I started using nordvpn for both, security while traveling and allowing me to watch foreign content when at home (US). For the most part it seems to work well. But I came across an interesting use case.
I am using a foreign TV channel app. I can watch everything on ipad with VPN. However, some of the content works on airplay (to Roku) and some not (same source app). Does anyone know what could be the cause?
I just started using NordVPN for similar purposes - watching UK content in the US. I’ve been trying it on my windows laptop, my IOS phone, and my Android tablet.
Basically, I can successfully view content ON the devices, but cannot ‘cast’ (Android/windows) or ‘Airplay’ (iPhone) to my big-screen TV.
The reason as I understand it is that ‘Casting’ (and ‘AirPlay’) requires that your device (phone/tablet) and TV are on the “same WiFi network”. When you turn on the VPN on your phone/ipad, your phone/ipad is no longer ‘on your home network’ (from the point of view of the app). There’s a concept called ‘split tunneling’ that could possibly help here, but - IOS (Apple) doesn’t allow split tunneling (unlike Android and windows).
The mystery to me here is - how is it working for you with Roku? I can’t imagine Roku doesn’t have the same requirement that the source (iPad) and destination (TV/Roku) are on the ‘same network’. Does it always work with Roku and never with the TV direct?
Also - if I may - how did you get the ''Foreign TV channel app" to load on your iPad? When I tried to load (eg, BBC iPlayer) on my iPhone, while VPN’d to the UK, it could not ‘find’ the app because the app is ‘geo-locked’ to the UK and it’s referencing the ‘home country’ as defined in your Apple App store account. I was able to work around this on Android by setting up a second Google account, in the UK, but I haven’t tackled this issue on my iPhone yet.
It would seem that that majority of people who ‘enjoy’ using NordVPN to view foreign content do so on their phones, tablets, and laptops - not many people seem to run into the inability to ‘cast’ (Airplay).
EDIT - what exact error are you experiencing when you say ‘not working’ - are you getting an error message of some sort? I did run into one source (channel4.com) that required me to set my TIME ZONE to match the timezone of the source country (but that wasn’t related to casting, now that I think about it).
From my personal experience, I don’t think your version of the “same WiFi network” limits is at play here. It’s more to do with your wifi/TV is not on the network of the country you try to airplay from.
So to make this work, normally, if you connect your tv with VPN to the country of the app you tried to watch, it should work.
For example: I wanna watch Belgium programmes while overseas on mobile app and cast to TV. Both of my mobile and tv have to connect to Belgium in order to work. Because of licensing they are limiting the casting to devices inside the country only.
And to get the foreign app on the iPhone, simply create another AppleID with other countries. To visit or download, go to settings, click on top your name, media & purchases, log out your main ID, and log in the new ones. Go to app store to download whatever app you want, after installed you can safely go back to settings to log out this ID and log back in your main ID. Updates are automatically and once in a while they’ll ask for password in app store to update it. Pretty simple.
regarding the error: no descriptive error. Just “failed” with a link to retry.
If I don’t have the VPN on and try to play I get an error “not supported in your country”
My app loaded with US apple account. No restriction there.
Generally, airplay works just fine with foreign content over VPN. So, I wonder whether they have enhanced geo fencing for some content.
Regarding the wifi network issue, this is what I get when I try to cast to my TV while VPN’d on my tablet (this was my Android tablet, but similar issues with iPhone): As soon as I disconnected the VPN I was able to cast (but obviously not the foreign content).
Regarding getting a ‘foreign app on the iPhone’ - when you created the second AppleID, were you able to simply choose the desired country, or did you have to ‘be in’ that country (from a VPN perspective) at the time of choosing the country? With Google, I used this technique successfully - I VPN’d to UK, then created a second Google account while connected, and that worked). Once you have your ‘second Apple ID’, can you just log into it at the ‘App Store’ level, or do you have to log in at the ‘phone’ level? With Android, I left my phone signed into my ‘US’ google account, but used the UK google account to sign in to the ‘Google Play Store’ only. With Apple, am I switching the entire phone (settings / (appleID), or can I just somehow switch the App Store? I just read this Apple support article - How to create a second apple id - Apple Community - it says you can only switch once every 30 days. Not sure what ramifications this may have at the ‘entire phone’ level.
Can you say what app you are using? In my case, I’ve only tried 2 - BBC’s iPlayer and the channel4 app. Neither will allow me to ‘cast’ or ‘airplay’. But C4 is much more restricted than Iplayer. I had to set the timezone on my tablet to UK for C4, and even then, when I tried to cast, I got a message ‘The Channel 4 app cannot be run on secondary screens’. I’d be curious to try ‘your app’ on my devices to see how far I get.
One more thing - Given my struggles loading the various ‘Apps’ (from the various ‘app stores’), I simply tried viewing the content in a browser on the device, and that was essentially just as good, and avoided all the hassles of play store/app store. Even when I view content in my tablet’s browser, I still get the ‘cast’ icon (but still get the ‘must be on the same WiFi network’ error when trying to cast).
Can you check if you have “stay invisible on local network” on or off?
You can create an ID from anywhere, during the process you can select the country, just fill in the address and postcode of the local starbuck or something similar. And payment methods set to non (some countries require a valid payment method), and you are good to go.
I start to wonder if you read what i wrote. All the things you asked I already wrote. You don’t have to sign out the apple ID of you phone, you only need to sign out Media & Purchases, which itself means signing out only the Appstore. Doesn’t matter you do it inside the settings or Appstore and click on profile, it does the same thing.
And for the “30 days” thing, that’s why i’m telling you to create an entirely new apple ID with the desired country for the purpose of downloading app from there, just switch between 2 ID. The 30 days thing only applies if you switch your current ID to new country, which i already advised you to avoid.
I switch between 3 ID to download local apps, if you’re wondering how i know.
the app in question:
https://apps.apple.com/ch/app/play-srf-streaming-tv-radio/id638194352
Regular programs work. For example this (in app) works with airplay:
an actual ski race does not work
Can you check if you have “stay invisible on local network” on or off?
On my iPhone, in NordVPN, I go to ‘profile’, then ‘settings’, then ‘Local network discovery’ (which is ‘off’). When I choose this entry, I see ‘stay invisible on a local network’ - it is currently OFF.
You don’t have to sign out the apple ID of you phone, you only need to sign out Media & Purchases, which itself means signing out only the Appstore. Doesn’t matter you do it inside the settings or Appstore and click on profile, it does the same thing.
My apologies; I’m new to the iPhone (after 15 years on Android) so not too familiar with Apple ID, Appstore, etc. I see now you said this earlier (sorry I didn’t digest it fully the first time I read it):
And to get the foreign app on the iPhone, simply create another AppleID with other countries. To visit or download, go to settings, click on top your name, media & purchases, log out your main ID, and log in the new ones. Go to app store to download whatever app you want, after installed you can safely go back to settings to log out this ID and log back in your main ID.
That now makes perfect sense.
Unfortunately, I’m not succeeding with the setup of a second AppleID. I’ve gone to the appleID setup page - Create Your Apple Account . Entered a first/last name, selected country as UK, entered a valid email address I have access to (never seen before by Apple), and a phone number. Now, I no longer have a UK phone number, so I entered a US phone number I have. It accepted that, and sent a verification text to it; confirmed successfully. Then it sent a verification code to the email address; confirmed that successfully. But When I clicked ‘continue’. I got ‘your account cannot be created at this time’. Tried twice, same result.
No reason. Just ‘cannot be created’. So I’m wondering if it doesn’t like the fact I am using a US number (+1) when trying to setup a UK account? Researching the issue confirms the phone number must be in the same region as the requested region (From this page - https://www.ipvanish.com/blog/create-an-apple-id-in-another-country/ “You must also provide a valid phone number associated with the country where you are creating the account. ”). Damn. I used to have a UK number for travel (a second SIM card) but I let it lapse when I stopped visiting all the time. I can get one from a family member but it will take time. I could easily purchase an eSIM but typically overseas eSIMs don’t provide voice / text services, only data. Oh well …
meanwhile, I got a appleTV box. Loaded the Nordvpn and the apps in question.
There is a similar remaining issue. If my VPN is not on and set to the right country, the app will either show “not available outside of EU” or similar after hitting play.
With VPN on, most shows seems to play. However, not live broadcast. And there is no error indicating geo limits. I even tried to set the country in the AppleTV settings to correspond with content. No change. But interestingly enough, I can play the same live content through browser interface on ipad (with VPN) and then cast to appletv…