I have the common problem of Blokada frequently disabling itself and becoming unresponsive (crashing). I know this has been posted a lot, but I have yet solve the problem. I’ve done a lot of things to keep it working, but haven’t been successful yet. I use Blokada+ while traveling for work to protect my internet traffic while on public networks and in Hotels, but it has become unreliable with how often it stops working.
Blokada 5, version 23.2.1, with paid Blokada+, Downloaded from blokada. org
LG V60 (LM-V600VM) with the stock Verizon USA ROM (V600VM40c) on Android 13.
Blokada will frequently become disabled and often unresponsive. Significant notes:
3a. Happens most when using Blokada+ (VPN) on WIFI. It will typically disable within a couple hours of connecting to WIFI, even with a strong and continuous network connection - the phone will still be connected to WIFI, but Blokada is completely disabled. When at a hotel, I nearly always find it disconnected when I wake up in the morning.
3b. When not using Blokada+ (no VPN), it still happens frequently (about once a day) on steady WIFI with a strong connection - but Blokada will become disabled on its own.
3c. Happens very frequently (about 50% of the time) when the phone drops WIFI (walking out of range of the network - for example, leaving home).
3d. Happens occasionally (about once a week) on mobile network and not connected to WIFI.
I have been having this issue since using this phone (~6 months). It has gradually become more frequent, to the point of becoming predictable and unreliable. I also had a similar problem on my last phone - (LG G8X ThinQ, Android 12, Stock Verizon USA ROM).
Did you already try to solve the issue somehow? If so: please state what you did:
5a. Enabled Always On VPN.
5b. Disabled battery optimization.
5c. Enabled background data and turned on Unrestricted Data Usage
5e. Enabled notifications - always on.
5f. Uninstalled the app and reinstalled - causes fewer crashes, but eventually reaches the current frequency of disabling/crashing.
5g. Factory reset the phone - same a above, causes fewer crashes but eventually reaches the current frequency of disabling/crashing.
I know this problem has been posted over and over. It’s similar to the problem in this post and this post. I have Blokada (Libre) installed on my wife’s Samsung Galaxy S20 FE and my daughter’s Galaxy Tablet, and it occasionally crashes for them, but not nearly as often as on my phone.
I’m happy to support and help however possible to resolve this issue as it seems persistent over the years. I have multiple logs captured after noticing Blokada is disabled. I am also happy to help troubleshoot however I can.
Please let me know what I can do, and how I can help.
I’m the poster of issue 32912 that you linked, using a Pixel 7 Pro with the stock image, now on Android 14. I tried everything except resetting my phone and observed pretty much everything you mentioned here.
I worked with the support person (developer?) for a bit but didn’t really make any progress. I’m not an expert but there was nothing obviously wrong from checking the Blokada logs. The issue has persisted even into Android 14 up to the December Pixel update. I noticed at some point not too long ago that it would hang and be disabled, and it was chewing through the battery life in the background somehow.
That’s when I went looking for an alternative to Blokada, because it sounds like Blokada+ doesn’t do what I want to do, and it’s paid anyway. Instead, I’m using my home setup of a Raspberry Pi with Pi-hole and Unbound as my DNS via a VPN service, so it works on my phone even when I’m away from home and I still have full and easy control over what I’m blocking.
I’d love to switch back to Blokada for the simplicity, but without a resolution, it’s become untenable for me.
I’ve never managed to solve this problem. But I’m pretty sure it was connected to my phone killing apps in the background. As I’ve found out that my phone also happenes to kill Telegram after a while when I’m listening to some long videos with my Bluetooth headphones. It just stops at some point and when I go and look the app has just closed / been killed. So I’m pretty sure the power management system of my phone (Oppo Find X2 pro) just kills apps after a certain period of time. (Despite these apps being locked in recent apps and excluded from power management!)
So I think it’s a general problem and not a problem on the side of Blokada.
And I’ve also started using Blokada 6 without any problems, works great!
For the record, I tried all sorts of things in terms of keeping the app alive in the background. I disabled optimization for the app, changed global optimization settings, and toggled various permissions on even when the app hadn’t requested them, and none of those solved the issue. The app is definitely running in the background, it’s just crashing or not working properly
@phillipborrelli should provide a log. I’m no longer using Blokada because of this issue and have since uninstalled it. (I just want to help where I can to make the experience better for others.)
I uploaded 7 logs to hello@blokada.org that I’ve captured as soon as I noticed Blokada 5 stopped working. Hopefully that can help you catch the issues that people have been experiencing. If there’s any further way I can help, I’m at your service.
When you suggest using Blokada 6, is that an indirect way of saying Blokada 5 is being phased out or won’t be receiving updates? I must say I like Blokada 5 more than 6 due to its extra customizations. More importantly though, I don’t trust that Google won’t ban and remove it with some future policy change. If that happens, would I be stuck without a VPN and ad blocking if it was my time to renew and payment goes through Google? I like that I can download Blokada 5 directly from you, and pay you directly for it.
I had the same issues with Blokada 5 (version 5.23.2.1) disabling itself and crashing constantly, I tried clearing cache and data as well as reinstalling, still the same problems. What DID FIX THE PROBLEM was under “advanced” (the box icon 3rd from left at the bottom), “Networks”, changing the “Use DNS:” from Cloudflare to Google for both “Any mobile network” and for “Any WiFi network”. Two days now and it’s working great and not crashing. (looking again, perhaps doing this in “All networks” rather than the individual ones may have worked as well)