For each of the issues described below, I tried repeatedly to reach Nord support via email. Each time, they sent a bot-generated response which only advised that I uninstall and reinstall NordVPN. None of their responses actually addressed the issues that I reported.
Each time I reinstalled NordVPN, I made certain that all the “auto” options were turned off (don’t automatically run at startup, don’t run in the background, etc.).
6 months ago, I paid $60 for a one-year NordVPN subscription. Nord immediately began sending marketing messages as Windows notifications. No other program on my computer does that.
Several months later, immediately after exiting NordVPN the internet on my computer stopped working. My other devices worked fine, so I knew the problem was not caused by my home’s internet or modem. I spent hours researching this, to find that NordVPN had changed a setting which caused my “unprotected” internet to be blocked. I uninstalled NordVPN, and the problem still existed. The only way to fix the problem was to reinstall NordVPN, and again turn all the “auto” options off. Therefore, NordVPN can continue to affect your computer after it is uninstalled.
A month later, the Windows Task Manager Background Processes showed that three NordVPN programs were still running after I exited NordVPN. Thereafter, I had to manually stop those programs from Windows Task Manager every time I exited NordVPN.
A month later, the login for NordVPN did not work for 48 hours. This was reported by many NordVPN users on X (Twitter) and on Reddit.
Yesterday, when I turned my computer on, a windows popup asked if I want to install NordVPN. I rebooted, and it happened again. I had to uninstall NordVPN to fix this problem.
How do I know that Nord actually removes all their programs when it is uninstalled? What if the Nord popups continue after I uninstalled NordVPN? Would I then have to reinstall Windows?? Imagine if every program you installed on Windows (Chrome, Firefox, TurboTax, etc.) behaved this way.
As a result of these experiences, I have no trust whatsoever in the NordVPN program. They apparently reset your NordVPN parameters when they do a program update “behind-the-scenes”, which puts you at their mercy.
Also, Nord automatically assigns every new account to automatic renewal. The renewal price for the $60 subscription is $150.
If all else fails, use a program caller Revo Unistaller it works nicely by remiving everything related to any program you want to unistal, its great and it’s free.
I’m glad you posted this. My post got deleted this morning about a slightly different topic, but the issues I am having with NordVPN. They told me to go through tech support instead, which, based on your post seems like it is a bunch of bots. Seems like the mods here are likely shills for the company, and I expect this post to get deleted as well.
Do you mind me asking what setting you had to reinstall NordVPN in order to change back to default? In other words, what setting did NordVPN change on your machine even after you uninstalled it? I want to make sure I don’t have that turned on.
I’m also disappointed with my experience with NordVPN. I won’t ask for help here again, just so I don’t further violate any rules here…sigh. But it significantly slowed down my internet speeds. I often had to pause it to access websites. It was clunky all around.
Unfortunately I paid for a two year subscription. But I just cancelled the auto-renewal as well. Lesson learned.
I noticed that the connection started to get worse over time and the program getting more difficult to interact with. Also the program started to create multiple .tmp files that were unsigned and trying to send outbound connections over port 80. Very strange for a VPN. I have since regretted buying the 2 year plan because even though the program is not working as intended, they won’t refund the remaining time and close my account. Very upsetting. I’m happy to hear someone else calling out these weirdos.
I have since moved onto ProtonVPN and have been loving life.
What’s a better replacement for Nord? I’m genuinely curious because they’ve tried to overcharge me a few times now and I keep hearing all of these bad stories about them. Once all of this stuff adds up to a point, can we really trust them to keep our privacy safe? What are some good replacements as I use the VPN, The password manager, and meshnet quite a bit. Cheaper with less features would be fine I’m totally cool with getting separate programs for all of these purposes. Also Ive been using incogni, but that’s not part of Nord if you don’t want it to be.
NordVPN’s servers are very fast and stable via my Wireguard VPN router (GL.iNet Flint 2) and 3rd party apps (official Wireguard app (all OSes), WG Tunnel (Android), PassePartout (iOS/macOS)). Much better than for instance Mullvad in my case here in Netherlands which I recently tested again. But NordVPN’s own apps are indeed ridiculously bloated, unstable and unreliable. A travesty really, NordVPN should be ashamed of the utter trash they call apps.
Another problem is that NordVPN refuses to provide customers their Wireguard key and needed server info to force customers to use their worse than terrible own apps to use Nordlynx Wireguard. So customers are forced to use Linux, cli NordVPN and Wireguard Tools to get their needed credentials themselves via Linux terminal commands. Again a travesty, because for many this is too complicated.
My NordVPN sub runs out in a few months and I am going to test some other VPN providers. Unfortunately Mullvad is too slow (60-70% ISP speed vs NorVPN 95-99%) and too many blocked websites/webservices and worst captcha hell ever. Recommendations are welcome.
Marketing notifications can be turned off, just ask the customer support team to do so.
This seems to be due to the kill switch setting. It can be enabled or disabled based on your preferences. Since it is a client that has access to your network settings for protection, it can indeed affect your network and may not revert previous settings if suddenly uninstalled.
Have you quit the app using the app options, or did you just close it by clicking the “X” on the window? Note that the app still runs in the background if you only close the window. If you did quit it, this would require a closer look. If you have already contacted our CS team and sent the app logs, please share the ID.
Are you referring to the day TikTok was banned? Many of us experienced some issues that day.
The app should not ask you to install it if it’s already installed on your device. This does seem strange, and the only thing I can think of is a prompt to update that may appear.
Sorry to hear that you’ve run into issues. Rest assured that some of the problems you’ve faced are solvable.
Since you’re on windows start my opening a new window of File Explorer. Click on “This PC” then go you to the file explorer search and type in “nordvpn”. A bunch of stuff should pop up and you’ll want to delete all of the items for nordvpn. Just be careful not to delete anything that looks like it could be from other software.
Thank you OP for the heads-up on the automatic renewal(!).
It would have renewed in april for 1 900 SEK ($177). Now when I pressed cancel it offered to give 1 year + 18 months (30 months) for the above stated price.
It’s still 60 SEK/month ($5,5/month) which is pricier than what I paid originally (about 20 SEK/month $1,8/month).
What service would you guys recommend? I have not experienced (thus far) any problems at all with my VPN, but in April I will have to change if I don’t want to pay for this service, which many posts recently seems to deem as bad.
I’m not a technical person by any means with VPN tools, but I know why I want to use one for safe browsing or work that isn’t trackable to some degree. So I expect that what I paid for should work relatively management free and with little interruption. But I’m literally tearing my hair out trying to troubleshoot why my Nord VPN isn’t working. now on restarting my PC it won’t let me connect to the Internet at all, even if I disable it or kill it from task manager, because on several attempts, trying to logon is impossible to do. Is it meant to be this hard? What am I paying for when it doesn’t pay like it’s supposed to? This is so frustrating for fucks sake.
I am also having issues with Nordvpn. Everytime I reboot my PC, Nord will not connect after starting up. The only option is to uninstall/re-install, reboot. I’m done with this crappy software. Support is useless. Their only advise is to uninstall/re-install, reboot. I will not be renewing…
Yeah. NordVPN once was probably one of the very best VPN services. Until their apps started doing weird things. I’m not on windows but on Mac and that happened as well. Has to switch to the Apple Store version to fix most of the stuff. But since then I’ve switched to Proton which works great, even better than Nord now.
“My post got deleted this morning about a slightly different topic”
There’s a LOT of posts that get deleted on here. Especially the ones that give any info on cheaper ways to get NordVPN. As far as the auto-renewal, I’ve always paid mine through other sales and have never given any payment info to NordVPN, so there’s no way to charge me, but I still turned off autopay.
This will probably get deleted too lol. Not sure if there’s key words that auto delete posts?
For a private VPN, mullvad, but if you want the password manager, vpn etc. then proton might be a good idea to look at. They do a free vpn too so you can try it out first and see if you like them, less shady than nord
You said “if you have already contacted our CS team”. This infers you are a Nord rep. You are also a moderator on this site. That might be why so many users on this site complain about their posts been arbitrarily deleted.
* Each time I reinstalled NordVPN, I made certain that all the “auto” options were turned off (don’t automatically run at startup, don’t run in the background, etc.).
* I always exited the app properly, and the processes still ran in the background, even though I selected “do not run in the background”.
* You said “just ask the customer support team”. You don’t have a customer support team. There is no link on your website to contact customer support, only FAQ’s. Emails to your support always result in a bot-generated response that is not relevant to the issue reported.
* You knew I was not referring to when TikTok was banned. There were dozens of complaints on Redit and X when your login failed to work for 48 hours. That had nothing to do with TikTok.
Instead of defending your product’s terrible qualities, why don’t you hire some competent programmers and have your program run error-free for a year. Then maybe your product’s reputation will improve.
