You open Telegram, and instead of the usual title at the top, "Connecting..." keeps spinning. The chats just sit there, and the message you wrote a minute ago isn't going anywhere, even though the browser on the same phone opens pages without any trouble. You have already closed and reopened the app, maybe switched from Wi-Fi to mobile data and back, and the label is still there, spinning and spinning. Meanwhile the search results tell you to log out, wipe all the app's data, or install somebody's VPN, and half of that advice makes you worry about your chats.
Let me say up front that I sell a proxy for Telegram myself (it's FreeGate), so I'm not a neutral party, and we come up only at the very end. But first take a look at the label itself. Telegram doesn't show it for decoration: it tells you which step is failing, and it appears in more places than just above the chat list. I checked the labels below against Telegram's code and its official English translations.
Where does your Telegram report on the connection?
On Android the label replaces the title above your chats, and it comes in four variants: "Waiting for network...", "Connecting...", "Connecting to proxy..." and "Updating...". If you open a chat, the same label replaces the line under the contact's name, where it usually says whether they are online. When the connection comes back, the usual line returns on its own.
The iPhone labels are slightly different, and I wouldn't trip over that. Above the chats it says "Waiting for network" without dots, "Connecting..." or "Updating...", and in an open chat under the contact's name you get the same thing in lowercase, for example "connecting...". The iPhone has no separate proxy label in the chat list. The string "Connecting to Proxy..." exists in the translations, but in the code that variant is commented out, so with a proxy turned on that doesn't answer, you will see the plain "Connecting...".
Telegram Desktop on a computer is the easiest one to miss, because nothing is written above the chat list. Look at the bottom left corner of the chat column: while there is no connection, a small indicator spins there, and the words "Connecting..." appear only if you hover the mouse over it. If the connection failed and the app is waiting for its next attempt, the indicator reads "Reconnect in" and a number of seconds, and there is a "Try now" button next to it. In an open chat the header changes too: instead of the contact's status you get a spinner and the word "connecting...". With a proxy turned on the indicator is always visible, with a proxy icon, but it spins only while there is no connection.
In the web version the label sits above the chats, in one of its two versions right in the search bar in place of the word "Search". And Telegram for Mac has its own labels, without trailing dots.
Connecting... is stuck and your messages show a clock
"Connecting..." means that the device has a network but can't reach Telegram's servers. The proxy label on Android says the same thing, except that Telegram is trying to go through the proxy you turned on. "Waiting for network" appears when the system itself told Telegram there is no network, and the app doesn't even try to connect, so the problem is your Wi-Fi or mobile data, not Telegram.
There is one catch to "but my internet works". Telegram on Android treats the network as available if the system says a connection is established or being established. So on a Wi-Fi network your phone is joined to while the router itself has no connection, you will see "Connecting...", not "Waiting for network...".
While "Connecting..." is on, your new messages haven't gone out. On Android you can see it from the icon on the message: there is a clock instead of a tick, and if sending failed for good, an error icon appears. One tick means the message has reached the Telegram cloud, and two mean it has been read. So if your latest messages show clocks, they are still on your phone, and the person on the other end hasn't received them yet. As soon as the connection is back and they go out, the clocks turn into ticks, and the usual title returns above your chats.
On Android you can tap "Connecting..." and the proxy label, and Telegram opens the proxy list, while tapping "Waiting for network..." or "Updating..." does nothing. What each label in that list means for a proxy I went through in the article on a connected proxy and Telegram still not working. And if the label won't go away even without a proxy, open why Telegram isn't working, where the whole check is laid out in order, and I won't repeat it here.
No label, but photos and videos keep spinning
It also happens the other way around: the title at the top looks normal, new messages arrive, but photos and videos hang with a spinning circle. The label can't help here, because it speaks for the main connection, the one that carries messages. Telegram downloads large files separately, over its own connections and often from separate media servers, and Telegram's developer documentation says outright that those connections carry no messages or updates at all. That is why there can be no label, messages keep arriving, and photos still stand still.
I won't try to explain here why files get stuck, because that is a separate story. But if you have a proxy turned on, the same article about the proxy has a section on exactly the case where it says "connected" and the photos don't load.
Why Updating... takes so long and why the label jumps around
"Updating..." scares people for nothing, since the connection is already there by then. On Android this label appears only once the connection is established, while Telegram asks the server what has changed since last time and loads what it missed. Telegram's developer documentation says that on startup the app first asks for everything that arrived while it was offline.
If a lot has piled up, the server hands the changes over in pieces: the app takes one and asks for the next, and so on up to the last, and "Updating..." stays on Android the whole time. Sometimes so much has been missed that the server won't even send it in pieces, and then Telegram simply loads the chat list again from scratch. That is why I'm not surprised when the update goes on for a long time after the phone has been switched off or you haven't opened Telegram for ages, especially if a lot of new things have piled up in your chats. Nothing is broken, and there is no need to reinstall anything, since the connection is already there.
It's worse when the label jumps: "Connecting...", then "Updating...", then "Connecting..." again. I understand it as the connection being made and then dropping before Telegram has time to load what it missed. According to the Android code, "Updating..." is shown only while there is a connection, so as soon as it drops, the label goes straight back to "Connecting..." (on Android with a proxy turned on, "Connecting to proxy..."), even if the loading isn't finished. Why the connection itself drops, you can't see from the app.
In Telegram Desktop there are no such jumps, because it has no "Waiting for network" or "Updating" labels: it has only connecting, waiting for the next attempt, and the normal state when everything is connected.
While any of these labels is on, I wouldn't touch the buttons that promise a fresh start. Telegram's help says outright that most people don't need to log out, and that you can clear the cache without logging out. The clear-storage button in Android's app settings and deleting the tdata folder on a computer both amount to logging out of your account on that device, and secret chats are lost when you log out, because they are tied to the device. To get back in, you need a login code, which may arrive not by SMS but in the "Telegram" chat on another of your devices. I have separate articles on the settings of the devices themselves, for iPhone, Android and a computer.
If the proxy is ours
And now what I promised about us. If you have a FreeGate proxy and Telegram holds "Connecting to proxy..." on Android or the plain "Connecting..." on iPhone, first check whether your subscription has ended. Once it ends, the link no longer connects, but Telegram keeps trying to go through it anyway. Then renew the plan in your account, or simply turn the proxy off in Telegram's settings. Auto-renewal exists on our site but is off by default, so unless you turned it on yourself, nothing will be charged.
Our proxy passes only Telegram through itself, while the browser and other apps go online directly, as usual. Each device has its own link, and if someone else has seen it, you can change it in your account with one tap, and the old link stops working at once. If you change your network or your phone, the link works right away, with no waiting. We can't see your chats, because Telegram encrypts messages before they reach the proxy. It all connects in the official Telegram apps for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Linux, and Telegram Web doesn't support proxies.
The trial day is free. You get it after signing up with an email and confirming the address, and you don't need to pay or give a phone number for it. Everything is on freegate.app. After that a plan costs $1 for 30 days or $2.50 for 90 days, and the price is per device, so if you need it on both a phone and a computer, choose 2 when you buy. That's about all.