Privacy VPN stuck on Loading... Please wait.

Jonnis2206

As per the title, I am stuck on Loading… please wait on the VPN. I have already tried reinstalling the program on my laptop. Its on a Windows 10 Home OS

I have seen this problem raised a number of time in the forums but am yet to find a solution.

Ukko

Hello,

I have seen this problem raised a number of time in the forums but am yet to find a solution.

Many situations were unrelated. For example, one of them related to the Mac platform. Others for Windows. Some were due to bugs that F-Secure Team fixed. Others had to be resolved by reinstalling the application; or additional investigation was required.

In your situation (since you already tried reinstalling): could you add some information? For example, what solution are you using? F-Secure TOTAL with its (privacy) VPN module included; or just F-Secure VPN alone? Then, are all the latest available updates installed on Windows 10 (just in case)? And is there any other VPN solution installed or in use on the system?

As far as I could understand, "Loading... Please wait." appears as a gray inactive card in the interface. And there are no options in the Settings, but the same information about the need to load the module? In this case, it looks like some kind of technical problem with loading the VPN driver (network adapter), or the inability to check the availability status of the module in the subscription. When you reinstalled the F-Secure solution, did you try rebooting the system after uninstalling? And also, before a fresh installation, did you try to use F-Secure Uninstallation Tool (Support tools | F‑Secure) as a further clen-up?

It would also be important to know - are you installing for the first time? Or did Privacy VPN work fine on this system before, and then shifted to this problematic state?

Thanks!

// late follow-up (01.11.2024): you also need to consider the fact that using a VPN will most likely require you to log in to the F-Secure TOTAL app. Be logged in using your username/email and password from the My F-Secure portal after/during installation is done. But I don't think that without logging in, the Privacy VPN module will be shown gray and 'loading.. please wait' - bu rather inactive/requesting login. So I think this is not the case.

Jonnis2206

Hi there @Ukko,

I'm using F-Secure Total, with the VPN module, but I only really want it for the VPN itself!

All the latest updates for Windows 10 are installed. There are no other VPNs installed on the system.

The F-Secure Freedome product used to work fine, just as it did on my tablet. Having now installed F-Secure it no longer works, and the kicker is that this is not available on my tablet (Amazon Fire 10) so of my 3 licences the only one I can use is the one on my phone!

I will try the other steps you have recommended, using the Support tool to clean up and complete the un-installation and then restarting before I attempt to install it again.

Jonnis2206

Just tried this, did a support tool clean up, reboot and fresh install did not help.

Ukko

Hello,

Thanks for your response and information.

I assume you made a (free) upgrade from F-Secure Freedome to F-Secure TOTAL as part of their promotional offers (after discontinuing the Freedome solution). If so, it's probably hard to recommend "downgrading" to just F-Secure VPN right now, but you might have that option and opportunity during the renewal period. I think the best thing would be to contact F-Secure Support directly (via phone call or web-chat) and ask about this way (options are located in the "Contact support" section: Get support for your F‑Secure products | F‑Secure).

But in the meantime, since uninstalling F-Secure TOTAL in the normal way, then using the F-Secure Uninstallation Tool as an additional cleanup, rebooting the system and then trying to do a fresh install did not give a working condition... well, I think something obviously is not quite right.

If your system was 32bit (and not Windows 10 64bit like most systems and which are now only supported), then almost everything from F-Secure Total would not work. I couldn't yet think of any other differences from F-Secure FREEDOME.

There is an official KB note on the topic "Loading... wait" trouble:

[Windows] I can't turn ON my VPN in the new F-Secure app. The box is grey and says "Loading... wait." on my Windows PC

In addition to the use of other VPN solutions as the cause of the problem, it mentions the need for the availability of F-Secure server addresses (*.f-secure.com and *.fsapi.com - which means any subdomains on these domains). What could be blocking the connection to them is not very clear. This can be a firewall (or an add-on to a firewall), or some other software with similar functionality.

They also mention the problem of DNS-affecting apps as a possible source. An example is given: Gamban. If you have the opportunity to determine or think if any of this might be applicable to your system, then that would be good.

And I'll quote something like the final advice from that note:

If the issue persist even after making sure that the all of the above things are working, try to restart the F-Secure VPN service on your device by giving the following command in the Windows Command Prompt of Windows PowerShell with Admin access:

net start fsvpnsvc

If this resolves the issue, it might pop up again in the future after you restart your device. If it occurs again, there is something on your device that makes one or more services to not start up correctly when you start your device, please take the device to be serviced as the same issue might cause more problems.

If you need help on how to do this (enter commands using command prompt with admin rights), please come back with a reply.

If after all this, you still won’t be able to correct the situation. It's probably best to create an fsdiag file (Using the support tool | Total | Latest | F-Secure User Guides) and contact F-Secure support directly to provide them with diagnostic information. There may also be official representatives (moderators, Community managers or F-Secure team members) who will contact you directly here.

Thanks and sorry for the long comment.