Hello everyone,
This is the report from user support team for the month of December 2025.
Note: (↑), (↓) and (-) are indicating if the number of tickets we received for these topics have been increasing, decreasing or have been the same from the previous month respectively.
- Summary of updates from user support
- General user support
- Farsi-speaking user support
- Russian-speaking user support
- Frontdesk (email user support channel)
- Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal user support channels
- Highlights from the Tor Forum
- Highlights from Google Play Store
# Summary of updates from user support
## General user support
* 482 tickets in total (↑81 as compared to November)
* 316 tickets on Email
* 139 tickets on Telegram
* 18 tickets on WhatsApp
* 9 tickets on Signal
### Tor VPN beta
* Across our various user support channels we received 33 tickets about Tor VPN beta, with some major topics being:
- Users enquiring about WebTunnel support for Tor VPN. [WebTunnel bridges] are now supported with the release Tor VPN Beta 4 and the Tor VPN user documentation was updated to reflect that.
- Instructions to download and install Tor VPN beta.
- Instructions to use the ['Kill Switch'] on Tor VPN.
- Users unable to connect to connect Tor VPN due to having [Private DNS] configured.
- Users unable to install [Tor VPN from Aurora Store] on Android devices without Google Mobile Services (GMS).
[WebTunnel bridges]:Add WebTunnel support for users-added bridges (#411) · Issues · The Tor Project / Applications / vpn · GitLab
['Kill Switch']: Kill Switch - Features - Tor VPN — Tor
[Private DNS]: Can't use private DNS with Tor VPN (#147) · Issues · The Tor Project / Applications / vpn · GitLab
[Tor VPN from Aurora Store]: Tor VPN is unusable when downloaded from the Aurora Store, possibly due to lack of GMS or microG (#395) · Issues · The Tor Project / Applications / vpn · GitLab
## Farsi-speaking user support
* 29 tickets in total (↓1 as compared to November)
* 6 tickets on Email
* 23 tickets on Telegram
## Russian-speaking user support
* 880 tickets in total (↓154 as compared to November)
* 114 tickets on Email
* 760 tickets on Telegram
* 2 tickets on Signal
* 4 tickets on WhatsApp
### Tor (and its PTs) is blocked during the "whitelisting" period
Circumventing censorship during the "whitelisting" period in Russia is still not possible using Tor-powered tools. Users in Russia have been discussing this issue on the Tor Forum:
Help find working method to circumvent Internet shutdown method in Russia! - #62 by unic3rn.
Although [obfs4]() remains the most widely used pluggable transport in Russia, since July 2025, WebTunnel and Snowflake have seen increased usage as obfs4 is reported to be blocked by most of the mobile ISPs in Russia.
[obfs4]: Users – Tor Metrics
# Frontdesk (email user support channel)
* 532(↑) RT tickets created
* 436(↑) RT tickets resolved
Tickets by topics and numbers:
1. 186(↓) tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese speaking users.
2. 114(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries.
3. 34(↑) tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install on Desktop (Windows, macOS and Linux).
4. 22(↑) tickets: questions, feedback and help with troubleshooting Tor VPN beta.
5. 10(↑) tickets: reports of websites blocking Tor connections or not performing well in Tor Browser.
6. 6(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi.
7. 5(↑) tickets: instructions to download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy for legacy operating systems.
8. 6(↓) tickets: reports of fake apps on iOS AppStore masquerading as official Tor Browser and questions about which Tor app to install on iOS (i.e. Onion Browser or Orbot).
9. 8(↑) tickets: help with instructions to download, install or properly uninstalling Tor Browser.
10. 4(↑) tickets: help with getting started with Tor Browser and other general questions about the browser.
11. 3(↑) tickets: help with setting up Snowflake proxy.
12. 3(↑) tickets: question about onion services and how to access them.
13. 3(↑) tickets: users seeing a "proxy refused" error when visiting websites on Tor Browser for Android using Samsung devices.
14. 2(↑) tickets: [Unable to load websites] after a fresh install / updating Tor Browser for Android.
15. 2(↑) tickets: queries about the internship programs that Tor is participating in.
16. 2(↑) tickets: [ExoneraTor] giving incorrect messages.
17. 2(↑) tickets: Tor Browser on ChromeOS.
18. 1(-) ticket: help with installing little-t tor (the network daemon).
19. 1(↑) ticket: question about [Dark Mode] in Tor Browser.
20. 1(↑) ticket: Bug report - [Snowflake WebExtension on Firefox] needs a browser restart after the computer is put back on from hibernation
21. 1(↑) ticket: query about the Tab grouping feature on Tor Browser.
22. 1(↑) ticket: query about refreshing Tor Browser Developer's GPG keys to verify latest Tor Browser binary file.
23. 1(↑) ticket: question about the 'New Identity" feature in Tor Browser and how it works.
24. 1(↑) ticket: query about [importing and exporting bookmarks] on Tor Browser for Android.
25. 1(↑) ticket: question about Canvas Fingerprinting protection in Tor Browser and how to disable it for a particular website.
26. 1(↑) ticket: instructions on how to get Tor Browser binaries from GetTor.
[Unable to load websites]: Sometimes unable to load websites after fresh install (also maybe after updating tba) despite successful bootstrap. (#44398) · Issues · The Tor Project / Applications / Tor Browser · GitLab
[ExoneraTor]: ExoneraTor gives incorrect error messages (#520) · Issues · The Tor Project / Web / tpo · GitLab
[Dark Mode]: Dark mode in Tor Browser (#40337) · Issues · The Tor Project / Applications / Tor Browser · GitLab
[Snowflake WebExtension on Firefox]: Snowflake WebExtension on Firefox needs a browser restart after the computer is put back on from hibernation (#123) · Issues · The Tor Project / Anti-censorship / Pluggable Transports / Snowflake WebExtension · GitLab
[importing and exporting bookmarks]: Provide import/export bookmarks functionality on mobile (#31617) · Issues · The Tor Project / Applications / Tor Browser · GitLab
# Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal user support channels
* 955(↓) tickets resolved
Breakdown:
* 922(↓) tickets on Telegram
* 11(↑) tickets on Signal
* 22(↓) tickets on WhatsApp
Tickets by topics and numbers:
1. 766(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries.
2. 46(↑) tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese speaking users.
3. 23(↓) tickets: [GetBridgesBot on Telegram freezes], stops sending bridges and users have to clear chat history.
4. 23(-) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi.
5. 17(↑) tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install on Desktop (Windows, macOS and Linux).
6. 12(↓) tickets: helping users on iOS, using Onion Browser or Orbot, to use censorship circumvention methods.
7. 11(↓) tickets: questions, feedback and help with troubleshooting Tor VPN beta.
8. 9(↓) tickets: instructions on how to get Tor Browser binaries from GetTor.
9. 7(↑) tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install on Android.
10. 3(↑) tickets: users seeing a "proxy refused" error when visiting websites on Tor Browser for Android using Samsung devices.
11. 3(↑) tickets: help with installing Tor Browser on Desktop on Linux.
12. 3(↑) tickets: instructions to download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy for legacy operating systems.
13. 2(-) tickets: questions about onion services and how to access them.
14. 2(↑) tickets: help with using Snowflake with Tor to circumvent censorship.
15. 2(↓) tickets: help with configuring bridges to use with little-t tor (the network daemon).
16. 1(↓) ticket: help with instructions to use bridges with Orbot on Android.
17. 1(-) ticket: instructions to use WebTunnel bridges with Tor Browser.
18. 1(↑) ticket: instructions to use manually obtained bridges with Tor Browser.
[GetBridgesBot on Telegram freezes]: GetBridgesBot freezes and stops sending bridges (#286) · Issues · The Tor Project / Anti-censorship / rdsys · GitLab
# Highlights from the Tor Forum
* [Troubleshooting Tor Browser on Windows 11].
* [Tor Browser and uBlock Origin].
[Troubleshooting Tor Browser on Windows 11]: Problem To Use Tor Browser on Windows 11
[Tor Browser and uBlock Origin]: Why doesn't Tor Browser ship with UBlock origin?
# Highlights from Google Play Store
* Tor Browser for Android (TBA) had a Google Play rating of 4.389 (↓0.006) stars in December, which is lower as compared to in November.
* Tor Browser for Android (TBA) got 655 (↓36) new reviews. The total count of reviews for the app stands at 66,887.
* Tor Browser for Android Alpha (TBA Alpha) app had a rating of 4.139 (↓0.043) in December which is lower as compared to in November.
* In November, Tor Browser for Android Alpha (TBA Alpha) got 50 (↑21) new reviews. The total count of reviews for the app stands at 8,746.
* Tor VPN beta was installed almost 38200 times by the end of December.
The top 5 countries by the number of installations being (in descending order): Iran, India, United States, Russia, and France.
* For Tor Browser, quite similar to last month, the main issues highlighted by the users in their comments and reviews were:
- internet censorship in Russia and users looking for ways to bypass it.
- Tor Browser for Android being slow to browse.
- Tor Browser failing in the background with a "Proxy server refused connection" error while browsing. This bug has been particularly affecting users with Samsung Android devices.
Thanks!
-- ebanam