Connect the VPN, lose the printer. It's one of the most common VPN complaints on the Mac: with the tunnel up, printers time out, the NAS unmounts, AirPlay targets disappear, and smart-home apps can't find their devices. The cause is simple — your VPN is swallowing local network traffic that should never leave the building.
Why VPNs break printers and file shares
When a VPN claims the default route, traffic to local addresses (192.168.x.x, 10.x.x.x, and discovery protocols like Bonjour) can get pulled into the tunnel or blocked outright, depending on the provider's configuration. The VPN server has no route back to your living-room printer, so the connection dies. Some VPN apps have an "allow LAN" toggle; many don't, or it doesn't cover discovery traffic reliably.
The fix: LAN bypass
- Install AppLanes and approve its network extension.
- Open Settings in AppLanes and enable LAN bypass.
- Local-network destinations now always connect directly — regardless of how each app is routed, and even with leak protection on. Printers, NAS shares, AirPlay, and local dev servers keep working while the rest of the app's traffic stays on the VPN.
Bonus: keep local-only apps off the VPN entirely
Some apps only ever talk to local devices — printer utilities, scanner tools, IoT dashboards. Give them a Direct lane in AppLanes and they'll never touch the tunnel at all. See excluding apps from the VPN for the two-minute walkthrough.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my printer stop working when the VPN is on?
The VPN captures your Mac's traffic — including traffic meant for local devices. The VPN server can't reach your printer's local address, so printing fails. A LAN bypass sends local-network traffic directly while internet traffic stays tunneled.
Does LAN bypass weaken my VPN privacy?
No meaningful privacy is lost: only traffic to private local-network ranges bypasses the tunnel, and that traffic never traverses the internet anyway. Everything destined for the internet still follows your per-app rules.
Will AirPlay and Bonjour discovery work with the VPN connected?
With LAN bypass enabled in AppLanes, local discovery and streaming traffic connect directly, so AirPlay targets and other Bonjour devices remain visible while the VPN is up.
Get per-app VPN routing on your Mac
Every feature unlocked for 3 days, free — no account, works with any VPN, macOS 13+.