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‘Starting the VPN tunnel… the address bar unlocks once the session is live’

You might be here because: “address bar is locked” · “Starting the VPN tunnel” · “VPN tunnel up · browser not open” · “I can’t type a URL” · “connecting… the address bar unlocks once the session is live” · “Resolving the exit” · “stuck on starting the browser”

Short answer

The address bar stays locked until the session is live. With a VPN-type proxy that means the tunnel must come up first and then the browser must open. The chip beside “Address” tells you which step you are on. This normally takes seconds; if it stays for minutes, the session usually ends with a reason that says what failed.

Check first

  • Read the chip: “Starting the VPN tunnel…”, “VPN tunnel up · starting the browser…”, “VPN tunnel up · exit [IP address]”.
  • Has the session ended in the meantime? Then see the recap instead.

Likely causes and fixes

  1. Tunnel still coming up. Placeholder “Starting the VPN tunnel… — the address bar unlocks once the session is live”. Wait. A tunnel that never comes up ends the session with a “Tunnel did not finish connecting” reason — see The part of the connection we run did not start and the proxy docs.

  2. Tunnel up, browser not open yet. “VPN tunnel is up — the address bar unlocks once the browser opens” and chip “VPN tunnel up · browser not open”. The tunnel is fine; the browser has not attached. The app cannot see whether it will. Give it a short while; if nothing happens, stop and launch again.

  3. Non-VPN proxy. Chip “connecting…”, “Resolving the exit…”, “Starting the browser…” and placeholder “connecting… — the address bar unlocks once the session is live”. Normal start-up; wait.

  4. Locked for another reason. The tooltip on the disabled bar names the wait (“Connecting to the session — the address bar unlocks once it is live”).

If it still fails

If the chip stays on one step for more than a few minutes on every launch, press Talk to a person in this chat (or open Help) and include the profile’s proxy type, the chip text and the session id. Nothing here requires an account action.