You open Telegram on your Android phone, and "Connecting..." hangs at the top of the screen. Yesterday everything worked (maybe you were still at home, maybe you've just landed somewhere new), and today your chats aren't updating. You've already restarted the phone, switched from Wi-Fi to mobile data and back, and you've probably read somewhere the advice "clear the app's data, your account will be kept". I wouldn't rush with that advice, and below I'll explain why.
Your phone can be anything, a Samsung, a Xiaomi, a Pixel or a Honor, and the names in settings differ between them. I can't go through every manufacturer's shell, so wherever the name may differ, I'll say so and describe the item in words.
What Telegram shows at the top and what happens if you tap it
The easiest place to start is that very line. If it says "Waiting for network...", Android itself has told Telegram that there's no network, and Telegram doesn't even try to reach its servers. "Connecting..." is trickier. The phone has a network, no proxy is turned on in Telegram, and Telegram just hasn't reached its servers yet. If a proxy is turned on in Telegram and there's no connection through it, the top line says "Connecting to proxy...". And "Updating..." is good news: the connection is there, and Telegram is loading what piled up. That's the line you're waiting for after the checks below, and your chats will start to catch up.
When I went through Telegram's Android code, I noticed how it decides that there's a network. It's enough for Android to report that a connection is established, being established or available, and there's no check at that point of whether that connection actually has internet. So at home on Wi-Fi, where the phone is connected to the router but the router has no internet, you'll see, according to the code, "Connecting..." and not "Waiting for network...". That's where it's easy to blame Telegram when the router is the problem.
You can tap "Connecting..." and "Connecting to proxy...". Telegram opens the list of proxies, and at the top of it there's the "Use Proxy" switch. Tapping "Waiting for network..." and "Updating..." is pointless, because by the code nothing happens.
It's worth turning the proxy off for the duration of the test, even if you turned it on long ago and forgot. The reliable path is "Settings" → "Data and Storage" → "Proxy Settings", and the same switch is there. Above the chat list, in the menu, there is sometimes a "Proxy" item with a status of connected, connecting or disabled, but Telegram doesn't always show it. A proxy that is turned off and simply saved in the list may not appear in that menu at all. How to add and connect a proxy on Android is in a separate article, and here it's only about where to find it and how to turn it off.
If a proxy is on and the top line says "Connecting to proxy...", look inside the list itself. For the selected proxy, while there's no connection, Telegram writes "Connecting...", and for the others it writes a checking, available or unavailable status. Sometimes a proxy shows as connected and Telegram is still silent, but that's a different story.
What Android itself may have limited
If the proxy is fine or there isn't one, look at the phone's settings next. On Samsung, Xiaomi or Honor the items below may be named differently and sit in other places, so search by meaning.
Google's help, to be honest, says about almost all of these modes that they limit an app in the background, not while you're sitting in it. So they more likely explain why Telegram works on Wi-Fi but not on mobile data, or why new messages show up only when you open the app yourself.
- Check that airplane mode is off (in Google's help it's in the network and internet section of settings). If Telegram says "Waiting for network...", Android itself thinks there's no network, and the thing to look at is the phone's connection, not Telegram. Open any site in the browser over the same connection, which is the quickest test.
- See whether the data saver mode is on. In Google's help it's in the network and internet section of settings. While it's on, background data for most apps goes only over Wi-Fi, though active apps can still use the mobile connection. If Telegram only comes alive for you on Wi-Fi, turn the mode off or add Telegram to its exceptions. There's an item there for apps that may use mobile data without limits while the saver is on, and manufacturers name it in their own way too.
- In Telegram's app info, find the section about mobile data and Wi-Fi. There's a background data switch there, and if it's off, Telegram gets mobile data only while it's open. Android itself warns that if only mobile networks are available, apps that depend on background data may stop working.
- In the same app info there is usually a choice of battery usage with three modes: unrestricted, optimized and restricted. About the last one Android says plainly that it limits battery usage while the app is in the background, which may affect how the app works and delay notifications. If Telegram is set to restricted, switch it to optimized or unrestricted. On top of that, Android holds back background activity on its own when the phone lies idle for a long time with the screen off. And on Xiaomi and Huawei, built-in utilities also shut down background apps, which Telegram itself writes about (notifications and calls will get their own article).
- In the network and internet settings, open the VPN section and see whether a VPN you once installed and forgot is still there. If it has the always-on VPN and "block connections without VPN" options turned on, Android only allows traffic while that network is connected, and until it is, neither Telegram nor any other app has a connection. A VPN on a work phone that your administrator set up is better left alone, and you should ask them instead.
- Use the official Telegram: from Google Play or from telegram.org, where the version updates itself straight from the site. If there haven't been updates for a long time, update. On a very old phone that may not work, because by the code of the current version Telegram needs Android 6.0 or newer.
Which phone buttons to leave alone
In Telegram's app info on Android there are buttons that advice from the internet presses first. In stock Android, the "Storage and cache" section has a clear storage button, next to it a clear cache button, and in the app info itself a stop button. Manufacturers use their own wording, such as "Clear data" and "Force stop".
The clear storage button asks, before deleting anything, whether to delete the app's data. Below that Android says that the app's data, including files and settings, will be permanently deleted from this device. In Telegram's Android code, your login data sits exactly in the app's data on the phone. So by the code and by Android's own dialog this is the same as logging out of your account on this phone, and the advice "clear the data, your account will be kept" is wrong for Telegram. Your cloud messages stay after you log out, but your secret chats are gone, because, as Telegram's help says outright, they are tied to the device and aren't stored in the Telegram cloud.
Logging out is the same story. Before you log out, Telegram itself warns you that all secret chats on this device will be lost. Its help also says that most users don't need to log out at all. And it seems to me that while Telegram can't connect, logging out and back in is risky: the login code may arrive not by SMS but in the "Telegram" chat on another device where you're already logged in, and you must never share that code with anyone. If there's no second device at hand, the situation gets unpleasant. What to do when the code doesn't arrive is covered in this article.
The stop button is simpler. Android asks whether to force stop the app and warns that force-closing an app may affect how it works.
If you really want to clean something, clean the cache inside Telegram itself: "Settings" → "Data and Storage" → "Storage Usage" → "Clear Cache". It doesn't log you out, and your media stays in the Telegram cloud. I won't promise that it cures "Connecting...", and the cache will get its own article.
When it's not your phone
Sometimes you've been through everything above: the proxy is off, airplane mode is off, no forgotten VPN is hanging around, the battery isn't strangling Telegram, and the top line still says "Connecting...". If at the same time your browser and other apps work, and friends on the same carrier see Telegram behave the same way, then it's most likely not your phone. You can't fix it with buttons in settings however many you press, so I wouldn't touch anything more and I wouldn't log out. I put the general order of checks, not tied to Android, in the general article about Telegram, and it also covers what these lines mean on other devices.
In some countries access to Telegram is restricted, and if you've just arrived in one of them, that's the first thing to keep in mind.
If the proxy is ours
And finally, about us. Let me say right away that we sell personal proxies for Telegram ourselves, so I'm not exactly an impartial author, keep that in mind.
If the proxy is ours and Telegram says "Connecting to proxy...", first check whether your subscription has ended. When it ends, the link stops connecting, and Telegram keeps trying to connect through it. Renew the plan in your account, or turn the proxy off in Telegram's settings with the same switch as above. If you didn't turn on auto-renewal, nothing is charged.
FreeGate works only inside Telegram, while your browser, banking apps and other apps go online directly, as usual. Each device has its own link, and if it leaks, you change it in your account with one tap, and the old one stops working at once. We can't see your messages: Telegram encrypts them itself, and the proxy only passes the encrypted data along. You don't need to install a separate app. You tap "Connect in Telegram", Telegram asks about the proxy, and you tap "Connect Proxy".
If you're signing up for the first time, you can try it for a day without paying first. All you need is an email, no phone number: you sign up, confirm the address, and after the trial day nothing is charged on its own. After that it's $1 for 30 days or $2.50 for 90 days. The price is per device, so if you need it on a phone and on a computer, you choose two when buying. Auto-renewal is off until you turn it on yourself. Plans and connection are at freegate.app/world.