Greetings, everyone!

This is a report of the work done by the Community Team in the past month and general user feedback that we've received across our official support channels.

Report Period - May 24 upto July 1

--- Request Tracker ---

Tickets resolved in the past month: 212

# New RT templates

We gathered data on the most frequent issues faced by Tor users and turned their responses into RT articles/templates. This will help people working on the RT provide better user assistance. The following articles have been created or updated:

1. v2 onion deprecation     2. Will TB keep all my applications safe? Download files off Tor? Can someone access my files while using Tor? Etc.               Here is a list of issues which got the most attention (at least 3 tickets on RT):

# Tor Browser

Breakdown of number of RT tickets received with respect to operating system:

Windows (10,8,7 ...all the way upto XP) - 23 MacOS -  6 GNU/Linux - 2 Android - 11

(Note: This includes tickets where the user mentioned the operating system or it was evident from the issue they were running into or enclosed screenshots.)

1. 7 RT tickets - Failure to launch Tor Browser "Tor unexpectedly exited". We point users to the "Seven-point basic troubleshooting" article (template) on the RT to help users.

2. 6 RT tickets - Unable to access websites including bank sites and social media sites eg. Instagram. We point users to the "Banking sites blocked over Tor & Basic troubleshooting when users can't access any particular website"  article (template) on the RT to help users.

3. 3 RT tickets - Error "RSA_get0_d could not be located in the dynamic link library tor.exe" on Windows. We have a GitLab ticket regarding this long standing issue. [1]

4. 3 RT tickets – TB crashes/ Goes blank after Windows 10 version 21H1 update. We have a GitLab ticket regarding this issue. [2]     5.  9 RT tickets - Installation Issue   2 - Windows : We ask them to download the correct version TB 32-bit or 64-bit. [3]   4 - Windows : Trying to install in wrong directory   3 - macOS : Error "no mountable file systems". We ask users to update their OS.

6. 3 RT tickets - Questions around VPN. We direct users to the article on the Support Portal. [4] and "Tor vs VPN" template.

7. 4 RT tickets - Change my guard/torrc file to not pick nodes from the same country. We teach users why modifying the way that Tor creates its circuits is strongly discouraged and point them to the article on the Support Portal. [5]

8. 3 RT tickets - Cannot upload files on Tor Browser for Android. Regarding this we have a ticket open on our GitLab [6]. This issue is already listed on 'Known Issues' section in the Tor Browser User Manual. [7]

9. 4 RT tickets - Error "Proxy Server Refused Connection". We ask users NOT to set TBA as their default browser and point them to the article in the Support Portal. [8]

10. 1 RT ticket – Error "java.io.IOException: Control port file not created". Regarding this we have a ticket open on our GitLab. [9]

11. 3 RT tickets – Confusion around F-Droid & what apk to download from our Download page. (under Android) [10]

# Onion Services

5 tickets - v2 onion deprecation. Users were confused what to do, how to upgrade v2 to v3, will i be able to use Tor. We help users identify v2 and v3 onions, point them to the "v2 onion deprecation" article (template) on the RT .

# Censorship Circumvention

We got a total of 10 tickets requesting help to connect to Tor which have been from Iran, China and other countries. We provided private bridges for them.

# UI/UX

1. Google Play Store We have recieved both positive and negative reviews. The negative ones are majorly about removing the "Quit" button which spans 11 comments. Other negative rating reviews revolve around not being able to download and slow speed of the browser.

2. Tor Stack Exchange - Statistics of what the discussion has been about (5 most active tags): tor-browser-bundle- 28 questions configuration (questions about configuring Tor software)- 19 questions hidden-services- 18 questions onion-routing - 5 questions anonymity- 10 questions security- 8 questions

3. Reddit - Discussion has mostly been around Tor + VPN, running Snowflake proxies, Unable to access sites, hosting onion servies, Cloudfare blocked over Tor and exit relays.

If you have any suggestions, questions or want to discuss anything in detail please feel free to reach out to me and/or anyone from the Community Team!

Thanks,

Kulsoom

Links:

[1]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/tor/-/issues/33702 [2]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/40422 [3]: https://www.torproject.org/download/languages/ [4]: https://support.torproject.org/#faq-5 [5]: https://support.torproject.org/#tbb-16 [6]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/40283 [7]: https://tb-manual.torproject.org/mobile-tor/#known-issues [8]: https://support.torproject.org/tbb/tbb-32/ [9]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/40196 [10]: https://www.torproject.org/download/#android