[Feature Request] Split tunneling for macOS

[fabriziobagala]

Issue report

Operating system: macOS Big Sur 11.6
App version: 2021.4

Issue description

Implement split tunneling functionality on macOS, without using third-party applications.

[faern]

macOS is one of the last platforms where we have not yet implemented split tunneling. Thanks for opening the issue. This can act as a tracking issue for the feature.

Current status: Implementing split tunneling on macOS has not started yet.

[Anderhar]

Joining in! I am currently trying to hook into the cloud gaming on my Mac and am quite confused by the fact that I can't easily make an exception for the streaming app without exposing all of my other traffic. Split tunneling would be extremely useful here.

[stephenkilpatrick]

Joining in! I am currently trying to hook into the cloud gaming on my Mac and am quite confused by the fact that I can't easily make an exception for the streaming app without exposing all of my other traffic. Split tunneling would be extremely useful here.

Hey! That's the same reason I'm wanting app based split tunneling. I'm using Shadow gaming service, and I don't think that they use static IPs that I could use to manually create split tunneling in the config files.

[iogitio]

App-level split-tunneling would be EXTREMELY handy... PIA has this and it works perfectly! Hope Mullvad can implement this too :)

[neorrk]

Is there any ETA for this feature? I have to rely on VM software to run some apps without Mullvad.

[faern]

I'm sorry, but we have not started working on this.

[fabriziobagala]

@faern is there any news about this feature? When this feature will be implemented, it would be nice if there was the ability to bypass apps and websites.

[faern]

Sadly no. We are trying to get into the schedule for next year.

[dymk]

I would also be interested in split-tunneling as a feature - although my use-case is more scoped. I only need to exclude specific IP addresses from the split tunnel, which represent other wireguard servers I connect to.

[faern]

I would also be interested in split-tunneling as a feature - although my use-case is more scoped. I only need to exclude specific IP addresses from the split tunnel, which represent other wireguard servers I connect to.

You can do this manually by setting up specific routes and firewall rules in PF with higher priority than our firewall rules. However we don't have a guide for this and I don't have the exact commands to give you.

[puppycodes]

Is the implementation of this feature more complex for osx? Should we expect mac updates in general to lag behind releases for windows and linux into the future? Just curious how yall prioritize, no shade though! appreciate everything you do! just curious

[faern]

It's more about not really having the time and macOS being a rather small platform (in terms of our user base). But it is on the roadmap for this year to experiment with split tunneling on macOS.

[TempUser13]

Is it still on the road map / being worked on?

[faern]

Is it still on the road map / being worked on?

Yes.

[faern]

We experimented with it a while back. Wrote a little PoC to try it out. But it's put in the backlog since we have decided that anti-censorship is more important for this quarter.

[gitstuffedm8]

Mullvad is a great VPN provider. I tried 4 others and this is the only one I resubscribed to. 10/10 thank you! I am adding my support for MacOS split tunnel feature, per app, etc. It's magical on Android and would greatly assist on MacOS. Do you think it might go out of the backlog next?

[kantanisaa]

I feel just like gitstuffedm8.

I have finally found a VPN service that works exceptionally. But missing the split tunnel feature on Mac, is a big disadvantage for me. I would hate to get back another provider like Surfshark just to get this functionality.

[faern]

Is split tunneling for macOS still in the backlog?

Yes. But we are currently busy with other features. I hope we can implement it during 2024.

[papaGregor]

@faern Can we add a macOS tag to this thread?

[dukesx]

Another MacOS user here, would love to see split tunnel as a feature. Twitter and Facebook go crazy because of location changes and start blocking accounts. I think split tuneling is "where" you give control the user about how "they" utilise your struggle against anti censorship.

[MrChocolatine]

Guys, looks like they have finally started to work on this feature => #5844 , that's cool.

[jonatino]

Would this be possible on iOS?

[faern]

@jonatino Please see #3801 for the corresponding feature on iOS, and leave this issue to the macOS version of it. But no, it's pretty unlikely to land on iOS given the possibilities given to VPN apps by the Apple APIs.

[dlon]

This is now available in 2024.4-beta1. Please try it out and report any issues that you may have.

[kantanisaa]

@dlon I might be exposing my own stupidity, but where can i find the settings for this? Checked the change log and settings in the Beta version without any luck.

[dlon]

@kantanisaa Are you on macOS 12, by any chance? We should have made this clearer, but the feature is only available on macOS 13 or above.

[altaic]

@kantanisaa Are you on macOS 12, by any chance? We should have made this clearer, but the feature is only available on macOS 13 or above.

Please do document the required version. Maybe an asterisk next to the check mark in the main readme feature table, with a note at the bottom. Or even better, add a grayed out setting in the app with an info button that explains why it’s grayed out. Or both! I just spent an hour messing around with settings and combing the repo for clues before I found this issue.