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Troubleshooting

Battery settings: keep PryVPN running (Samsung, Xiaomi and others)

PryVPN uses little battery, but many phones close it in the background to save power. Here's how to stop that on each brand.

Updated

WireGuard is light on battery. While PryVPN is disconnected it does no background work at all. While connected, it sends a tiny keep-alive packet every 25 to 55 seconds so the connection stays open.

Android may list PryVPN high in battery usage because it encrypts the traffic of all your other apps. That work would happen with any VPN.

“Android closed PryVPN”

Many phones close apps in the background to save battery, and that includes a VPN. Without Always-on VPN, your traffic then goes out unprotected. When PryVPN finds that the system closed it, and not you, it tells you once, with the steps for your phone.

Steps by brand

  • Most phones, including Motorola and Pixel: Settings › Apps › PryVPN › App battery usage › Unrestricted.
  • Samsung: Settings › Apps › PryVPN › Battery › Unrestricted. Then, in Settings › Battery › Background usage limits, add PryVPN to Never auto sleeping apps.
  • Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO (HyperOS, MIUI): Settings › Apps › Manage apps › PryVPN › Battery saver › No restrictions, and turn on Autostart.
  • OPPO, realme and OnePlus (ColorOS, OxygenOS): Settings › Apps › PryVPN › Battery usage › turn on Allow background activity, and Allow auto launch if you see it.
  • vivo: Settings › Battery › Background power consumption management › PryVPN › Allow background activity.
  • Honor and Huawei: Settings › Apps › App launch › PryVPN › turn off Manage automatically, then turn on Auto-launch, Secondary launch and Run in background.
  • Tecno, Infinix and itel: in Settings › Apps › PryVPN, allow Auto-start and set battery use to No restrictions (on some models, in the Phone Master app).

Menu names change between brands and Android versions. If yours differ, look for the same words. On many phones, locking PryVPN in the recent apps screen also helps.

Notifications that arrive late

If messages arrive late while PryVPN is connected, the same battery settings are usually the cause: with PryVPN restricted, Android pauses it while the screen is off. Setting it to unrestricted fixes this on most phones.

For the most reliable protection, turn on Always-on VPN: Android itself then keeps PryVPN running. See Kill Switch and Always-on.

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