It’s most likely not an app issue but your standard battery saving mode on android. Did you already enable “always on VPN” on your device.
Hi, @PC,
Thanks for your question, but I posted regarding that back in March in Post #8:
In case it helps to make things clearer, I’m including the following screenshot:
As you can see, this is what I get when I tap on “Always-on VPN.” The gear icon to the right of the Blokada VPN gives me two choices, Delete or Dismiss, neither of which I want.
I appear to be at a dead-end. Where do I go from here?
Thanks,
HH33
P.S. - BTW, the problem seems to be happening less often lately; don’t know why.
As of right now I’m absolutely clueless. It seems like your system is being very, very funky.
Could you please name the device again? Did you already provide logs of the issue happening to hello@blokada.org with a short but precise issue description?
To be precise, I’m using Blokada 4.11.1. As to the logs, I have not submitted any logs yet, so I downloaded the log file which turned out to be 5.3 MB! However, since I’ve not experienced this problem as often lately (for whatever reason), would it make more sense for me to wait until the problem occurs again, then send in an abbreviated log that includes that period of time, rather than sending a 5.3 MB wad of text data for the tech folks to wade through?
Thanks.
Certainly a log of when it occurs is preferable, difficult to find the problem if it’s not happening 
I agree. 
I was willing to send in the 5.3MB log file if that was preferred, as the problem almost certainly occurred within that time, but 5.3MB of text is a lot of text to have to trawl through! I thought it would be kinder and more practical to wait for the next occurrence, then send in just that smaller section of the log file.
UPDATE: I’ve sent in a log after a deactivation event and it’s being looked at. Fingers crossed!
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UPDATE: There was some initial email discussion with Blokada tech support, but no answer yet.
UPDATE: I sent in another log six days ago after another deactivation event, but haven’t received a reply yet from Blokada.
Just something I’ve observed. It seems to help to keep Blokada (and other similar apps) alive, not just turning off battery saving options, but data saving options too, in phone settings, if we can.
Thanks for that thought. I have battery saving turned off, but I’m not sure where in Settings to find the data saving options you mentioned. I’m running Android 6.0.1.
That’s the problem. Android’s setting options aren’t consistent, between different phones, let alone versions. The earliest phone I have runs Android 7, with no specific data save option, but my Android 8 phone has the option on the quick settings pull down tile, but not in the full settings menu, as far as I can see. My Android 7 phone though has no issue with Blokada, its been running consistently for months, until I have to restart the phone for other reasons. Even the cleaning maintenance options don’t affect Blokada.
I have the problems on Android 9 and 10, with both Blokada and Adguard. But, perhaps strangely, they will crash constantly, usually after a phone reset, then settle down after a few days, until the next cycle starts. With Adguard that interregnum can be a few days to a few weeks. Mysterious, so the app devs have my sympathy.
The other thing I’ve noticed is that another app set to always use location service, rather than the option only when using the app, seems to cause a Blokada Plus crash, maybe when both are trying to use the location service at the same time, but it might be just poor design.
I can’t see my logs showing any obvious “cause”, but I can’t find a way round the issue that when the app crashes, logging stops.
Maybe it’s a problem with your WIFI that WIFI providers can’t fix. Your WIFI would shut off for a split second in the middle of the night, when the least amount of people are using it (Because maybe for some reason all WIFI providers have to do that to make sure WIFI is functioning properly), while you have background apps on. Blokada would proceed to try to block ads that are non-existent (because the WIFI shut off), making the background apps not load anything, including the ads. Therefore when Blokada tries to load the non-existent ads, it crashes. (The WIFI would be off for a shorter time than the time it takes for your phone to connect to your data plan). Im not sure that this is the case, but it might explain why it’s so inconsistent. It would only turn off if you have backround apps running, because if there are no apps running, then there are no ads to load. Next time you go to bed, make sure that all backround apps are closed, and if it dosen’t shut off that night, do it for 3-5 more days in a row to make sure that it is consistent and is the actual problem.
It’s a possibility, I suppose.
I just don’t understand why an app running in the background will run ads? Surely I won’t see them, by definition, which defeats the point? The usual reason for background running is to allow notifications eg weather apps, or email
Apart from that the problem happens more often by day, even when I’m active on the phone, and then for me only on Android 8 and later versions. Now I know that switching between WiFi and mobile, and short disconnections aren’t uncommon, but usually blokada etc stay alive, even if an app like a video player, or even a newspaper reader, with ads, stalls. So I’m not sure it’s the whole explanation.
*Therefore when Blokada tries to BLOCK non-existent ads, it crashes.
That’s not entirely how blokada works with blocking of ads. It filters DNS traffic, which is domains only and returns a dummy IP address, it does not cut out any other data traffic. So there for your suggestion cannot be correct in which it crashes because something is missing.
However, your idea of a slight disconnect of connection, may pause blokada protection and it may not switch back on again after reconnect if the Android system does not report back to the app the change in connectivity. It may well depend upon the Android system working as it’s supposed to, it might be a specific version or derivative that exhibit this odd problem.
… or could it be the Blokada server. When the Blokada DNS server goes down, and comes back, the app does not reconnect, unless the user institutes a manual reconnection?
In fairness Adguard seem to have the same problem, but with two separate apps for ads and their VPN it’s less obtrusive.
I appreciate automatic server selection might be the answer, if it didn’t always connect to the server with the worst ping times it can find!
Blokada DNS is an entirely different situation and doesn’t cause the protection to be switched off, instead you lose all connectivity. It is also not one particular server but a collection of servers hosted by different companies around the world, that does leave the service to be prone to problems with any local provider.
Ah right. The system (or the app?) gives me a notification that it cannot connect to Blokada (or Adguard) DNS, and will use the system default - my IP, until it is restored, which it never is automatically, but usually by just opening the app (unless I change the preferred system DNS instead, which then usually opens the relevant app automatically). Sometimes the notification doesn’t give me the option to open the app but only to select a DNS provider).
So it all looks to me like a local DNS provider problem, and presumably later versions of Android prevent an automatic reconnection to something which isn’t the system default. It needs manual intervention. Connectivity is maintained by the system default.
The only issue for users is why your choice of local servers are so unreliable. In my case the nearest is London. Are they known to be having issues, and what are they doing about it? PS Interestingly, my issues are during weekdays, not so much overnight. Is the server just overwhelmed, though the nearest Amsterdam didn’t seem to improve things. I get that everyone has to balance resources and cost!
Well, I haven’t received any further communication from Blokada, but that may actually turn out to be unnecessary (though rather disappointing). For whatever reason, the app has been staying connected lately. Why? Heaven only knows! We’ll see if that continues.