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M2 Mini, running Ventura.

I have two VPN configurations in my VPN control panel (I used to have three, but more on that later).

A few minutes ago, I went to establish a VPN connection, and found that the one I wanted was not in the VPN menu. I had to go to the VPN control panel to connect.

The only connection that was in the VPN menu was a connection that had been abandoned because of an IP address conflict (we were able to work around this with a much less convenient way of accessing the remote system).

When I got rid of that one, the only items in the menu are "Show Time Connected," "Show Status While Connecting," and "Open Network Settings."

And the VPN connection icon in the menu bar doesn't react when I connect to the VPN.

I tried going to Control Center, and turning "Show in Menu Bar" off and back on for VPN; no change.

Note that I haven't rebooted since noticing the problem.

Four days later. No change in the VPN menu on the menu bar.

I will also note that the VPN configurations all came from my 2017 iMac (Catalina), via Migration Assistant.

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
7

After a bit trial and error renaming the VPN display name worked for me. A different name brought it back to the menu bar list

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  • 1
    I used Migration Assistant to set up my new Mac. The VPN settings all came over, but I wasn't able to connect via the menu bar icon. I tried renaming it and it instantly showed up in the menu bar correctly. I did this on Sonoma. Hope it helps someone else.
    – Bill Burgess
    Commented Nov 27, 2023 at 14:27
  • That feeling when you have to Google a problem and your own damn comment saves the day. Sorry I can't upvote more than once.
    – Bill Burgess
    Commented May 16 at 3:25
  • Thank you for that! It happened to me when I switched macs and moved all my data. I've been restarting several times, tried various things and this simple solution saved me. Clearly an macOS bug, but thanks!!!
    – Yury K.
    Commented Jun 26 at 23:28
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UPDATE: I went and played with the Menu myself and when connected to a VPN I can see a **disconnect from VPN… ** option initially however when I disconnect from the VPN the option for it is completely gone and there is not reconnect option.

Example of how easy it is to disconnect and change VPN’s with OpenVPN below.

OpenVPN GUI

I suggest you use OpenVPN or another VPN management application to properly support your workflow.

PREVIOUS: Worst case scenario, your preference’s might be outdated or corrupted from the migration assistant. This could be any Wireless / WiFi / VPN plist file located in the System or User library directory.

I suggest rebooting and if that does work, redo your configurations. You can remake your vpn configurations without a reboot.

Apple’ Setup a VPN Connection

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  • You mean, you're experiencing the same empty VPN menu I am?
    – hbquikcomjamesl
    Commented Jun 1, 2023 at 21:53
  • Yes. I don’t think that menu was designed to simply display a quick disconnect, time connected, and that’s it. OpenVPN will do what you need in the menu bar, but that’s with limited VPN application knowledge so I don’t know if there are better apps available.
    – Jahhein
    Commented Jun 4, 2023 at 7:01
  • Uh, this was never about "our" VPN; we don't have one. It's about connecting to the VPNs of our customers (hence the need to establish and shut down VPN connections quickly and easily). "OpenVPN" doesn't appear to have anything to do with that. And if having a list of defined VPN connections in the menu bar under the VPN connection icon is no longer supported in Ventura (it was in Catalina), then that's either a regression or a feature-removal.
    – hbquikcomjamesl
    Commented Jun 5, 2023 at 22:49
  • I promise you it does, but the solution is available to you. I don’t think you had what you think you did before. The VPN menu wasn’t that in-depth. I’ve added a screenshot of OpenVPN on the Mac for you.
    – Jahhein
    Commented Jun 6, 2023 at 3:35
  • How do you know the OP is using OpenVPN?
    – Gilby
    Commented Jun 6, 2023 at 10:56

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