As I stated before split tunneling is faulty in a lot of cases, this is one among them.
Split tunneling DOES NOT mean that they actually split the connection in two from the start, it seems the problem is that they let everything use the VPN from the start and then the applications you have targeted to go via your regular connection is actually going through the vpn but then using your real connection to go through (dns problems will occur and connection through some applications will not work due to the nature of the connection being not regular), anyone can speculate how the connection goes, if it’s through the VPN and then clarifying for any public servers that the connection that does the request is actually X ip or if it’s actually excluding the connection to the app itself, but then why are these issues occuring, for example google services getting disconnected, games not allowing connection, some sites will not work.
Games impacted → For example “Apex Legends” (you wont be able to split tunnel it, to your regular connection)Sites impacted → chrome > Google search (down times every now and then) (you will be able to split tunnel so it uses your regular connection however from time to time it will stop working)
Also another weird thing → Connect to vpn with split tunneling on and add firefox to be connected through VPN → open firefox open nordvpn plugin(extension) logon and connectNow the firefox is supposed to be connected via extension (but extension should be connected through the software vpn that has split tunneling on for it) majority of sites does work as intended and get the connection via extension vpn, however some site are not reachable, note the sites are in a ‘grey’ area such as forums that talks about hacking and similar topics, not sure if this could be a reason.
Another thing, if you use a software firewall you will see that while activated, you will allow your vpn tunnel and by doing so any applications that are connected to the internet will go through the vpn and therefor allowed, however if you are closing the vpn and uses your regular connection then the firewall will request for action for every application that you use and connect to the net. This goes to show that everything is actually going through to nordvpn software(+possible) servers before they actually letting you use your ‘regular’ connection towards any other servers on the net, so they do not let you cleanly use the connection, they are using your regular connection first and it goes through the vpn tunnel.
If there has been any misconceptions on my part please elaborate and explain what I got wrong.
Moderators who sees this post; if you consider this to be a rule breaking post due to rule 1 regarding “CONTACT SUPPORT FIRST”, i will just let you know that i don’t seek support I am only saying that this problem exist and just to let this out, nordvpn support won’t help you with your problem as they will only post ‘bandaids’ which is “just use regular vpn connection for everything” or similar answers along with the lines “do this” → encapsules a lot of resetting of devices and manual editing of things which will be hard to backtrack if anything goes wrong for a regular user.