Mozilla VPN allows you to choose which apps to connect directly to the internet and which ones to protect with the VPN. This way, you can protect your sensitive data with VPN encryption while accessing other services that may not be compatible or not have optimal performance when connected via VPN. For instance, you can use VPN for your browser but bypass it for your online gaming, which may have a performance decrease when connecting through a VPN. In this article, you will learn how to use excluded apps.

How to exclude apps from VPN protection

To exclude applications from VPN protection, you need to change the app permissions settings:

1. Open Mozilla VPN and go to Settings.

   

2. Select Apps exclusion.

   

3. Under Apps exclusions, check the boxes next to the apps whose data you don't want to go through the VPN tunnel.

   

   Note: If you want to start over and deselect all your chosen apps, select the Clear all option.

4. Nice work! The selected apps are no longer routed through the VPN and will now connect directly to the Internet.

   

Common questions

Why can't I see the Excluded apps menu option in the settings on Linux?

On Linux, the Excluded apps feature is only available if these two conditions are met:

• Control groups version 1 is mounted somewhere (should be the case for any Debian-based distro).
• The user is running a desktop environment based on GTK. This should include GNOME, MATE, Unity and Cinnamon (notably missing are KDE and XFCE).

Why would I want to exclude certain applications?

Using a VPN can impact the performance of certain online games and streaming apps, as the added routing can increase your connection latency. Additionally, some banking apps may not allow connections through a VPN for security reasons.

Why can't my excluded app connect to the Internet?

Some excluded apps need to be restarted once Mozilla VPN is turned on.

Why can’t I add Microsoft Store apps to the list of excluded apps?

Microsoft store apps (non-win32 aka UWP apps) are not supported.

My app is not under the Mozilla VPN excluded app list

Windows users can add apps that don’t show up in the list by selecting the + Add application button at the end of the apps list. Once selected, you can navigate your list of files to find the executable corresponding to the application you want to exclude from VPN protection.

On Linux you can make an app show up in the list of potential apps to exclude, by following these steps:

1. Create a .desktop file, conformant to the XDG specification (https://specifications.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/desktop-entry-spec-latest.html).

   [Desktop Entry]

   Name=Foobar

   Version=1.5

   Exec=/usr/local/bin/foobarui %u

   Comment=An app that does many things.

   Type=Application

   Icon=foobar

   Terminal=false

   StartupNotify=true

   Encoding=UTF-8

   Categories=Network;Security;

   MimeType=x-scheme-handler/foobar

   The details should be filled in with the appropriate information about the application that you want to add to the Excluded Apps list in the Mozilla VPN client. Please pay particular attention to the Exec attribute in the format above, as it indicates the path to the binary that should be excluded from VPN protection.

2. Save the file under /usr/local/applications, with a .desktop extension (e.g. foobar.desktop).
3. Restart the Mozilla VPN client.
4. Now the app should appear under the list of apps you can exclude from VPN protection.

Related articles

• How do I choose my server on Mozilla VPN?
• Multi-Hop - Encrypt your data twice for enhanced security while using Mozilla VPN
• How can I tell if Mozilla VPN is connected?

Learn more

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