Suddenly getting "Unable to reach login server" in the PIA app on Windows 10 and Linux

I’ve been working through a ticket and hopefully progress is made there.

This started last week. When I start up the PIA client and enter my credentials, the client says “Unable to reach login server” and I also cannot connect to any VPN server.

I’m seeing this in my PIA daemon logs when trying reach the login server:

Request for "token" - 403 "Forbidden" - error code: QNetworkReply::ContentAccessDenied
Could not request "token" due to error: QNetworkReply::ContentAccessDenied
Attempt for "token" failed with error Unknown error code 1200: ApiNetworkError [apiclient] common/src/networktaskwithretry.cpp:277

It seems like my PIA client is reaching the PIA API and the API server acknowledges the request but the request is being rejected, so my client isn’t able to attempt to log in. Support has had me change my password, plug into a wired connection, etc. but frankly I don’t think any of that is related to this issue: my credentials never have the chance to be checked by the server and my actual connection to that server is fine.

Has anybody else observed this issue? Is there something happening on the API/server side that they are working on or something? Is this, in some roundabout way, related to the OpenVPN issues that have come up recently?

I don’t think the problem is local to my system because I’ve tested this on two Linux systems and one Windows system and all of them are doing this. I’ve also tested multiple older versions of the Linux PIA client, and all of them come up with the same response. I am completely cut off from the VPN service.

Edit: The solution was found: I had special characters in my password that were not accepted by either the PIA app or their API server.

lately all my server choices have super high pings, but now i cant even try to connect, it doesn’t load the app, just a spinning wheel, so maybe something is down on the server side.

Hi u/identifiable_account, I am sorry to hear that you are having trouble entering your credentials and connecting to your application. I understand that you have already contacted our support team and they have advised you to reset your credentials and try changing your network connection as well as a few other troubleshooting steps. I would like to ask (and apologize if you have already tried this) that you log out of your application and then log back in. Additionally, I would like you to confirm that your subscription is fully active by accessing your Client control panel - here.

If you are still receiving the same error message and can fully confirm that your subscription is active. I would like to request that you generate a debug log and contact our Support Team by submitting a ticket, and include Attn: SMR within your subject.

Please include the following information in your ticket as this will help us look into the issue you are experiencing:

  1. Any further details explaining your issue, including what troubleshooting you have attempted
  2. Are you using any other security related software? (i.e., Antivirus/Firewall)
  3. A screenshot of any error message you receive
  4. The generated debug log reference ID

Once we receive a support ticket from you we will investigate your issue further.