Cheese Support

How do I connect for the first time?

The first time you open Cheese, a short welcome tour explains what it does and asks you to accept the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy; Cheese won't connect until you do. At the end, your device asks for permission to add Cheese as a VPN: tap Allow on iPhone or iPad, or enter your Mac password when asked. Then tap Connect.

The first connection can take a minute while Cheese builds a route, and on some networks it can take a few minutes. After that, reconnecting is usually quicker. Tap Disconnect whenever you want to stop.

If you tapped Not now on the agreement, or didn't allow the VPN, nothing is lost: open Cheese again and it picks up where you left off.

Where is Cheese on my Mac?

On a Mac, Cheese lives in the menu bar at the top of your screen, as a small cheese-wedge symbol, and has no Dock icon. The welcome tour opens in its own window until you've finished it; after that, everything happens from the menu bar. The wedge is filled in while you're connected and drawn as an outline when you're not. Click it to connect, disconnect, choose an exit country or quit Cheese.

The ⓘ button in that panel opens Cheese's Settings window, with About, Advanced settings, connection diagnostics, the Terms, the Privacy Policy and the open-source licences.

Can't see the wedge? A crowded menu bar can hide icons, especially on Macs with a camera notch. Quitting a few other menu-bar apps usually brings it back. On recent versions of macOS, also check that Cheese is allowed in System Settings › Menu Bar.

Can I turn Cheese on without opening the app?

• Control Center (iPhone and iPad): open Control Center, tap +, choose Add a Control and pick Cheese. You can also put the same control on your Lock Screen, or assign it to the Action Button on iPhone models that have one.
• Shortcuts and Siri (iPhone, iPad and Mac): Cheese adds a Toggle Cheese action to the Shortcuts app, and you can say “Toggle Cheese” to Siri. For automations that should specifically switch it on or off, use Set Cheese Connection.

These use the same exit country and Advanced settings as the app. They work once you've opened Cheese and accepted the Terms; until then, they'll ask you to open Cheese to finish setup.

Can I choose which country I appear to be in?

Tap Exit preference. Auto (recommended) lets Cheese use whichever route works. Or pick a country, then choose what should happen if a route through that country isn't available right now:

• Prioritize country: Cheese only connects through that country. If it can't, it doesn't connect, and tells you, so you can try another country or try again later.
• Prioritize connection: Cheese tries that country first. If it isn't available, Cheese connects automatically instead and tells you it did. The one exception is an attempt that has already taken several minutes: Cheese then stops and tells you the country isn't available, and you can try again.

Whether a country is available depends on which independently operated relays happen to be running there at the moment. Choosing a country doesn't give you a fixed IP address: the relay you come out of changes from time to time, so sites may see a different address. Websites also use their own location databases, so one may occasionally place you somewhere other than the country you picked.

What are the Advanced settings?

Advanced settings, on the main screen and in About, choose how Cheese reaches the relay network. Most people never need to change them.

• Auto (the default): tries the Simple method first and, if that doesn't connect, Snowflake. The right choice almost everywhere.
• Simple (Faster data speeds): connects to the relay network directly. It's the faster of the two methods, and the only one Cheese tries while it's selected.
• Snowflake: connects to the relay network through short-lived proxies run by volunteers. It's usually slower than Simple and can take longer to connect. Whenever Cheese uses Snowflake, in Auto too, your device contacts a few third-party services directly, as described in section 4.3 of the Privacy Policy.

In Auto, Cheese gives the Simple method up to a minute and a half before it moves on to Snowflake, and Snowflake can need a few minutes on some networks. In all, Cheese can keep trying for about four and a half minutes (nearly five if you've picked an exit country) before it shows Couldn't connect. Choosing Snowflake yourself can take just as long.

Your choice stays until you change it, and it's shown on the main screen whenever you're disconnected. If a method you picked isn't available, Cheese switches back to Auto for your next try.

Why is Cheese slower than my normal connection?

Your traffic takes a multi-layered encrypted route through several independently operated relays, often in different countries, before it reaches the site you're visiting. Each hop adds distance and delay, so Cheese is noticeably slower and has more latency than a direct connection. It's fine for reading, messaging and everyday browsing, but not suited to high-definition video, large downloads or anything that needs quick reactions.

Auto usually gives the best results: it uses the Simple method, the faster of the two, whenever that connects.

Why do some sites ask me to prove I'm human, or block me?

While you're connected, sites see a shared relay address that many other people use too, not your own. Some services answer shared addresses with extra sign-in checks, puzzles or outright blocks. That's their decision, and Cheese can't change it or get you around it. Because the relay address changes from time to time, a site may also ask you to sign in again. If a service you need won't work through Cheese, disconnect while you use it.

Why don't calls, games or some apps work?

Cheese carries TCP traffic and name lookups, which covers websites and most apps. It doesn't carry UDP or QUIC, which many live voice and video calls, online games, screen casting and peer-to-peer apps rely on. Apps that can fall back to TCP keep working, sometimes more slowly; the rest won't work until you disconnect. Cheese stops traffic it can't carry rather than send it outside the private route.

On iPhone and iPad, your mobile carrier's own services (Wi-Fi Calling, MMS picture messages and visual voicemail) go directly to your carrier, so they keep working.

Why can't I reach my printer or other devices at home?

Apart from a few system and carrier services, everything stays inside the private route, including traffic to devices on your own network. So printers, AirPlay receivers, network drives and similar devices can't be reached while Cheese is connected. Disconnect when you need them.

The internet stopped working while Cheese was on

If the private route drops, Cheese stops your traffic rather than let it leak outside the route, so it looks as if there's no internet until the route is back. Cheese reconnects by itself when your network changes. If it hasn't recovered after a minute or so, disconnect and connect again.

Joining Wi-Fi that has a sign-in page, such as at a hotel or airport? Disconnect Cheese, sign in to the Wi-Fi, then connect again.

If Cheese shows Connected but nothing loads, even after you reconnect, try a different network. If only some sites or apps are affected, see why some sites block you and why some apps don't work. If it keeps happening, email us and include the text from About › Connection diagnostics › Copy diagnostics.

Does Cheese make me anonymous?

No app can promise that. Cheese replaces your device's address with a shared relay address, and helps prevent your internet provider or local Wi-Fi operator from directly reading where your traffic goes. But signing in, sharing identifying information, granting location access or using an unencrypted site can identify you whatever route your traffic takes. The final relay can see anything that isn't itself encrypted, so use HTTPS for anything that matters. Cheese isn't designed for people facing a serious, targeted threat (Terms, section 1.3).

Is there a subscription?

No. Cheese is a single purchase: no subscription, no recurring charge, no account, and nothing locked behind a second payment in this version.

Do I need to buy it again for my iPad or Mac?

No. One purchase covers Cheese on iPhone, iPad and Mac. On your other devices, sign in to the App Store with the same Apple Account and download Cheese from your purchases.

How do I get a refund?

Apple handles every App Store payment and refund, so we can't grant, refuse or influence one. You can ask Apple for a refund at reportaproblem.apple.com, signed in with the Apple Account you used to buy Cheese. We never see your payment details.

What does Cheese know about me?

Nothing. Cheese has no account and collects no personal data: no analytics, no advertising, and no activity or traffic logs. Its App Store privacy label is “Data Not Collected”. We run no servers that carry your traffic.

A little technical state, such as your settings and which version of the Terms you accepted, stays on your device and never reaches us. From Apple, we get sales figures and, only if you've chosen to share analytics with app developers, anonymous crash reports and usage statistics.

To connect, your device talks to the relay network and to a few public services, all listed in the Privacy Policy. More detail: Privacy Policy · what stays on your device · what your device connects to.

Who runs the relays?

Independent volunteers and organisations around the world. We don't operate any relays, and no relay sends us anything. Cheese is independently developed: we have no affiliation with, sponsorship from, or endorsement by the organisations that maintain the network.

On iPhone and iPad

Touch and hold the Cheese icon, tap Remove App, then Delete App. That removes Cheese and everything it stored on your device.

On a Mac

Disconnect and choose Quit in the Cheese menu-bar panel, then delete Cheese from your Applications folder. macOS keeps an app's data after the app itself is deleted, so to remove everything Cheese stored, choose Go › Go to Folder… in Finder and delete each of these folders:

• ~/Library/Containers/com.aalshaer.cheese
• ~/Library/Containers/com.aalshaer.cheese.tunnel
• ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.aalshaer.cheese

Finder may show the first two with the app's name rather than the names above. If Cheese is still listed in System Settings › VPN, remove it there too.