South Africa is included in the country list, but the South African Sites don't work with VPN any more.

Yes, the ZA endpoints are currently unavailable — the "recommended" setting would use whatever connection is feasible at the moment. (It is not related to an update or exact version, it's just the current global availability.)

Since when are they unavailable? And is it temporary? I've always allowed Firefox to use the fastest connection and never had any problems with the SA sites.

I checked the country list, so I had the info in the screenshot. The point is that these sites worked perfectly with the option to let Firefox choose the fastest location and after the Beta installation, they don't. I need help fixing the problem.

I'm sure it wasn't supposed to be linked to the update, but that's what happened after I installed the Beta version of Firefox. And whether it was supposed to be linked to the update or not is of no consequence.

A few other things started going wrong, e.g., Firefox would open bigger than my second screen, or halfway up the screen, so I couldn't drag it down, minimise it, or fit it to the screen. Refreshing Firefox didn't solve anything, so I reinstalled.

The reinstallation didn't fix the VPN, though, and that is my biggest issue. If something worked before and then gets broken, someone must be able to fix it. That is what I'm asking. Please

I don't know why, just confirming it's universally unavailable at this point around the world and across versions. (Infrastructure reasons most likely.)

It's not clear what's the blocker — do the sites work with VPN disabled? Or the sites only work locally from ZA? And you're not physically in ZA? Or you're in ZA, don't want to disable VPN, and now being routed through different regions the sites in question reject their service abroad?

If you used "recommended" before, where most sites thought you were located? If you use "recommended" now, where does it place you, according to https://ipinfo.io/what-is-my-ip readouts?

Re your questions:

It's not clear what's the blocker — do the sites work with VPN disabled? ---> Yes

Or the sites only work locally from ZA? ---> No

And you're not physically in ZA? Or you're in ZA, don't want to disable VPN, ---> The latter

and now being routed through different regions ---> Yes

the sites in question reject their service abroad? ---> We lived in three different European countries (periods between 2006 and 2025), came back home last December. I changed from Google to Firefox a few months ago. Everything was working smoothly ALL THE TIME until I downloaded Firefox's latest Beta.

Perhaps that's the problem, but still, as I said, I had all the SA sites working throughout all our European stays. As for the Netherlands: Afrikaans originated in Dutch and Flemish. There's a very close bond between our universities and those in the Netherlands, and there's no way that the dictionaries would be refusing services there.

If the location is the problem, how do I fix it without changing my location on Google to South Africa?

The IP-info from your link is interesting. When I first looked, it said Greater Accra. On a Google search (in Afrikaans) the other day, Google suddenly decided that I'm in Amsterdam, and has since been whopping me with Dutch articles, even though my default language is UK English. I went back to Google Search to check if it's still Amsterdam because the Dutch articles are not so frequent any more. It is, and when I then returned to your https://ipinfo.io/what-is-my-ip, it's changed to Amsterdam, too.

Hi,

First, South Africa is indeed unavailable to everyone at the moment; that's expected and not related to Firefox updates. The good news is that this is temporary. I don't have any timeline to share at the moment, but my understanding is that it should become available again sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, you can consider using a different VPN if you need this particular location (if you are up for paid options, Mozilla VPN should be a good choice, and it should have South Africa available). However, since the limitation is temporary, you can just wait until it is lifted.

Last but not least, please ask new questions if you need help with other issues; one question per issue.

Thank you.

Thanks for the details!

The IP-info from your link is interesting. When I first looked, it said Greater Accra. […] I then returned to your https://ipinfo.io/what-is-my-ip, it's changed to Amsterdam.

Alright, that basically aligns with some infrastructure maintenance work (Accra has a datacenter that might have been the best match for you, and now Amsterdam is the fastest peering.)

Generally, this shouldn't be "too" noticeable to you, but I understand you'd prefer your best match to be a) geographically local for better results targeting, b) not cause some sites to break.

sites only work locally from ZA? ---> No I had all the SA sites working throughout all our European stays […] between our universities and those in the Netherlands, and there's no way that the dictionaries would be refusing services there.

In other words especially if you appear to be connected via Amsterdam, this is a region that has proven availability of the sites, so it must be sensitivity to something else (like datacenter–originated traffic perhaps).

Would you be able to share 2–3 of the sites you're having issues with accessing if they're public, to see how they route from a few places, to help understand if the result is intentional, or an error?

Or you're in ZA, don't want to disable VPN, ---> The latter do the sites work with VPN disabled? ---> Yes

For sites that don't work over VPN, there's a quick toggle in the VPN pane to exclude them from the protection and route normally, while protecting all your other browsing so you don't have to disable the VPN feature as a whole. Is that something that unblocks you for now, or you need to keep your connection privacy even against these specific sites you frequent?

I pay subscriptions for the sites that are bothersome at present. I guess that doesn't make them public? Or will you be able to check the routing without passwords? The following two sites don't work.

https://www.woordeboek.co.za/ https://viva-afrikaans.org/

This one seems to have 'recovered'.

https://www.pharosonline.co.za

Oh, thank you sooo much, @jbr! Up and running in a jiffy! Germany. We lived there from 2022-2025. Never had any problems there.