilla tech support couldn't help and didn't even try to troubleshoot the issue. I was told the Flatpak was just for Ubuntu, despite the help pages literally saying the Flatpak can be used on different distros. I was advised to build from source, which I'm not interested in.

Update 24. Sept 2025: I just read that the Mozilla VPN Client and Flatpak was updated 19 hours ago and before that a week earlier (version 2.31.0 and 2.31.1). These updates have now effectively solved the connections issues that I was experiencing. Flatpak Mozilla VPN now connects immediately with the click of a button! The issue has been fixed in my case!

Possibly related to:

#9342 #9434 #6599