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I am working on Mac and have identical Proxy settings for the System and Firefox browser. However, I am able to see my Firefox traffic in Chrales but I don't see my Chrome and Safari traffic (which use System Proxy Settings). What do I need to do? How can I check the debug this?

Already restarted my browser but it didn't help. I have set and reset proxy settings, but of no use.

One thing to note: I am on a VPN although I don't think this should affect Chrome as Firefox is going through the proxy.

Asad Iqbal
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  • Which is the host and which is the port ? – ROMANIA_engineer Sep 06 '14 at 07:23
  • I am using localhost 8888. This is configured in Charles, System Settings and Firefox. Firefox and Charles are working but Chrome and Safari don't go through the proxy. – Asad Iqbal Sep 06 '14 at 07:27
  • It seems ok ... I suppose that your problem is related to your protocol. Try to focus on this. When you choose a proxy from `Internet Options > LAN Settings`, click on `Advanced` to add that proxy for every protocol. – ROMANIA_engineer Sep 06 '14 at 07:35
  • Actually, it is something else. As soon as I leave the VPN, then Charles starts picking up traffic from Chrome. I don't know how can I keep the VPN and also make Chrome work with Charles. – Asad Iqbal Sep 06 '14 at 08:00

7 Answers7

94

For anyone else using VPN: Charles must be turned on before VPN. So quitting VPN after turning on Charles won't work either.

Also in my case VPN can't be turned on at all.

Lucia
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    This has hung me up several times, thinking that I need to restart. In my case, disconnecting from VPN and reconnecting instantly started showing traffic in Charles. Also the [Ruchira Randana] answer about enabling and also enabling on startup, the Mac OS X Proxy is key. – bwinchester Feb 13 '17 at 17:30
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    You can just e.g. turn off wifi or unplug ethernet physically - no need to stop VPN app. That would be enough – Meredian Oct 13 '17 at 12:55
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    This was the issue in my case. Thanks! – Arun Avanathan Jul 27 '18 at 04:09
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    The number of times I restarted my PC... Thanks mate – Raj Kumar Oct 30 '18 at 18:48
33

Did you enable "Proxy-> Mac OS X Proxy"?

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Ruchira Randana
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24

Quit your VPN! I was confused almost one year and really upset, i cannot record on my mac.But today i quit my vpn(xx-net) it does works.

Yang Zongjun
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  • This was my problem! I had Tunelblick running, and even tho no connection was made through it, it still did not allow Charles to work properly. – Pavel Gurov Mar 06 '17 at 13:12
  • in additon: if you use a chrome proxy plugin, you'd better set it to the mode: global proxy – Yang Zongjun Mar 16 '17 at 07:12
  • first you should turn off all your vpn, i.e. shadowsocks and your browser proxy plugin. Second you turn on charles. This does work well for me. – Yang Zongjun Oct 23 '17 at 08:20
6

Just got caught out with this - the Hola VPN Chrome extension was managing Chrome's proxy settings so it wasn't using the system proxy.

Simply disabling the Hola extension got it working for me again.

morrislaptop
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2

I turn off a chrome proxy plugin and it works!

soytian
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    Yes, the use of any extension that takes over proxy configuration seems to be an issue. Disable (or remove) the proxy controlling extension and everything seems to go back through the normal MacOS proxy configuration. – Michael Oryl Feb 05 '19 at 15:26
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    When you have the `Proxy SwitchyOmega` Chrome extension installed: Select `System Proxy` (instead of `Direct` or some other proxy), and Charles should be used instead. Also check the `Bypass List` in the `SwitchyOmega Options`! – strarsis Jul 28 '21 at 18:09
1

Chrome extension 'SwitchyOmega' can solve the "VPN and Charles cannot turn on at the same time" issue by configure the auto switch option:

  1. Add Charles mode Charles config
  2. Add VPN mode VPN Configuration
  3. auto switch configuration auto switch config
  4. Use auto switch mode in Chrome
    Use auto switch mode
Jarred Zhong
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1

Desktop applications that set system-wide proxy don't work really well with VPN. I struggled with Charles & Fiddler because I was under a VPN network and almost all the time I couldn't use any of the apps while on my company VPN So I googled for Web Proxy chrome extension and found Requestly.

I am using the Requestly Chrome extension and the chrome extension works well with VPN and it has all the features that Charles has.

gautamprajapati
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