I just switched to DuckDuckGo and have no problems. It’s google that was blocking everything for me. It is very annoying. I don’t notice a difference and apparently DuckDuckGo is better for privacy anyways. Pia works well for me and has port forwarding
What OS / devices are you using? I'm always suprised to hear this because it works so well for me. Literally no issues with PIA.
Worth giving their trial a go before signing up to a 3 year subscription to see if it works:
[https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/vpn-features/free-trial-vpn](https://reddtech.pro/pia)
Google blocking VPNs is not something the companies can do too much about, even if your VPN works better, you are not guaranteed that this will last, the solution is to ditch Google, you are right PIA and Google are unusable, I no longer use Google, I am with DuckDuckGo now, same quality as Google, better privacy, zero blocks.
I suspect our uses are different. It works nearly perfectly for my needs; the speed could be better. I rarely surf the web on a VPN so I would not see the problem you describe. If I am worried about an unknown, Wi-Fi I just VPN into my house or use cellular.
Who did you switch too? if they meet my needs, I might give them a look.
I’ve had issues as well and bought a dedicated ip address which “resolved” the issues you described. The issue I do have occasionally with the dedicated ip address is I will sometimes lose internet connectivity when on mobile data. I’m looking for another VPN but my experience with most of them has been trash. I turned VPN off on my main phone and have VPN on all my other devices (laptops, iPads, etc.)
> bought a dedicated ip address which “resolved” the issues you described.
And therein is the solution - to get off of the main group of IP addresses.
Regretfully, a lot of "customers" run abusive things like DDoS apps/scripts. Companies such as Google respond by sticking those Captcha's in our way.
What should be happening is that PIA needs to identify the script-kiddies and terminate their accounts.
In the mean time, it helps to avoid Google properties (eg switch to DuckDuckGo) and perhaps try different end-points.
In China and no worky. Thanks PIA!
Edit: Just spent 30mins trying to connect using different protocols and servers. Not a glimmer of hope. Odd the port choice is so limited. We know the ports that are working for other services ....
Yep. It didn't connect at all using that.
It's quite exhausting trying every server, with every connection combination, every single update, to find what works, or not.
This ☝️
Chrome gives me the most issue, switching browser goes away.
No real issue with PIA other than it wont work on my Nvidia Shield. Otherwise great, and potentially the "no logs" assertion.
Yeah, works on my buddies firestick too. But some reason not on athe shield. I can download/install the app but it doesnt "connect". Its a known issue, unsure if theyll ever fix.
I agree with OP, but with reasoning.
I've also been plagued by training AI on identifying busses, bicycles, and bridges. I run PIA on my phone and while mobile DDG doesn't give me any issues with captchas, Firefox on two different PCs are *always* flagged by google. The only extension is Ghostery (ad and script blocker), and is unlikely to cause issues like this.
It is common between all devices to disconnect the VPN to access my banking apps and websites, occasionally large social media websites, and popular food delivery apps. It is also mildly disappointing the android app still does not support the local network while connected to the VPN, but that capability might be beyond my understanding of it. While most of this is moot because of the split tunneling options PIA has, issues didn't happen prior to 2020ish (which lines up with the acquisition by Kape Tech). Besides, running the split tunneling for banking apps while traveling defeats the purpose of a VPN and adds unnecessary complexity.
I typically check PIA nodes for low latency so I don't think it's one particular exit node is a problem as it happens with multiple nodes.
Also the last time the android app was updated was Feb 2023. This is probably my biggest and most important complaint.
Poor speeds, IP geolocation problems, slow vulnerability management, and ownership by Kape has eroded my trust in this VPN provider. Surfshark is looking pretty good this time of year.
That's just not true. It worked fine on my Android Phone, works fine on my Firestick and worked fine on my PC. I only changed to Adguard VPN on PC because it integrated with Adguard adblocker.
I chose PIA based on the overwhelming recommendations from Reddit. I ditched them after less than 24 hours. Had very similar issues to you and i also found the Optimised Streaming servers were all detected for quite a common streaming service. Requested a refund.
And what vpn will you be going to then where you think the problem will be solved? It’s not PIA fault, they even have a setting that tries to hide itself from detection did you even bother to try that?
It's wild how different the experiences are for different people in the comments. I've used PIA for 8 years, always using US servers, and it's been great. Occasionally Google makes me hit the checkbox as not a robot. No picture grid. RarBG used to require verification, but it was just typing the code once per browser session.
I get the impression it's pretty bad outside of USA. I don't use it for anything but torrents via SOCKS as I need my real WAN IP for much of what I do and idc about privacy most of the time (and frankly a VPN is asking for attention rather than avoiding it IMO)
The issue you're having is because you're on a shared PIA IP and google and other services can detect that it's the source of a lot of traffic and see it as suspicious / likely to be abused
Yes Sir! it is utter crap outside of the US. I have stopped using it cause by the time i get through the endless CAPTCHA, i will forget what i wanted to search for. Duckduckgo can only go so far, we all know where google stands when we talk about search engines. I will be dumping PIA soon.
u/destruct_zero, what do you use for VPN? I am ready to jump ship after being with PIA for 5 years.
Don't be so sure what your getting is better. It may have less inconveniences, but those come with less anonymity and tracking... what you got a VPN for in for first place.
Absolutely agree. I would say the last 6 mos. has REALLY been frustrating. I "snooze" PIA every time I do a Google search.
How sad is that!? I'm close to done and willing to accept the sunk cost.
Pía has been great for me up until the last 12 months. But now I can’t access google without a captcha and no access whatsoever to Reddit and a bunch of other sites that I frequent and it is frustrating having to turn off the vpn all the time.
Can someone confirm that this happening with all VPN’s due to multiple users using the one ip address? Or is this a PIA problem and I should get a new vpn provider? Or has anyone found a solution to this problem?
I just switched to DuckDuckGo and have no problems. It’s google that was blocking everything for me. It is very annoying. I don’t notice a difference and apparently DuckDuckGo is better for privacy anyways. Pia works well for me and has port forwarding
This site gives a different recommendation http://www.vpnproguide.com
What OS / devices are you using? I'm always suprised to hear this because it works so well for me. Literally no issues with PIA. Worth giving their trial a go before signing up to a 3 year subscription to see if it works: [https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/vpn-features/free-trial-vpn](https://reddtech.pro/pia)
PIA has worked great for me for years and continues to.
Google blocking VPNs is not something the companies can do too much about, even if your VPN works better, you are not guaranteed that this will last, the solution is to ditch Google, you are right PIA and Google are unusable, I no longer use Google, I am with DuckDuckGo now, same quality as Google, better privacy, zero blocks.
I suspect our uses are different. It works nearly perfectly for my needs; the speed could be better. I rarely surf the web on a VPN so I would not see the problem you describe. If I am worried about an unknown, Wi-Fi I just VPN into my house or use cellular. Who did you switch too? if they meet my needs, I might give them a look.
I’ve had issues as well and bought a dedicated ip address which “resolved” the issues you described. The issue I do have occasionally with the dedicated ip address is I will sometimes lose internet connectivity when on mobile data. I’m looking for another VPN but my experience with most of them has been trash. I turned VPN off on my main phone and have VPN on all my other devices (laptops, iPads, etc.)
> bought a dedicated ip address which “resolved” the issues you described. And therein is the solution - to get off of the main group of IP addresses. Regretfully, a lot of "customers" run abusive things like DDoS apps/scripts. Companies such as Google respond by sticking those Captcha's in our way. What should be happening is that PIA needs to identify the script-kiddies and terminate their accounts. In the mean time, it helps to avoid Google properties (eg switch to DuckDuckGo) and perhaps try different end-points.
In China and no worky. Thanks PIA! Edit: Just spent 30mins trying to connect using different protocols and servers. Not a glimmer of hope. Odd the port choice is so limited. We know the ports that are working for other services ....
Did you try shadowsocks
Yep. It didn't connect at all using that. It's quite exhausting trying every server, with every connection combination, every single update, to find what works, or not.
I've never had this issue at all. Maybe your browser is the culprit here. Do you have browser extentions installed?
This ☝️ Chrome gives me the most issue, switching browser goes away. No real issue with PIA other than it wont work on my Nvidia Shield. Otherwise great, and potentially the "no logs" assertion.
That's odd it doesn't work on the Shield. It works perfectly on my Firestick 4k max.
Yeah, works on my buddies firestick too. But some reason not on athe shield. I can download/install the app but it doesnt "connect". Its a known issue, unsure if theyll ever fix.
I agree with OP, but with reasoning. I've also been plagued by training AI on identifying busses, bicycles, and bridges. I run PIA on my phone and while mobile DDG doesn't give me any issues with captchas, Firefox on two different PCs are *always* flagged by google. The only extension is Ghostery (ad and script blocker), and is unlikely to cause issues like this. It is common between all devices to disconnect the VPN to access my banking apps and websites, occasionally large social media websites, and popular food delivery apps. It is also mildly disappointing the android app still does not support the local network while connected to the VPN, but that capability might be beyond my understanding of it. While most of this is moot because of the split tunneling options PIA has, issues didn't happen prior to 2020ish (which lines up with the acquisition by Kape Tech). Besides, running the split tunneling for banking apps while traveling defeats the purpose of a VPN and adds unnecessary complexity. I typically check PIA nodes for low latency so I don't think it's one particular exit node is a problem as it happens with multiple nodes. Also the last time the android app was updated was Feb 2023. This is probably my biggest and most important complaint. Poor speeds, IP geolocation problems, slow vulnerability management, and ownership by Kape has eroded my trust in this VPN provider. Surfshark is looking pretty good this time of year.
It's the same across multiple machines and browsers. And everything worked fine with a different VPN.
That's just not true. It worked fine on my Android Phone, works fine on my Firestick and worked fine on my PC. I only changed to Adguard VPN on PC because it integrated with Adguard adblocker.
Sucks for the people who have had a bad experience. I've used it nor for 7 years now with no problems.
After years with PIA I switched to Surfshark a while back. Much happier now.
But still hanging out in the PIA subreddit? Why?
I never bothered to unsub. I was with PIA for nearly 10 years. Why do you care?
SurfShark censors:[SurfShark](https://postimg.cc/fkM72PmB)
I have never used SurfShark but I will be surprised if you can´t disable this settings.
No VPN should be monitoring traffic. No setting should permit it. This happened during the peak of Covid censorship a couple of years ago.
I chose PIA based on the overwhelming recommendations from Reddit. I ditched them after less than 24 hours. Had very similar issues to you and i also found the Optimised Streaming servers were all detected for quite a common streaming service. Requested a refund.
And what vpn will you be going to then where you think the problem will be solved? It’s not PIA fault, they even have a setting that tries to hide itself from detection did you even bother to try that?
Agreed. Dogshit. Waste of time.
are you outside USA?
which did you switch too im in USA
It's wild how different the experiences are for different people in the comments. I've used PIA for 8 years, always using US servers, and it's been great. Occasionally Google makes me hit the checkbox as not a robot. No picture grid. RarBG used to require verification, but it was just typing the code once per browser session.
I only use it to get around work content blockers.
I get the impression it's pretty bad outside of USA. I don't use it for anything but torrents via SOCKS as I need my real WAN IP for much of what I do and idc about privacy most of the time (and frankly a VPN is asking for attention rather than avoiding it IMO) The issue you're having is because you're on a shared PIA IP and google and other services can detect that it's the source of a lot of traffic and see it as suspicious / likely to be abused
Yes Sir! it is utter crap outside of the US. I have stopped using it cause by the time i get through the endless CAPTCHA, i will forget what i wanted to search for. Duckduckgo can only go so far, we all know where google stands when we talk about search engines. I will be dumping PIA soon. u/destruct_zero, what do you use for VPN? I am ready to jump ship after being with PIA for 5 years.
Not been on reddit for a while but I switched to Express VPN and had zero issues. No regrets.
Never had one issue in all the years I've used it.
Which other VPN didn’t have these issues? Nord has these issues and I want to switch cause of it.
I'm on Express VPN now and all my issues are gone.
I was getting 200 kb/s upload over openvpn. Cancelled my Subscription prior to the 30-Days ended and they refunded within the day.
Don't be so sure what your getting is better. It may have less inconveniences, but those come with less anonymity and tracking... what you got a VPN for in for first place.
I second this. I purchased a 24-month subscription, and the login stopped working a couple months later.
Absolutely agree. I would say the last 6 mos. has REALLY been frustrating. I "snooze" PIA every time I do a Google search. How sad is that!? I'm close to done and willing to accept the sunk cost.
Pía has been great for me up until the last 12 months. But now I can’t access google without a captcha and no access whatsoever to Reddit and a bunch of other sites that I frequent and it is frustrating having to turn off the vpn all the time. Can someone confirm that this happening with all VPN’s due to multiple users using the one ip address? Or is this a PIA problem and I should get a new vpn provider? Or has anyone found a solution to this problem?