Can't login to SBB Mobile from an Iphone anymore: server not found

Thouyouniell55

I was using the SBB Mobile up without any issues for the last couple of years. I have noticed recently that I cannot buy tickets anymore and I have reinstalled the app to fix it. However now I cannot even login in the app (I can only buy tickets as a guest). Whenever I’m redirected to the login page from the app I’m getting the following error:

“Safari can’t open the page because the server can’t be found”.

I have tried using different browsers (Chrome and Firefox) but all yielded in the same result. It seems like a DNS related issue, but I have tried overriding the DNS configuration, resetting browser cache, multiple times reinstalling the app, rebooting the device - none of these options have worked. I have tried both on the WiFi and on cellular data, with and without the VPN connection and with and without adblock software. I don’t have any further ideas how to fix this. It seems to me that SBB hostname has been potentially blocked on the DNS level for iOS (everything works fine for me from my PC). I would very much appreciate some help on this. I have found reports of similar login issues and in those cases updating the app was a sufficient fix - I’m running the latest version and it still doesn’t work for me.

Barbarux

Thouyouniell55
Go to NordVPN on your phone if you have it installed
Go to settings
Click Reset VPN profile
Use SBB app
It is a really weird issue connected with nordVPN, idk why but they suddenly blocked my whole login from one day to another.

Thouyouniell55

I have also found this similar issue, but in my case this option is already deactivated.

It also doesn’t work for me when I try to login on the www.sbb.ch website from my phone.

Nicole_B

Hello Thouyouniell55
Can you log in again or is the problem still there? Since you write that the error message is "“Safari cannot open the page because the server cannot be found.”, I assume that this is an iPhone, correct? Which iOS version and which SBB Mobile version is used?

Please note that the minimum requirement for the SBB Mobile version v.12.28.0 is iOS 15 according to the compatibility requirements at:

https://apps.apple.com/ch/app/sbb-mobile/id294855237?l=en-GB:

An update of the iOS version may solve the problem. If not, please use the contact form, as we do not have access to personal details here in the SBB Community:

https://www.sbb.ch/en/travel-information/apps/sbb-mobile/contact.html
Please describe there in the same detail as you have done here in the SBB Community what you have tried and attach photos of the screen with the error message and of the system report (profile > click on (i) SBB Mobile v12.xx.x).

Kind regards,
Nicole

Thupeeshoi71

Same issue today on Aug 4th 2024. Am not able to buy tickets and after reinstalling the app cannot log in anymore.

Would highly appreciate a response and solution from SBB, as it’s starting to get annoying. Each time I have to go to a machine to buy a ticket and I am not carrying my halbtax pass in my wallet, so it’s waiting for SBB personnel to start being annoyed by the fact that I cannot show my travel card.

RedBaron

Thupeeshoi71
Complaining in this community won’t help much, as this is a customer-to-customer forum. So you won’t get a response from SBB here. As we’re not Secret Service, we obviously can’t have a look at your phone neither.
The Mobile app usually works absolutely fine, I have it installed on 3 different iOS devices without any issues ever for years.

Therefore do it like at work: Open a ticket!
Use => this form, that’s where you’ll get your response and solution from SBB!
It will ask for relevant information such as phone model or iOS versions and allows adding screenshots (e.g. containing the error message)… all relevant info which you also didn’t provide above.

Krist

If your phone can for some reason no longer resolve the IP address of the SBB servers then this is most likely a problem with your phone, and not with the SBB. So I would suggest you take this up with Apple, or your telephone provider.

J Mel

Hi, I had the same problem - no matter what browser, or app (the main or beta SBB) I couldn’t log in or show my tickets.

Also the SBB office had no ideas.. uninstalled and reinstalled, cleared cache, nothing.

In the end I realised my VPN (nordvpn) was the problem, even when I turned it off, it would turn back on after a few minutes in the background.

It’s annoying, as I don’t like using my phone without vpn, but it’s the only solution that helped me .. Hope this solves your problem!

Regards,

DJP

Thanks for the hint towards NordVPN. I had the exact same problem this weekend. However, I dug into the issue and got to a NordVPN page saying it had blocked the DNS deliberately as it had detected dangerous content at the SwissPass login address. On checking, the default setting on NordVPN is for Threat Protection = Always (i.e., even when NordVPN isn’t actively running as a VPN). Switching this to With VPN Only gave me instant access to the login page (with VPN not running), so I suspect this was the setting the previous sender had for it to work as long as he turned off VPN. I tried turning protection back on after logging in and I still get issues with the SBB app even though I’m logged in. So, it looks like a problem that will only resolve if either

NordVPN fixes a false-positive issue
SwissPass removes whatever it put on the site for NordVPN to detect an issue
For now, I have to disable Threat Protection every time I want to use the SBB App.

Kattoowhoa94

Unfortunately i can confirm this issue. Hope this gets sorted out quickly by SBB. In the meantime I activate and deactivate my vpn threat protection.

RedBaron

Kattoowhoa94
You should rather hope NordVPN sorts it out. Or even better, accelerate things by complaining there. Because it’s their product/service blacklisting the SBB login server IP address, the latter actually works absolutely fine.

Nicole_B

NordVPN itself offers various recommended actions in its Help Centre to resolve problems if websites cannot be reached with active solutions from NordVPN:

https://support.nordvpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/20095679510801-I-can-t-reach-some-websites-when-connected-to-NordVPN

Kind regards
Nicole