How to set up Liberty Shield VPN on a Mac with the installer (Intel and Apple Silicon)

Use this guide if the App Store app says it is not compatible with your Mac, or if you would rather not use the App Store. The installer sets up Tunnelblick (a free, well-known VPN app for Mac) with all of our UK servers already in it. You only need your Liberty Shield username and password. It works on every Mac running macOS 13 Ventura or later, Intel or Apple Silicon.

1. Download the installer: Liberty Shield VPN for Mac (about 28 MB). Open the downloaded zip; it unpacks into a folder called Liberty Shield VPN for Mac.
2. In that folder, open Liberty Shield VPN Installer.dmg. A window opens showing Tunnelblick and a short instructions file.
3. Double-click Tunnelblick in that window. Please don't drag it into Applications; double-clicking it is what installs it.
4. If your Mac asks whether you want to open an app downloaded from the internet, click Open.
5. Tunnelblick asks if you want to install it together with 12 VPN configurations. Click Install, then type the password you use to log in to your Mac. This is your Mac's own password, not your Liberty Shield one, and it is needed because a VPN changes your Mac's network settings.
6. After a few seconds Tunnelblick confirms the installation succeeded and a small tunnel icon appears at the top right of your screen, in the menu bar. Tunnelblick may also ask whether it should check for updates automatically; either answer is fine.
7. Click the tunnel icon and choose Connect Server 1. Any server works; they are all in the UK.
8. Enter your Liberty Shield username and password, the same ones you use on our website. Tick Save in Keychain under both boxes so you are not asked again, then click OK.
9. Within a few seconds the menu shows Server 1 as connected. Your Mac is now on the VPN.

That's it. To check, open showmemyip.com in your browser; it should show a UK location.

Day to day

To disconnect, click the tunnel icon and choose Disconnect. To use a different server, disconnect first, then choose another one. All 12 servers use the login you saved, so you will not be asked for it again.

To watch from another country (Germany or Spain, for example), log in to www.libertyshield.com, change your VPN location, then disconnect and reconnect in Tunnelblick. The servers in the menu stay the same; the location change is made on your account.

If you change your Liberty Shield password, the next connection will fail and Tunnelblick will ask for your login again. Enter the new password and tick Save in Keychain.

Problems?

If you dragged Tunnelblick into Applications before double-clicking it, Tunnelblick installs itself but no servers appear in the menu. Open Liberty Shield VPN Installer.dmg again and double-click Tunnelblick inside it; it will add the servers.

If you already had Tunnelblick on your Mac, the installer updates it to the current version and adds our servers alongside anything you had before. Nothing of yours is removed. You can also skip the installer and just double-click Liberty Shield VPN.tblk from the same folder, which adds the 12 servers to your existing Tunnelblick.

If the menu shows a server as connected but websites still think you are abroad, check your VPN location on the website and reconnect. If that doesn't solve it, get in touch with our support team and tell us which server you connected to and what showmemyip.com displays, and we'll get you sorted.