iCloud Private Relay is deactivated for your mobile phone plan

WalterB · 24. Feb

Pagiediy81

*Now the question arises whether it is an isolated case or whether others also have a problem ?

What kind of iPhone do you have and which iOS is installed?

Pagiediy81 · 24. Feb

WalterB

I’ll try to contact Swisscom support directly later.

I’m currently using an iPhone 13 Pro with the latest stable iOS release 18.3.1

WalterB · 24. Feb

Pagiediy81

I have not activated the (Tracking) below because I work with Firefox !

"Roaming is also activated for me and also “Restrict IP address tracking” in the mobile data settings. "

24. Feb changed by WalterB

Pagiediy81 · 24. Feb

WalterB

I also deactivated it at the beginning, but got the same error message. I then activated it on a trial basis.

DomiP · 24. Feb

At https://www.coopmobile.ch/de/was-ist-das-icloudapple-private-relay?srsltid=AfmBOoplmtMsy_r8BTx11tYrJcWXeChaZA-SpBYu4XZb_qnGnWyLCLrD you will find a quasi Swisscom guide to setting up the relay. It is from Coop Mobile, but as it is the same infrastructure as Swisscom, this should make no difference.

German media reported several months ago that the network operators were referring to an iOS bug.

Pagiediy81 · 24. Feb

DomiP

Thanks for your message. Unfortunately, there is nothing new in the instructions from Coop Mobile and they are all steps that I have already tried several times (activated/deactivated). I am aware that certain functions (Swisscom Cockpit) are not automatically available with Private Relay. However, as soon as I activate Private Relay, I can no longer connect to the Internet at all via Safari.

Prelude · 24. Feb

Pagiediy81

I have the M mobile subscription and it works…. Almost always. Sometimes I get an error message on my iPhone saying that the private relay had been deactivated. But a few hours later it reactivates automatically.

24. Feb changed by Prelude

WalterB · 24. Feb

DomiP

As I said, I have the Beta iOS 18.4 myself and need Firefox on the iPhone 14 PRo, in my opinion safer than Safari.

DomiP · 24. Feb

Pagiediy81 hmm, okay. Do you have any VPN software or a custom DNS enabled on the device?

Pagiediy81 · 24. Feb

WalterB Thanks for the tip. Does that make a big difference on iOS? The browsers all still use Apple’s WebKit API and therefore everything runs through Apple anyway. But I also use Brave rather than Safari on the Mac and iOS/iPadOS

DomiP

Thanks for the tip. It really was a problem with ControlD’s DNS over HTTPS. Once disabled and re-enabled and private relay worked again.

DomiP · 24. Feb

Pagiediy81 Great that it works now! Maybe you can set up a workflow via the automation app that activates the custom DNS when the relay is not active 😉.

By the way, you’re right; Firefox is also a browser on iOS with the Apple engine under the bonnet: https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/overview/ios.html

I’m still a big fan of Safari on both my iPhone and iPad. Basically, I believe that on-board tools are usually the best in terms of performance and security.