KDE Connect Not Working with Rethink DNS Active on Android Device

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I am using Fedora 42 and have been successfully connecting to KDE Connect on my Pixel device running GrapheneOS using GSConnect. However, after enabling Rethink DNS on my Pixel device, GSConnect on Fedora no longer detects my Pixel device.

I am new to using Rethink DNS, and my understanding is that when I connect to Rethink DNS, the IP address of my Pixel device changes, which might be causing the disconnection. I want to clarify that KDE Connect on my Pixel device also does not detect my laptop, and GSConnect on Fedora does not detect the Pixel device.

Could someone please confirm if my understanding is correct and provide guidance on how to resolve this issue, or suggest a workaround? Would using a different DNS service solve the problem?

Thank you!

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Perhaps @ignoramous can clarify the best way? I don’t use Rethink but encrypted DNS should not normally change your IP.

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Thank you for letting me know this :backhand_index_pointing_up:. After checking the Android settings, I found that the Rethink VPN was set to “Always-on,” which was causing my IP address to change frequently.

Now KDE Connect is working as expected after I turned off the Rethink VPN.

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Glad I could help!

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rdns dev here

A couple of workarounds (and both require you to be not running Rethink in Android’s “VPN Lockdown” mode, that is, the “Block connections without VPN” setting available since Android 10+ must be turned OFF).

The first workaround:

  1. Go to Configure → Network.
  2. Turn ON Do not route Private IPs. Doing so exempts ALL apps from Rethink’s supervision over the “Private IP” ranges (the “Public IP” ranges, which is where the “Internet” is, will continue to be supervised by Rethink).

The second workaround:

  1. Go to Configure → Apps.
  2. In the top search bar, type the name of the app (here, “KDE Connect”).
  3. Tap on the entry for the app (viz. “KDE Connect”). It would show up if it is installed. If not, look in the top right-hand corner for the “Refresh” icon and tap on it: This should force Rethink to reload information about installed apps. Go to step 2.
  4. Tap on the “Exclude” icon. This will exempt the app (here, “KDE Connect”) from Rethink’s supervision.

As for resolution: I personally do not use “KDE Connect” and so I don’t have the time/energy to set it up and investigate what’s going wrong. I am hoping that as some users of “KDE Connect” are fairly technical, someone will submit an actionable bugreport or even propose a fix.

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Thank you for taking the time to respond, both workarounds you mentioned work for me.

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