The geteduroam app is designed for two things: to make controlling and enforcing usernames and passwords easier on the mobile device operating systems in a common way, and more importantly, to make transition from a username/password-based eduroam authentication process to a certificate-based process easier and more user-friendly.
Common Issues and Questions:
1. Unable to find your organisation on geteduroam
The primary reason why you can't find your organisation on the geteduroam app is because your organisation has not signed up to the eduroam CAT system. You can check whether your organisation exists by visiting https://cat.eduroam.org/ and then clicking the 'Click here to download your eduroam installer' button. In the organisation pop up, search for your home organisation. If they are not there, encourage your organisation to sign up to the system. It is free for your organisation, and to sign up, they should contact their eduroam national support helpdesk.
Your organisation may already know about geteduroam, but have something similar to eduroam CAT or geteduroam. Check with your local IT helpdesk whether they do.
2. Unable to use the app off-line
Unfortunately geteduroam requires an internet connection to be able to do a live search for your organisation. However, newer versions of geteduroam allow you do download the profile file from the Internet using a data connection (or a guest Internet network, please check with your home organisation) for later setup. Download the latest version from your mobile device app store, and the functionality to open a profile file downloaded from eduroam CAT should be available.
You can set up your eduroam connection at home, but please be aware that while it will attempt to connect to the eduroam network, it will fail (because you will most likely not have it at home). You should however then check when you are in a location that has eduroam whether your phone will connect.
3. Unable to set up eduroam because an existing eduroam connection exists
If you originally set up eduroam yourself by tapping on the eduroam Wi-Fi name and typing in your username and password (on iOS) or configuring it with all the settings (on Android), you have to delete the network connection by tapping on the info icon or the Wi-Fi connection and choose 'Forget Network'. That should delete the details, and geteduroam should be able to set up the connection.
4. Unable to set up eduroam because a 'profile' exists
This usually happens when you downloaded a profile from the eduroam CAT website and installed it (usually this happens on iOS phones). You need to delete or uninstall the profile first. It usually is called 'eduroam'. Then try the geteduroam app again.
5. Getting an 'Invalid profile' error
This is the most annoying error. It can indicate that there is a problem with the profile. The problems include:
- Additional checks made by the device's OS that don't like one of the settings in the profile and rejecting them,
- The Certificate Authority root certificate not having a name (i.e. the CN setting does not exist),
- Or, most often, the subjectAltName setting in the server certificate being missing or not matching the CN setting.
These usually mean that your IT department has to fix that, and then ask you to retry. Some eduroam operators have test phones with which they can test the profiles to make sure they work.
On some iOS versions, and some phones (such as Samsung phones) it actually means that it was successful, but it didn't connect to eduroam. The best way to check is to turn Wi-Fi off, wait a few moments, and then turn it back on. Then check in the Wi-Fi settings whether it has connected to eduroam. If the problem persists, please also check point 8 below, or let your IT department know and ask them to escalate it to us. We'll try and find out why this happens.
If you are using an HONOR phone (with MagicOS 7.1 / Android 13), read on for a potential solution for you!
6. Using geteduroam on a HONOR phone with Android 13 fails to work! It complains about an invalid profile, but no other Android 13 phone has this issue!
The problem is not your phone per se, but it's not the eduroam CAT profile either. If the profile installs fine on other Android 13 phones, it appears that there is an issue with a Google Android API that Google wants developers to use now, but on the HONOR it fails for an unknown reason.
The newest version of geteduroam on Android has been tested on HONOR and Xiaomi phones (Xiaomi phones had similar issues) and it has been found to work. However, the experience will be different from version 1.x, in that the Wi-Fi settings portions will not display your information. This is because of an older API made available in Android 10 that does the same thing as the newer APIs but has a different end-user experience.
Alternatively, download the previous version of geteduroam (you will need to temporarily give Chrome the ability to install apps) from APKPure here:
This will install version 1.0.16, which has been confirmed to still work on the HONOR phone. We're very sorry about that inconvenience; the geteduroam folks are looking into the issue to try and fix it as soon as they can!
7. geteduroam says it configured eduroam, but it won't connect to our 'Eduroam' network! Why?
The eduroam SSID is case-sensitive and must be all lower-case (e.g. 'eduroam'). If your organisation has set up an SSID called 'Eduroam' or 'EDUROAM' (or any other variation), please ask them to fix it because that breaches the eduroam technical specification except in limited circumstances. Some national eduroam operators allow networks to start with 'eduroam' (mostly where various institutions have overlapping eduroam networks, known as the Russell Square problem), but in those cases, the eduroam CAT profile should set that institution-specific SSID up in addition to 'eduroam'.
If the network was set up for test purposes, your organisation can temporarily add the non-compliant Wi-Fi SSID as an additional SSID in their profile on the CAT website so that it is also configured, but please note that this should not continue to be configured as a production network.
Also, if you are visiting a location that advertises eduroam being available and the network SSID is not all lower-case, please report this. It may just be a mistake that is easily corrected.
8. Unable to delete the app without 'deleting' the eduroam connection
This is correct. geteduroam will set up the eduroam network for you, but it also keeps an eye on the network. When you uninstall/delete the app, the network profile it installed is also removed, and with it, your eduroam network connection. While this sounds wrong, because geteduroam has an important function (like checking that your certificate for connecting eduroam, if you use one, is still valid), it has to remain on your phone.
8.1. Unable to connect to eduroam despite installing the app
The geteduroam app on its own does not provide eduroam connectivity. You must have installed a profile, and the profile has to be correct for your phone to be able to use it (and connect to eduroam). The responsibility for ensuring that the profile is correct lies with your home organisation, so if you are unable to connect, please contact your own organisation's IT helpdesk first to check. See the first point at the top of the page.
9. Using the geteduroam app on iOS 15 fails, but downloading the profile directly from the eduroam CAT website works. What gives?
Unfortunately there was a bug in iOS 15 and iOS 15.1 that prevented apps (like geteduroam) from installing certificates in profiles like eduroam's. The file from the eduroam CAT website is an Apple Configurator profile (a .mobileconfig file), so that continued to work. Apple confirmed that this bug was fixed in iOS 15.2. Please upgrade your phone to iOS 15.2 and geteduroam should function as it did before you upgraded to iOS 15 or 15.1.
10. Using geteduroam on Android 12 fails. It installed the profile but it won't authenticate! This worked before upgrading to Android 12!
Android 12 has become a lot stricter in its requirements without specifying what was changed. As part of our investigation into this, we discovered that Android 12 strictly applies the X.509 certificate specification (i.e. it will not apply any workarounds that have worked in past versions or with older operating systems), and it also blocks certificates signed with the obsolete SHA1 and MD5 hashing algorithms.
The eduroam EAP Server Certificate considerations page specifies which settings the server certificate should (read, must) comply with. Your IT department can verify their server certificate with the command: openssl verify -x509_strict -verbose -CAfile <ca.certificate> <server.certificate>. An OK message means it will comply with the strict specification. Additionally, your IT department should verify the profile in question with Android 12 or later to check that it connects OK.
11. Using geteduroam on Windows, but the laptop won't let me download it and tells me to go to the Microsoft Store! What's going on?
The chances are that you are running on Windows 10 or Windows 11 in what's called 'S-mode'. This is the default setting that Windows 10 and 11 are configured as when you buy a new laptop. Microsoft has an FAQ about S-mode here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/windows-10-and-windows-11-in-s-mode-faq-851057d6-1ee9-b9e5-c30b-93baebeebc85
Unfortunately, in S-mode, you are limited to running applications and executables that are from the Microsoft Store only. geteduroam is currently not available in the Microsoft Store because of requirements that the app developers cannot meet at this stage. You will have to make a decision whether you would like to switch off S-mode or not. If you do not wish to switch S-mode off, I'm afraid we currently don't have a solution, but once we do, we'll publish it. Warning: Treat switching S-mode off with care, because once you have switched S-mode off, you cannot switch it back on!
12. geteduroam associates itself with other file types and functions
Early versions of geteduroam on Android in particular had a faulty MIME type association, which couldn't be fixed after a Google deadline for some versions of Android expired. You can try and sideload (download) a version of geteduroam from APKPure that works for your phone, which may fix this problem.
13. Why yet another app?
eduroam has been around for 20 years, and over that period of time, mobile phone manufacturers have become better at supporting the technology used by eduroam, something called 'WPA-Enterprise'. Some, like Apple, have made it very simple to connect (but in doing so leaving some security features for WPA Enterprise out of the options), while others, like Android, have gone the opposite way and made the connection options very configurable but also confusing for the end users. Laptop operating systems like Windows buried the settings completely by requiring you to edit the Windows registry!
geteduroam's predecessor, an app called 'eduroam CAT', made connecting and configuring eduroam on Android phones a lot simpler and more straight-forward. It is no longer being developed, and it is not supported other than on Android versions before version 11. geteduroam is actively developed by the geteduroam project, and it aims to adhere to the credo that configuring your phone should be easy and consistent (so Android phones and iPhones have the same consistent user experience), while bringing the security features (like root certificate installation and server certificate validation checks) that secure your username and password just a little bit more, to all operating systems that geteduroam supports.
14. Following the advice of my institution to download the 'CAT executable' for Windows, it asked me for an administrator account to be able to make changes. I don't have such an account (and my IT department won't give me one either)! Will geteduroam require the same or can I use geteduroam to configure my Windows laptop instead?
It is likely that the profile you tried to use contains the ability to install eduroam for wired connections (e.g. for Ethernet cables). If your device does not have Ethernet cable ports (it looks like a telephone plug but wider), and you do not use any Ethernet adapters (via a USB port for example), then your institution should provide you with a profile that does not contain support for eduroam over Wired connections.
geteduroam will work for you because it ignores the wired connections option.
15. My laptop is shared, do all of us have to run geteduroam to set up our connection or can just one person do it?
geteduroam only makes changes for you, so if you are sharing your laptop, only when you log in will it connect to eduroam using your user details as provided/instructed by your instutition. If anyone else sharing the laptop with their own account needs to use eduroam too, they must run geteduroam themselves and then set it up with their own account details. This should also mean that you are not responsible for anything your friend or fellow student does online when they've logged into their account on the laptop.
Note: If you all use the same account on the laptop, whoever set up the connection first will be responsible for all the usage unless someone changes the eduroam settings.
16. Can't I just tap on the Wi-Fi network and connect that way?
Technically nothing stops you from doing this, and for many years, this was the way many people connected to eduroam on Apple devices. However, simply tapping on the 'eduroam' network and providing your username and password has several issues:
You have to rely on having typed in your username right. By username, we mean typing in something that looks like an email address: your username, plus the @ sign, plus what's called the realm of your organisation. Without the part on the right-hand side of the @ sign, eduroam doesn't know where you belong, and so it is vitally important to have this. geteduroam allows your organisation to enforce this, so if you only type 'myusername' instead of 'myusername@myuniversity.org', the profile will either add '@myuniversity.org' or ask you to add it.
You have to rely on having typed in your password correctly. The Wi-Fi settings dialogs vary between operating systems. geteduroam consistently allows you to tap/click the 'eye' icon to see or hide your password while you are typing it in. This helps ensure accuracy.
An important feature for making sure you do not give away your username and password to a broken (or compromised) Wi-Fi system is something called server certificate validation. This uses checks specified by your organisation administrators to make sure that before your device sends the password back, it actually made contact with a server that your organisation says is trustworthy. Unfortunately, simply tapping the network and entering credentials does not usually show you details, and requires you to trust a certificate when it pops up the first time. geteduroam makes sure that you a) don't need to trust a pop-up window, and b) your password is not sent to someone who has bad intentions, by using the certificate and the server name(s) specified by your home organisation administrators to check the certificate on your behalf.
Until version 11 of Android, server certificate validation was available, but often instructions to eduroam users was to not validate the certificate. This effectively was a workaround, but it also leaves you, the users, vulnerable to releasing your username and password to people with bad intentions. With Android 12 and later, Google has made requirements stricter, so geteduroam again makes it easier for your home organisation to force server certificate validation without you having to type in a bunch of stuff.
17. The app won't work and crashes!
This is arguably one of the most frustrating things for end users and we can completely understand why you would be upset. The developers for geteduroam, and several eduroam national operators out in the world, test the app on as many devices as they can, and it's not always possible (because it's a crowd effort). When the app crashes, please document (in an email) what happened, and what version of the app this happened on, and what profile you were using (so, your organisation's name, and if there are multiple profiles, which one you chose), so that the developers can try and diagnose the problem and fix it as soon as possible. The more information we have for the problem, the better we can potentially diagnose and fix the problem!
17.1. How to provide information for geteduroam
Please help your IT department (and the geteduroam developers) by providing them with the following kind of information. To take screenshots, press Power and the Home button together on iOS, or press Power and the Volume Down button on Android:
- What device (phone, tablet, laptop) do you use? The make and the model will be very helpful.
- What version of operating system does it run? A screenshot can be very helpful:
On iOS, you can look in the Settings under General, About for the Software Version.
On Android, you can look in the Settings under About phone, Software Information.
On Windows, you should be able to look in the 'Help' menu under 'About' to get more information
On macOS, go to the Apple menu, then choose 'About this Mac'. - Which version of geteduroam are you running?
On Android, go to Settings, then Apps, find 'geteduroam', tap it and scroll to the bottom.
On iOS, go to General, iPhone Storage, search for 'geteduroam' and tap it.
On Windows, it will probably be an executable you had to download. - What did you try and do. Note each step down, or, if you can, take screenshots.
- Send all of this to your helpdesk, or post this to the cat-users mailing list by subscribing, or email eduroamatjisc@gmail.com with your report, and someone from the eduroam UK folks will collate the information and liaise with the developers.
18. How can I report issues or feedback to geteduroam?
If you have problems with geteduroam, you can subscribe to the geteduroam mailing list or the cat-users mailing list, and then post your issue there. Please note that both mailing lists use English as the list language, so try to avoid posting in other languages, if you can.
Users have also left reviews on mobile device app stores, but note that the reviews are not there to log bug reports. Rather use the mailing list if you can.