Android UI remains in "Connecting" while VPN and peer connectivity are active

[shadow-identity]

netbird-1778598255401.sanitized.log.txt

Summary

The Android app UI can get stuck showing Connecting even though the VPN appears to remain active and peer/data connectivity works.

This does not look like a full disconnect: the Android VPN key icon remains visible, the app footer shows 3 of 3 Peers connected, and I can still reach a LAN resource through NetBird. The issue seems to be a UI/status-state mismatch rather than a dead tunnel.

Environment

• Android device: Google Pixel
• NetBird Android app version: not shown in the exported log; I can add the exact version if useful
• NetBird server: self-hosted, v0.70.4
• Network at the time: Wi-Fi
• Auth: SSO
• Trace logging: enabled before the observation

Observed behavior

On 2026-05-12 around 17:04 CEST, I opened the Android app and saw:

• Main UI state: Connecting
• Footer: 3 of 3 Peers connected
• Android VPN key icon: still visible
• LAN access through NetBird: still working
• No manual reconnect was performed before collecting the log

The connection had been running for roughly a day before this. During that time I did not observe the VPN key disappearing or the client going fully disconnected.

Expected behavior

If the VPN service is active, peers are connected, and traffic through NetBird works, the UI should show Connected, not Connecting.

Alternatively, if Connecting means that some management/control-plane state is not ready, the UI should make that distinction clear instead of looking like the VPN tunnel is not connected.

Relevant log lines

05-12 17:02:27.005 ... disconnected from the Management service but will retry silently. Reason: rpc error: code = Unavailable desc = unexpected HTTP status code received from server: <HOST_VALUE_7> (Gateway Timeout); malformed header: missing HTTP content-type
05-12 17:02:29.330 ... management connection state READY
05-12 17:02:29.453 ... job stream handshake sent successfully
...
05-12 17:04:09.410 ... NBMainActivity: onStart
05-12 17:04:09.410 ... NBMainActivity: start VPN service
05-12 17:04:09.440 ... NBMainActivity: on service connected
05-12 17:04:09.441 ... NBMainActivity: on engine started
05-12 17:04:09.444 ... ButtonAnimation: CONNECTING -> connecting

The log also contains ongoing peer/relay activity and DNS activity after that point, while the UI state stayed Connecting.

Related issues

This may be related to #146, but the symptom is different. In #146 the client fully disconnects or fails to reconnect. In this case the VPN key remains visible and data-plane connectivity continues to work.

It also does not look like netbirdio/netbird#5672, because this device shows peers connected and traffic through NetBird works.