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Duplicate entries sometimes showing in VPN status menu at menu bar

macrem

macrem

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 11, 2008
1,438
104
Hello,

My problem is per the description. It started happening since the upgrade to Catalina. It's not serious, just annoying. Here are more details:

In Network preferences, I have configured two VPN servers (for this example: "VPN-a" & "VPN-b"). I have checked "Show VPN status in menu bar" [which is convenient to (dis)connect]

VPN-b never shows a duplicate; however, when connecting to VPN-a from the menu bar, then next time I select the VPN menu there are duplicate entries, like so:
VPN-a
VPN-a
VPN-b

The duplicate goes away if I uncheck then recheck "Show VPN status in menu bar", but then it's back again next time I connect to VPN-a.

I tried removing then re-creating VPN-a via Network preferences, but the same behavior persists.

I'd appreciate if anyone knows more info about this.
 
Hi,

Good to know we’re not alone, hopefully someone could suggest a way to fix or workaround it until fixed
 
You're not alone. I have these double menu entries also with just one configured VPN. They disappeared after reboot, but now they are back again (after connecting to this VPN).
 
I don't have that problem on a clean install.
You could try to delete com.apple.networkextension.cache.plist, com.apple.networkextension.necp.plist, com.apple.networkextension.plist and com.apple.networkextension.uuidcache.plist from /Library/Preferences/, reboot and recreate the VPN profiles.
 
Thanks bogdanw, that's precisely what I was looking for.

Fyi this issue has mysteriously gone away (for now) on my machine... I can only speculate why. If I can reproduce the duplicates again, I'll try above steps.

It would be nice to hear if anyone who can reproduce gives it a try.

edit: ok it's back, I'll try later after work
 
Q: do you have more than one connections?

Ethernet, two WLAN ports, Wi-Fi
all listed and active in Network?
 
Hi IowaLynn,

Only WiFi is active, the other items (Bluetooth PAN, USB LAN, Thunderbolt Bridge + 2 VPN configs) are Not Connected.
 
Last edited:
The problem appears when creating Cisco VPN (IKEv1) connection.

Deleting the file /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist helped me.

After deleting the file and rebooting, you will need to re-set the computer name in System Settings - Sharing

This did not solve the problem when the VPN menu suddenly shows only one line.
 
I noticed the same after doing a fresh install & still having the duplicate issue.
 
I had the same problem but I managed to 'fix' it by unticking and ticking again the "Show VPN status in menu bar" checkbox (from Network preferences).
 
acelasi said:
I had the same problem but I managed to 'fix' it by unticking and ticking again the "Show VPN status in menu bar" checkbox (from Network preferences).
Click to expand...
This works for me too but only as a temporary workaround, the problem comes back.
 
Same problem here on a brand new MBP 13 2020 fully updated. Sometimes it goes away (by itself or by me hiding and showing the status) and later come back.
 
Sometimes one starts to feel this being futile. I have been seeing problems like this for years - at least starting from Catalina and up to at least Monterey.

My problem is that sometimes some entries are missing from the menu (especially IKE2 VPN entries) - and i just end up doing "killall SystemUIServer" which always rectifies the problem.

That is not the only fundamental problem with VPN menu though - if I have same entries on multiple "locations" then deactivating one in one "location" does same for other "location" as well.

I might veer slightly off-topic here but this problem almost as hard to reproduce as lock screen problem on Monterey (it is rare but sometimes computer bypasses lock screen after wakeup going straight to desktop - should we talk more about security?)...
 
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