How to connect to Surfshark in countries with internet restrictions on macOS – Surfshark Customer Support

In this tutorial, you will learn how to set up the Tunnelblick app on your macOS device. The setup can be useful in restrictive network environments or when your computer's operating system is too old to run the Surfshark app.

You will need a device running macOS and an active Surfshark subscription. You can find the available plans on Sursfhark's pricing page.

Get your credentials

NOTE: These are not your regular credentials, such as your email and password.

Enter the Surfshark login page and log in. Then, click on VPN > Manual Setup > Desktop or mobile > OpenVPN to generate your credentials.
Once there, make sure that you are in the Credentials tab and click on Generate credentials.

NOTE: Keep this tab open as we'll need it later.

Download configuration files

Open the same page on another browser tab, go to the Locations tab, and locate the server that you wish to connect to.
Download configuration files by clicking on the arrow pointing downwards next to your chosen location.
Choose which file to download: UDP or TCP.

These are 2 different VPN protocols. We recommend the UDP protocol because it tends to be faster, but feel free to find out more about Surfshark protocols and decide for yourself.

Download and install the Tunnelblick app

Download the Tunnelblick app from the official Tunnelblick website.
Click the green arrow to download the latest Tunnelblick version.
Locate the installation package in the Downloads or Recents folder on your Mac.
To start the installation process, double-click on the Tunnelblick installation package.
Double-click the Tunnelblick icon in the next window.
Confirm the action by pressing Open.
Set your preferences for the Tunnelblick app and click Continue.

You can leave the default entries.
Click I have configuration files (refer to the Download configuration files section in this article).
Click OK.
Open the Downloads folder of your Mac and locate the Surfshark configuration files you already downloaded.
Open the Tunnelblick app by clicking on the Tunnelblick icon in the menu bar.
Click on the configuration file in your Downloads folder and drag it to the Configurations area in the Tunnelblick app.

You can also install configuration files without opening the Tunnelblick app by dragging them to the Tunnelblick icon in the menu bar.
You will get a pop-up. Select Only Me.
You may need to enter your admin credentials to perform this action. Enter your Mac admin account password and press OK.
The configuration files that you just installed will appear in the Configurations section on the Tunnelblick app.

Connect to the VPN

Click on the configuration file of a specific location and press Connect.
Enter Surfshark service credentials (refer to Get your credentials section in this article) and click OK.
To save the service credentials for the next connection, make sure to check both Save in Keychain boxes.
You will see a pop-up window showing the connection status in the top-right corner of your screen. It will stay yellow while connecting and will turn green after the connection is successful.
To disconnect from the VPN, click the Disconnect button.
If you wish to connect to a different location, download the configuration for that server and repeat the Connect to the VPN section from the beginning.

NOTE: in case you were not able to connect, try how to set up a manual WireGuard connection on macOS.

Ensure the connection is successful

We always recommend checking if Surfshark VPN is working after setting it up for the first time. You can easily do it by performing Surfshark IP leak test and a DNS leak test. For your convenience, both are available on our website.