Cause 1. The subscription has ended
The most common cause is mundane: the paid period has expired and the server simply refuses the connection. From the outside it looks like a technical fault — the client shows an endless connection attempt, then drops out on a timeout, and there is no intelligible error at all. It takes ten seconds to check: open the dashboard or the bot and look at the subscription expiry date, where you can also see whether the account is active and when the current period ends. Make sure separately that you are looking at the right account: the bot is tied to your Telegram profile, and if you once signed in from another device under a different profile, a second, empty account may have appeared — with which the connection will of course never come up. That confusion is especially common among people who use a work and a personal account. If the subscription is active and the account is the right one, move on to the next item.
Cause 2. The configuration is out of date
The second most common cause is an outdated connection key. Servers are updated, addresses and parameters change, and a configuration copied six months ago stops responding at some point. The symptom is distinctive: the client shows the profile, the button responds, but the connection either never establishes or breaks a few seconds after connecting. The fix is simple — take a fresh key in the dashboard or in the bot, import it again, and delete the old profile so that the client doesn't try to use both and alternate between them on reconnect. If your client supports a subscription link, connect through it: the configuration then updates itself and, as a rule, you no longer have to come back to this item. There is also a variant of the same mistake — a key that wasn't copied in full: a long string is easily truncated when selected by hand, and a truncated key looks plausible and imports without warnings. Copy it with the copy button and paste it straight away, without running the string through messengers, which like to shorten links.
Causes 3 and 4. The wrong clock and someone else's VPN profile
The third cause is not obvious but comes up regularly: the date and time on the device are off. Modern protocols mix a timestamp into every session, and the server drops the connection if the client's clock has drifted from its own: ShadowSocks-2022 allows about thirty seconds, so a minute's discrepancy is already enough for a refusal — the client reports a handshake error or silently times out. Turn on automatic time synchronisation in the system settings and restart the client. It happens most often on devices that lay discharged for a long time and on televisions, where the clock resets after the power is cut. The fourth cause is a conflict with another VPN profile. Previous services and free extensions leave profiles and network extensions behind in the system, and when there are several such profiles the operating system may hand control to the wrong one. On a phone, open the system VPN settings and delete everything except the profile you need. On a computer, close the other clients completely rather than minimising them — many keep running in the tray and hold on to the network interface, which is why the new tunnel won't come up.
Causes 5 and 6. DNS and the type of network
The fifth cause is name resolution. It happens that the tunnel came up and the address changed, yet sites won't open: the device keeps asking your ISP's DNS server for addresses, and that server returns a stub page or doesn't answer at all. Diagnosis is simple: if a site won't open by name while apps with a direct connection work, the matter is precisely DNS. In the client settings turn on name resolution through the tunnel or specify a resolver that works over DNS over HTTPS: an ordinary public server on port 53 can be intercepted by the operator, which can substitute the answers, whereas a query wrapped in HTTPS is not so easy to tamper with. After changing the settings restart the device to flush the cache. The sixth cause is the network you are going out through. Mobile internet, home Wi-Fi, a corporate network, and a public hotspot are filtered differently: what won't connect through a carrier works comfortably through a home router, and the other way round. The fastest check is to share internet from your phone and try connecting through it. Bear in mind that the comparison only makes sense while mobile internet itself is working: in some regions access on mobile networks is restricted, and then the check shows nothing. If everything comes up over the mobile network, the restriction sits on the side of your wired network or its equipment, and that is where to look.
Causes 7 and 8. Power saving and an old client version
The seventh cause shows up only on smartphones: aggressive power saving unloads the VPN client from memory, and the connection breaks as soon as the screen goes dark. From the outside it looks like an unstable service — everything is fine while the phone is in your hands, but after a pause notifications don't arrive and pages don't load. On Android the solution is to lift the background-activity restrictions for that particular app: disable battery optimisation, allow autostart, and pin the client in the recent tasks list so the system leaves it alone; on some firmware those switches are hidden away in a separate power management section rather than in the app settings. On an iPhone there are no such settings at all — there, look at the client's own parameters: turn on auto-connect in it and don't unload the app by hand from the task switcher. The eighth cause is an outdated client version. Filtering methods change, developers ship updates with new transport modes, and a year-old build may simply not know how to do what is needed today. Updating through the app store does not always work out: a client can be pulled from the catalogue, and then the installed copy stops receiving updates there — the current install link sits in the dashboard. After updating, re-import the profile and check at the same time that your version is the official one: modified builds from third-party sites break the networking part first.
Cause 9. Your ISP has restricted one specific node
The ninth cause is a targeted restriction on the ISP's side. Filters rarely cover a whole service: it is more often a single server or address range that falls under a restriction, so one country stops connecting while a neighbouring one works as if nothing happened. The sign is distinctive: it won't connect for you, while an acquaintance on the same plan but a different carrier has no trouble. The first action is to change the server country right in the client and try again; it takes seconds. The second is to try another protocol if your client allows it: VLESS and ShadowSocks are built differently and are not filtered alike, so one often gets through where the other stalled. The client does not switch between protocols by itself — you choose the server and the protocol. If a route stops working, access is restored without your involvement — there is no need to reconfigure the client, and changing the server by hand simply speeds things up. If out of the whole internet all you need right now is a messenger, the MTProto proxy helps out: it connects by link and does not depend on a vpn client.
Cause 10. It's the device itself
The tenth cause remains once all the previous ones have been checked: a fault on the device's side. A hung network stack, errors accumulated after a system update, an antivirus or firewall not letting the client onto the network. The order of steps is this: restart the device, then the router, then temporarily disable your security software and test the connection without it. If disabling the antivirus helped, add the client to its exceptions rather than leaving protection off for good. The last resort is to delete the client together with its system profile and install it afresh: that clears problems accumulated in the app's own configuration and often turns out to be faster than hunting for the specific cause. When none of the ten items helped, write to the Telegram support bot, or, if the messenger is unavailable, to support@rgvpn.pro, and describe straight away what you have already checked, which client and which version you use, and on which device and in which network the error occurs. With that set of data the analysis usually goes noticeably faster: without it, the first replies are spent on clarifying questions.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the vpn connect but sites won't open?
Most often this is DNS: the tunnel came up, but site names are still resolved through your ISP's server. Turn on name resolution through the tunnel in the client settings or specify a resolver that works over DNS over HTTPS — an ordinary public server on port 53 can be intercepted and its answers substituted by the operator. Then restart the device. If that didn't help, check whether a second VPN profile intercepting part of the traffic is still in the system.
Why does the VPN drop out when the phone is in my pocket?
This is power saving: on Android the system unloads the client from memory while the screen is off. Lift the background-activity restrictions for the app — disable battery optimisation and allow autostart. On an iPhone there are no such settings: there, turn on auto-connect in the client itself. After that the connection usually holds in sleep mode too.
Does changing the country help if the server won't connect?
Yes, it is one of the most effective fixes. Restrictions are usually targeted and affect individual nodes, so a neighbouring country often connects straight away. If changing the country didn't help, try another protocol: VLESS and ShadowSocks are filtered differently.
Can the subscription be to blame if there are no errors?
Yes, with an inactive subscription the server simply doesn't answer, and the client shows a timeout with no intelligible message. Check the expiry date in the dashboard or the bot, and at the same time make sure you are looking at the same account whose key is pasted into the client. This is the first check to always start with.
What should I tell support so they sort it out faster?
Describe the device, the client and its version, the server country, and the type of network — mobile or home. Add what you have already checked from this list, and the error text if there is one. That set is usually enough to find the cause from the first message.
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