Support Center / Setup and use / Proton VPN manual IKEv2 setup for iOS

Proton VPN manual IKEv2 setup for iOS

Note: We have an official Proton VPN app for iOS and iPadOS that provides the easiest way to connect to our servers and allows you to benefit from many of Proton VPN’s advanced features. For example:

Get Proton VPN for iPhone and iPad 

You can also connect to Proton VPN servers manually using the following VPN protocols:

  • OpenVPN (using OpenVPN Connect )
  • WireGuard (using any “vanilla” WireGuard client, including the official open-source app)
  • IKEv2 (using the built-in iOS VPN client)

In this guide, we show you how to manually configure iOS and iPadOS devices to connect to our servers using the IKEv2 protocol. These instructions are for iOS / iPadOS 15 but should be similar for other iOS versions. 

Please note that connecting in this way means you will not benefit from the advanced features available through the official Proton VPN iOS app.

iOS manual IKEv2 VPN setup for Proton VPN

Import the Proton VPN IKEv2 profile

1. In Safari (not a third-party browser), download our IKEv2 profile. Allow the download and you will see the following notification. Tap Close.

Download our IKEv2 profile2. Open iOS Settings and you will see Profile Downloaded notification. Tap on it.

Install profile 13. You can now examine the Proton VPN Root CA certificate. Tap Install to install it (you will need to enter your passcode to proceed).

Proton VPN Root CA4. Tap Install again at the warning and again at the pop-up dialog that appears.

Install the cert

5. The profile is now installed. Tap Done to finish.

Add an IKEv2 VPN configuration

1. Open the iOS Settings app and go to GeneralVPN & Device ManagementVPNAdd VPN Configuration.

2. Enter the following information:

  • Type: IKEv2 (the default setting)
  • Description: Choose any description for the VPN connection that makes sense to you
  • Server: The name of the VPN you wish to connect to (see below)
  • Remote ID: Enter the server name again
  • Local ID: Leave blank
  • User Authentication: Username (the default setting)
  • Username: Your Proton VPN IKEv2 username (see below)
  • Password: Your Proton VPN IKEv2 password (see below)

Add configuration
To find the names of our VPN servers: Log in to account.protonvpn.com using your browser and go to ≡ Settings (if using an iPhone) → DownloadsOpenVPN.

Configuration files → select the server that you would like to connect to. In the Action column next to it, click the dropdown icon to see the server name.

Clicking on the server name will save it to your clipboard for easy pasting into the iOS Settings menu. 

Server names

To find your IKEv2 username and password: your IKEv2 login details are not the same as your regular Proton VPN login details. To find your IKEv2 login details, log in to account.protonvpn.com and go to ≡ Settings (if using an iPhone) → AccountOpenVPN / IKEv2 username.

IKEv2 username

  1. Back on the iOS VPN page, select the VPN connection you just created and toggle the Status switch on. You are now connected to Proton VPN using IKEv2!

Connected!

You can also easily toggle the VPN connection on and off from the main Settings app menu.

Related articles:
Proton VPN iOS OpenVPN setup
Proton VPN macOS OpenVPN setup

Post Comment

9 comments

  1. ProtonVPN Team

    Hello, please contact our customer support team as we need more details on your current situation. https://protonvpn.com/support-form

  2. ProtonVPN Team

    Hello. Please make sure that your credentials are configured in the application before connecting, that is username and password since the update caused its deletion.

  3. ProtonVPN Team

    Hello Forest. This is just how the iOS platform works, whenever you put your phone to sleep, it will drop the connection, and when you wake it up, it should reconnect. Sadly there is nothing from our side that we could do about this.

  4. ProtonVPN Team

    Hey, this method for free servers requires a server IP address. For example ping us-free-01.protonvpn.com and use the IP address you will get instead of the hostname.

  5. same error

    Hi, I pinged jp-free-01.protonvpn.com and entered 185.161.200.11 in both server and remote id fields. Got exactly same error. I have the certificate installed and followed every step. Any idea why it doesn’t work?

  6. ProtonVPN Team

    Hello. Since you’ve done as described in the tutorial we would need to investigate this issue more with our customer support team. https://protonvpn.com/support-form

  7. highlighter

    Thank you… it works

  8. ProtonVPN Team

    Hey, OpenVPN TCP is still probably the safest protocol you can use, but IKEv2 comes really close in terms of encryption.

  9. ProtonVPN Team

    Hello, the same certificate is installed on our Android and macOS apps as well. Without the certificate, authenticating and connecting to our servers wouldn’t be possible.

Comments are closed.

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