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

In this tutorial, you will learn how to set up the IKEv2 VPN connection on your iOS device. This is an alternative way of connecting to Surfshark servers that will come in handy if the Surfshark VPN app can not be installed on your iOS or it does not perform as expected.

You will learn how to:

Get your credentials
Get server IP address
Download and install the VPN profile
Connect to the VPN

You will need a device running the iOS operating system and an active Surfshark subscription. If you don’t have the subscription yet, you can get it here.

Get your credentials

You will need Surfshark service credentials to connect to the VPN using a manual IKEv2 connection. Do not confuse these with your regular credentials, namely your email address and your password.

Here is how you can get your Surfshark service credentials:

Go to this page. On this page, you will find all the details required for manual connection.

If you can not open that page, try this one instead.

You may need to log in before proceeding to this page. In that case, enter your email address and your password, then click Log in.
Tap on the Credentials tab. You will find Surfshark service credentials there.

It is a good idea to keep this page open for now. You will need these credentials a bit later.

Get server IP address

Every server has an IP address that you will need to use to connect to the specific VPN location. If you wish to connect to the US, you will need an IP address for the US. If you prefer connecting to Australia, use the IP address for Australia.

To get the IP addresses for connecting, click here, and download your preferred configuration file.

Select the IKEv2 tab.
Click on the Locations tab.
Lastly, tap on the server that you wish to connect to, and copy the Hostname or the IP address.

Download and install the IKEv2 profile

Download the IKEv2 certificate from here.
Once the download is complete, a prompt will pop up asking if you wish to install the downloaded profile. You can proceed from there or open the Settings app on your device.

You will notice a tab saying Profile Downloaded. Tap on it.
After opening the profile, click Install.
Confirm the installation by clicking Install again.
When the installation is complete, click Done and proceed to the next step.

Connect to the VPN

You have now installed the IKEv2 VPN profile on your device. This profile will act as a graphical interface that you can use to connect to the VPN.

Here is how you can connect to the VPN:

Open the Settings app on your device, go to General and tap on the VPN tab.
Select Add VPN Configuration...
Fill in all the required details:

Type - IKEv2;
Description - Your preferred name of this connection;
Server - the hostname of the server. Refer to Get server IP address part of this article;
Remote ID - the same hostname that you entered in the Server field;
Local ID - leave empty;

User Authentication - Username;
Username - Your Surfshark service username. Refer to Get your credentials part of this article;
Password - Your Surfshark service password. Refer to Get your credentials part of this article;
Proxy - Off.

Press Done after entering all the details.
From now on you will find the configured VPN profile in the VPN tab that you will always find in Settings -> General.

Move the slider to connect and disconnect from the VPN.

Congratulations - you have successfully configured the IKEv2 VPN connection method! As long as you’re connected, your location is private and your sensitive data is secure.