- Proton confirmed its Firefox VPN extension is temporarily unavailable
- The issue is allegedly due to a mandatory Mozilla review process
- While the team works on a fix, users are advised to use the standalone app
Proton made headlines when it made the Proton VPN browser extension free for all, opening up robust privacy tools to users who don’t want to pay for a premium subscription. But Firefox users have suddenly hit a major roadblock. One of the best VPN add-ons for Mozilla’s browser has been temporarily pulled, leaving both free and paid users unable to download or manage the tool.
Users began noticing the issue about a week ago, reporting on Reddit that the VPN browser extension was getting stuck in an endless loading circle. This freezing prevented access to crucial settings like split tunneling, a tool that lets you choose which websites bypass the VPN, even though the underlying encrypted connection reportedly remained active.
Shortly after these bugs surfaced, the add-on disappeared entirely from the Mozilla Add-ons store. Anyone attempting a fresh installation is now met with a standard “Page not found” error. Proton VPN has since acknowledged the situation, with the company confirming the extension is temporarily unavailable “because of a review requirement from Mozilla”.
“The team is aware and working on it”
The sudden removal has caused understandable friction within the community, especially for those who rely exclusively on browser-based protection for lightweight streaming or daily browsing.
Taking to the official r/ProtonVPN subreddit, one user wrote: “I’m really disappointed, I’m a paying user who waited more than a month for the Firefox extension to be fixed, repeatedly told the developers were ‘aware’ of the issue. Now I find the extension has been pulled completely instead of updated.”
In response to the growing confusion on social media, Proton’s official support channels confirmed the ongoing downtime.
Reassuring users on X about alternative ways to stay secure while the extension is under review, the company stated: “You can use the desktop app.”
Furthermore, community members monitoring the situation on Reddit have reiterated that “The team is aware and working on it”, though an official timeline for the add-on’s return has not been provided.
What to do while you wait
If you are currently looking for the best Firefox VPN extension and rely heavily on Proton, you are not entirely out of luck. Until the Mozilla review queue clears and the official add-on returns, there are a few easy workarounds:
- Use the desktop client: As Proton’s support team suggested on X, the standalone Proton VPN desktop application remains fully functional and unaffected by the Mozilla review process. It offers superior system-wide protection, encrypting all traffic on your device, and includes advanced features not typically found in a lightweight browser add-on.
- Change your browser: The underlying issue is strictly tied to Mozilla’s specific review queue. If you prefer keeping your VPN traffic isolated strictly to your web browser, a popular choice for users who want to run a VPN in one window and their standard connection in another, the extension remains completely operational on Chromium-based alternatives like Google Chrome, Brave, and Microsoft Edge.
- Sideload the extension (for power users): If you absolutely must use Firefox and are comfortable with a more technical approach, the open-source community has provided a fallback method. As one Reddit user pointed out, “The .xpi extension can be built then manually installed, based on the source code found here”, linking directly to Proton’s official GitHub repository. While effective, this is generally recommended only for advanced users.
- Use Firefox’s built-in VPN: Launched with the 149 update, Firefox now includes a free-to-use VPN directly built into the browser. While the feature is only available to users in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, if you are based in these countries, you’ll be happy to know that Mozilla has scrapped its 50GB data limit for all summer — just enough time, perhaps, for Proton to fix the issue.
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