- Proton confirmed that their Firefox VPN extension is temporarily unavailable
- The issue is reportedly 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 everyone, 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 started noticing the problem about a week ago and reported on Reddit that the VPN browser extension was stuck in an endless loading circle. This freeze prevented access to important 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 errors appeared, the add-on disappeared entirely from the Mozilla Add-ons store. Anyone attempting a fresh install is now met with a standard “Page not found” error. Proton VPN has since acknowledged the situation, with the company confirming that the extension is temporarily unavailable “due to a review requirement from Mozilla”.
“The team is aware and working on it”
The sudden removal has caused understandable friction in the community, especially for those who rely solely 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 over a month for the Firefox extension to be fixed and repeatedly told the developers were ‘aware’ of the problem. Now I think the extension has been pulled completely instead of being updated.”
What happened to the firefox extension? from r/ProtonVPN
In response to the growing confusion on social media, Proton’s official support channels confirmed the ongoing downtime.
To reassure users on X of alternative ways to stay secure while the extension is under review, the company stated, “You can use the desktop app.”
Additionally, community members monitoring the situation on Reddit reiterated that “The team is aware and working on it,” although an official timeline for the add-on’s return has not been given.
What to do while you wait
If you’re currently looking for the best Firefox VPN extension and are heavily dependent on Proton, you’re not 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, encrypts 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 notification queue. If you prefer to keep 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 default connection in another, the extension remains fully operational on Chromium-based alternatives like Google Chrome, Brave, and Microsoft Edge.
- Pageload 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 and then manually installed, based on the source code found here,” linking directly to Proton’s official GitHub repository. Although effective, this is generally only recommended for advanced users.
- Use Firefox’s built-in VPN: Launched with the 149 update, Firefox now includes a free VPN directly built into the browser. While the feature is only available to users in the US, UK, Germany, and France, if you’re based in those countries, you’ll be happy to know that Mozilla scrapped its 50GB data limit for the entire summer — perhaps enough time for Proton to fix the problem.
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