Any solve for VPN=no peers

VPN Forum
1

I have NordVPN.
When I’m connected I get:

Health Bad - Ratio: 0.00
Seeds: 0 - Peers: 0

On all movies/shows.
I’ve tried different countries. I’ve tried P2P servers. I’m not using a custom DNS.
I’ve tried looking through NordVPN’s as well as Popcorn Time’s settings for anything applicable, to no avail.

NordVPN version: 7.28.4.0
Popcorn Time version: 0.4.9
It says there is an update available for Popcorn Time but clicking ‘YES’ to the update prompt does nothing, and my versions is the latest available download on Github.

As soon as I disconnect from VPN, I get seeds/peers and everything works fine. So clearly it’s the VPN causing the issue… but I have no clue how.

Any suggestions?

2

Hoping someone chimes in because I have the exact same issue!

3

Not a helpful comment, but I am having the exact same issue

4

Same issue with both PIA and Nord…No VPN: lots of peers, VPN activated: all zero peers/seeds. Magnet links work just fine as do external torrent clients via DHT.

Unlike others however, my API updates just fine (other than the ubiquitous inability to update the api links themselves with the update button in settings)

Fighting with an external p2p client defeats the purpose of a 30 foot interface…

5

I’m having the exact same problem using my mcafee VPN

6

I have the same issue on Nord as well.
The only ‘fix’ is to connect through Obfuscated Servers.
According to Nord, an Obfuscated Server is ‘unlike a standard VPN server, an obfuscated server masks the fact that you’re using a VPN in the first place.’
It’s much slower because it’s not using the NordLynx protocol. With my 2 Gig line, I’m downloading at 4-5 MB/s. Still fast enough to watch all of your shows/movies.

7

Still have the same issue on ExpressVPN. The only way for me is disconnecting from the vpn.

8

Seems to resolve itself in 0.5.1. did the following steps to resolve the issue:

  1. launch the VPN and connect to fastest location server.

  2. Launch Popcorn Time

  3. disconnect the VPN while popcorn time is still running

  4. reconnecting the VPN(Tunnel Bear - Fastest Destination)

  5. Select the three horizontal lines stacked (torrent collection menu) button and navigate to the search box and search for whatever series episode you are wanting to watch.

  6. Select the file and wait one minute for it to connect and start the download

I also have it stream to VLC to fit the the video properly to my wide screen aspect ratio, but that shouldn’t impact anything regarding the VPN connection.

9

…except I’m on SurfShark.

10

PIA has something similar called ShadowSocks but it has the same issue of not connecting to peers.

Either way, it should not make a difference weather its obfuscated or not.

Since magnet links and external torrent files work just fine with an external torrent client, the VPN is not the issue.

Its something inherent in PTs p2p client.

If i had to guess, id say something is amiss with DHT.

11

For Surfshark, how long have you had it running without completely killing the process? I’ve had this happen if SS is running for a long time, or especially after the computer has gone through a sleep cycle. But just shutting it down doesn’t kill the process. You have to manually kill the process or reboot, because SS stays resident after close.

12

I use Surfshark and occasionally have that issue. Then I just disconnect from the VPN and then PopcornTime quickly refreshes - the API updates, and all the movies and shows appear again.

Then I simply reconnect to SurfShark and start using PopcornTime again.

13

I don’t know what to tell you. I’m able to use PopcornTime if I’m connected to Obfuscated Servers. Other connection types in Nord (Double VPN, P2P, Onion, etc) won’t show any Seeds/Peers to connect to.

14

I tried it and unfortunately it didn’t work. When I close out of SurfShark and open PopcornTime, I get the message “Error - API Servers could not be updated”, which also seems to be a common recent error/issue.

15

You using any virus protections? If you are, disable those also.

I’ve had a lot of problems with BitDefender lately. Ever since the Windows version updated to 0.5.

16

I don’t have Windows Defender running, and I’ve tried disabling my Norton anti-virus and firewall and it hasn’t made a difference.

17

I’m stumped then.

Hopefully someone else might have a clue for you.