In this tutorial, you will learn how to manually connect to VPN servers on your iOS device.
To set up a manual VPN connection, you will need an iOS device running iOS 13 or later and an active Surfshark VPN subscription, which you can purchase on our pricing page.
You will learn how to:
- Get your credentials
- Choose a Surfshark server
- Configure the manual connection using the Surfshark app
- Ensure your connection is successful
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.
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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.
Choose a Surfshark server
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On the same page, go to the Locations tab and locate the server you wish to connect to.
- Tap on the server you wish to connect to.
- Copy the Server address – you will need to enter it later to connect.
Configure the manual connection using the Surfshark app
If you haven't installed the Surfshark app yet, please follow our article on how to set up Surfshark VPN on iOS.
- Launch the Surfshark app and press Log in.
- Tap Manual connection.
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Fill in all the details:
Protocol: You can leave the default option or choose your preferred one (OpenVPN UDP or OpenVPN TCP)
Service username: Surfshark service username (refer to Get your credentials section in this article)Service password: Surfshark service password (refer to Get your credentials section in this article)
Hostname / IP: Hostname or the IP address of the server you want to connect to (refer to Choose a Surfshark server section in this article)
Port: It will change automatically. In case it does not:
OpenVPN (UDP): 1194
OpenVPN (TCP): 1443
IKEv2: 4500
Make sure to select which protocol you'd like to use.
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Tap Connect.
- You may get pop-up if you're connecting to the VPN for the first time. Tap Allow.
- The next thing you'll see will be the connection status window. If the connection was successful, you should see the connection status in a green bar, your new IP address, and a button to disconnect. To disconnect, tap Disconnect.
Ensure your connection is successful
Let’s see if your connection is successful after setting up a VPN. You can do it by performing an IP leak test and a DNS leak test on our website.
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