I have some shared folders on my home network and each time I connect via the VPN those connections get broken.
Is there any way of excluding traffic to this one device?
What operating system are you using?
What type of file share is it? You can use net use and the ip address with local creds.
If you’re using the server as a domain controller, right click on the pia tap adapter in the network config area, and set the ip of the server as a static DNS server. I think the problem you are having is because when the VPN connects, the server starts to use pia’s DNS server, so the local machines can’t resolve the shares because the win 10 machine isn’t getting domain DNS resolution , or something like that. I could be totally wrong though 
Windows 10 on the machine using the VPN and Server 2012R2 on the system holding the shares.
I do not want to connect to it over the net, I want to keep it lan connected. This since my transfer speeds between the local server and my pc is far above that of my internet up and down connection, thus having the network shares connected via my net IP is not an option.
If you open the app’s Advanced Settings on your Windows 10 machine, do you see the option to Allow access to local networks? If you enable this, you should be able to access the entirety of your LAN with the VPN connected.
If you’re on an older version of the app, you will need to upgrade to v81 to access this feature.
No… Net use the command prompt command to map local shares. Not over the internet.
You’re gonna wanna do that with the user switch, and use the ip for your share.
Are you doing this in an active directory environment? Or just your house?
I can’t see the aforementioned option and I’m on v81? Screenshot
This way I can access other devices via IP. Can I also get local hostnames to work? I have them hardcoded in a lot of scripts.
Ah, the option only appears if you have the killswitch enabled. You should be able to access the LAN without the killswitch enabled. Can you ping the IP of the local server with the VPN connected?
Only appears with the Killswitch option enabled.
How are you connecting to the shares? Hostname, DNS FQDN or IP.