Amnezia shipped version 5.1.0.6 of its VPN client on November 4, 2026, and the headline change is location sorting. According to TechRadar’s coverage, the Amnezia VPN update lets users organize countries by region or read them in one alphabetical list. It sounds minor until you remember that Amnezia Premium now lists more than 50 locations, and a flat pile of 50 country names is a chore to scroll on a phone.
Location sorting is only part of the release. Version 5.1.0.6 also adds a search bar, a favorites system capped at 15 entries, split app and tunnel logs, tuning for self-hosted servers that use XHTTP and XMUX, and fixes for connections through mobile operators. For readers who run their own VPN endpoint on a rented cloud server, or who weigh self-hosted alternatives to Tailscale, the self-hosting items matter as much as the interface polish.
This analysis sticks to what the release announcement and TechRadar’s report confirm. Where the sources are silent, we say so. No price is confirmed, no company spokesperson is quoted on the record, and one widely assumed feature, sorting by ping, is not part of this build. We cover each of those gaps below, then place the release in the wider VPN client market and offer a few predictions.
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What Amnezia VPN 5.1.0.6 changed on November 4
The confirmed version number is 5.1.0.6, and the confirmed release date is November 4, 2026. The build groups its changes into four buckets: server selection, diagnostics, self-hosted server handling, and connectivity. Desktop installations update automatically, according to the announcement, while mobile users pick up the new version through the App Store or Google Play.
That delivery detail is worth a second look. Automatic desktop updates mean Windows, macOS, and Linux users get the new location selector without lifting a finger. Phone users must pull the update from their store, so adoption on mobile will lag by however long it takes each person to tap the button. For a release that fixes connectivity through mobile operators, that lag has a real cost: the people who need the fix most are the ones who must install it themselves.
The release also touches the P2P location, which now supports two-way data transfer. Uploads work alongside downloads. The announcement does not say how long uploads were blocked or how many users hit that limit, so treat the change as a capability gain rather than a measured performance jump.
Location sorting: by region or one alphabetical list
The new sorting offers two layouts. In the first, countries sit under regional headings and run alphabetically inside each region. In the second, every country appears in a single alphabetical list. Users pick whichever fits how they think about servers.
The regional view suits people who choose a continent first. Someone who wants a European exit node to reach a regional service scans one block instead of the whole catalog. The flat list suits people who know the country they want and just need to land on it fast. Neither layout adds new servers. Both change how fast you reach the ones already there.
Sorting is a pure interface feature, which makes it cheap to build and easy to underrate. Server pickers fail quietly. Users do not file bug reports about a list that takes ten seconds to scan. They just choose the first familiar country, stay on it, and never explore the other 40-plus options they pay for. A better list nudges people toward the variety that a premium plan advertises.
Search bar and 15 favorites: the fastest path to a server
The location selector now includes a search bar for finding countries by name. Beyond that, users can star locations with a star icon and save up to 15 of them as favorites. Together the two tools cover both habits: type a name when you know it, tap a star when you reconnect to the same few places every week.
The arithmetic on the cap is simple. With more than 50 Premium locations, 15 favorites covers at most 30 percent of the catalog. That is generous for most people, who rarely rotate through more than a handful of exits. A heavy user who tests many regions will hit the ceiling, though, and the announcement does not mention a way to raise it.
Where favorites work
Favorites run on the main location screen and on the “Config files” screen. The second placement is the telling one. The Config files screen is where people who manage their own configurations spend time, so the feature is not locked to the Premium catalog view.
How favorites are stored
Favorites live on the device and are tied to the subscription key. They persist after app updates and after device restarts, but they do not sync between devices. A person who runs Amnezia on a phone and a laptop will star their picks twice. The sources do not say what happens to the list on a full reinstall or when a subscription key changes, so users should not assume the stars survive either event.
Version 5.1.0.6 at a glance
The table below condenses every confirmed item in the release. Each row comes from the announcement or TechRadar’s report, and nothing here is inferred.
| Feature | What changed | Who it affects |
|---|---|---|
| Location sorting | By region (alphabetical inside each) or one alphabetical list | All users with a location list |
| Search | Search bar in the location selector | All users |
| Favorites | Up to 15 starred locations, stored on device, tied to subscription key | Main location and Config files screens |
| Logs | App logs separated from tunnel logs, viewable before sending | Anyone sending diagnostics |
| Self-hosted servers | Refined connection handling for XHTTP and XMUX | Operators of their own servers |
| Mobile operators | Fixes for connections through mobile carriers | Phone users on cellular networks |
| P2P location | Two-way transfer, uploads and downloads | Users of the P2P location |
| Local proxy | Local proxy option for Premium on Windows, macOS, Linux | Premium desktop users |
Why server selection became a real problem at 50+ locations
A VPN client with five exits needs no sorting. A client with more than 50 does. As a premium catalog grows, the picker stops being a settings menu and becomes the main screen people touch every day. Amnezia’s update reads as a response to that growth: the product added locations, and the interface needed to catch up.
Consider the usual flow. A user opens the app, wants a specific country, and scrolls. Without grouping, the list mixes small and large markets, neighboring countries, and far-off ones in whatever order the vendor chose. Regional grouping breaks that into scannable chunks. Search then removes scrolling for anyone who knows the name. Favorites remove even the typing.
The same pattern shows up across infrastructure software. Once a catalog passes a few dozen entries, vendors add filters, search, and pinning. Cloud consoles went through it with regions. Network tools went through it with endpoints. Amnezia is following a well-worn path, and the fact that it needed to suggests the Premium footprint is no longer small.
Split logs: app logs and tunnel logs, reviewed before sending
The update separates app logs from tunnel logs and lets users view them before sending diagnostic information. For a privacy tool, that last clause carries the weight. A VPN user who files a support ticket is handing over data from a product they chose partly to limit data exposure. Letting them read the log first puts the decision in their hands.
Separating the two log types also helps troubleshooting. App logs describe what the client interface did. Tunnel logs describe what happened on the encrypted connection itself. A support engineer chasing a connection drop usually wants the tunnel side, and a user worried about leaking details might be comfortable sharing app logs but not tunnel logs. Two files give both parties more control than one blended stream.
Anyone debugging their own setup can pair this with packet-level tools. Our walkthrough on the tcpdump command on Ubuntu shows how to watch traffic on the server side while the client logs show the other half of the story.
Self-hosted servers: XHTTP and XMUX handling
For self-hosters, the key line says connection handling was refined for servers using XHTTP and XMUX. The announcement gives no benchmark, no before-and-after latency figures, and no list of the specific bugs fixed. So the honest reading is narrow: if your own server uses those options, expect the client to handle them better, and test it before you rely on it.
Self-hosting is where Amnezia differs from a plain subscription VPN. Operators rent a server, often a small virtual machine in a cloud region, and point the client at it. That makes the project a natural fit for the cloud crowd. If you plan to run an endpoint on your own network, our guides on building an AWS VPC with public and private subnets and the OPNsense firewall setup cover the surrounding plumbing.
Transport-level tuning matters because networks differ. A connection that works from a home fiber line can stumble on a carrier network or behind a restrictive filter. Refining how the client treats these transport options is the sort of change that rarely makes a headline and often decides whether a self-hosted setup survives daily use.
Mobile operator fixes and two-way P2P
The update includes fixes that improve connections through mobile operators. The sources do not name which carriers, which countries, or which failure modes. That vagueness is normal for a release note, but it means readers cannot yet judge whether the fix covers their network. The practical advice is to update, test on cellular data, and report any remaining drops.
Mobile connectivity is the hardest test for any VPN client. Phones change networks constantly, hop between Wi-Fi and cellular, and sit behind carrier equipment that treats traffic in unpredictable ways. A tunnel that holds on a desktop wired connection can fail on a train. Any release that claims operator fixes deserves a field test, not just a read.
The P2P change is easier to state. The P2P location now supports uploads as well as downloads. The sources do not say what the location supported before this build, so we cannot size the improvement. Nor can we say how it performs, because no throughput figures accompany the claim.
Desktop local proxy for Premium subscribers
Amnezia also introduced a local proxy option for Premium subscribers on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The sources do not detail how it works or which protocols it exposes. Generally, a local proxy lets individual applications route through the VPN without sending the whole machine’s traffic through the tunnel. That can suit developers, who want one tool on the VPN and everything else on the normal connection.
Because the proxy is limited to Premium desktop users, it also works as a plan differentiator. Mobile users and non-subscribers do not get it. That fits a pattern in the VPN market, where per-app routing and proxy modes often sit on the paid side of the line. Whether Amnezia widens access later is unknown, and the announcement gives no hint.
What is not in this release: ping sorting and pricing
Some coverage and reader chatter will assume the new sorting orders servers by ping. It does not. The available source mentions ping sorting only as a future plan, and it is not a confirmed feature of version 5.1.0.6. Anyone who updates expecting the fastest server at the top of the list will be disappointed.
Pricing is the second gap. No price is confirmed in the available sources, so we cannot say what Amnezia Premium costs or whether the update changes it. We also have no named spokesperson with an on-record statement. This article therefore paraphrases the announcement and TechRadar’s report and offers no quotes.
| Claim | Status | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Release 5.1.0.6 shipped on November 4, 2026 | Confirmed | Release announcement |
| Sorting by region or alphabetical list | Confirmed | Announcement and TechRadar |
| Up to 15 favorites | Confirmed | Announcement and TechRadar |
| More than 50 Premium locations | Confirmed | Announcement and TechRadar |
| Favorites sync between devices | Not supported | Announcement says no sync |
| Sorting by ping | Unconfirmed | Mentioned only as a future plan |
| Premium price or price change | Unconfirmed | No price in available sources |
| Named executive quote | None available | No on-record speaker in sources |
Competitive context: where this sits among VPN clients
Server search and favorites are familiar features in consumer VPN apps, so Amnezia is catching up on interface basics rather than inventing something new. What sets the project apart is the mix: a hosted Premium catalog with more than 50 locations, plus first-class support for people who run their own servers. Serving both camps in one app is a clear selling point.
The self-hosted camp has other options. Mesh tools and open-source overlay networks serve teams that want private connectivity between machines, and we compared five of them in our piece on Tailscale alternatives. Those tools solve a different problem than a consumer VPN exit, but the audiences overlap among developers and homelab owners who are comfortable with a cloud server and a terminal.
Privacy-focused readers should also weigh the layers around the tunnel. DNS lookups can leak even when the VPN holds, which is why our ranking of encrypted DNS options belongs next to any VPN decision. For the cryptography underneath, the primer on symmetric versus asymmetric encryption explains why tunnels pair both types.
Historical context: a long road from bare lists to usable pickers
VPN clients began as thin wrappers around configuration files. Choosing a server meant choosing a file. As vendors built hosted networks, the file picker turned into a country list, and the country list grew. Each wave of growth forced the same interface fixes: grouping, search, pinning. Amnezia’s 5.1.0.6 sits inside that cycle.
The distinct twist here is the Config files screen getting favorites too. It shows the app treating self-managed configurations and Premium locations as peers instead of treating the first as an afterthought. That design choice reflects the project’s dual audience, and it will likely shape how future features get scoped.
Predictions: what to watch after 5.1.0.6
The forecasts below are our own analysis, not reported plans. None come from Amnezia, and none carry a confirmed date.
- Ping-based sorting is the likeliest next step. The source mentions it as a future plan, so a later build adding it would surprise no one. Timing is unknown.
- Favorites sync is a plausible request. Per-device storage is the obvious complaint from multi-device users. Whether Amnezia changes it depends on how it handles subscription keys, which the sources do not describe.
- More point releases on mobile connectivity are probable. Operator fixes rarely land in one pass, because carrier behavior varies by country and changes without notice.
- The favorites cap may move. A limit of 15 is a design choice, and user feedback often pushes such limits up. We would call this a coin flip.
- Self-hosted tooling will keep getting attention. Two lines of the release target server operators, which signals that the project values that audience.
How to update and what to check afterward
Desktop users on Windows, macOS, and Linux should receive the update on their own. Open the app and confirm the version reads 5.1.0.6. Phone users should open the App Store or Google Play and install the update manually.
- Open the location selector and switch between the regional and single-list layouts.
- Type a country name into the search bar to confirm it finds the entry.
- Star the few locations you use most, up to the 15 limit, on both the main screen and the Config files screen if you use it.
- If you run a self-hosted server with XHTTP or XMUX, reconnect and test stability over a few hours.
- On a phone, test the connection on mobile data, not just Wi-Fi.
- Before sending a support request, open the logs and read what you are about to share.
Teams that expose a self-hosted endpoint on a public cloud should also look at the layers outside the VPN client. The cloud computing section of this site collects our guides on networking, identity, and hardening at tech-insider.org/category/cloud-computing.
Bottom line on the Amnezia VPN update
Version 5.1.0.6 is a usability release more than a headline-grabber. Location sorting by region or alphabet, a search bar, and 15 favorites make a 50-plus location catalog manageable. Split logs, XHTTP and XMUX handling, mobile operator fixes, two-way P2P, and the Premium desktop proxy fill out the rest.
The gaps matter too. No price is confirmed, no speaker is on record, favorites do not sync, and ping sorting is a plan rather than a feature. Read the release as a solid step in interface maturity, then judge the connectivity claims with your own tests.
FAQ: Amnezia VPN 5.1.0.6
When was Amnezia VPN 5.1.0.6 released?
The confirmed release date is November 4, 2026.
How does the new location sorting work?
Users can organize countries by region, alphabetically inside each region, or view one alphabetical list. A search bar also helps find countries by name.
Does the update sort servers by ping?
No. The available source mentions ping sorting only as a future plan, and it is not a confirmed feature of version 5.1.0.6.
How many favorite locations can I save?
Up to 15, using a star icon. Favorites work on the main location screen and the Config files screen.
Do my favorites sync across devices?
No. Favorites are stored on the device and tied to the subscription key. They persist after app updates and restarts but do not sync between devices.
How many locations does Amnezia Premium offer?
More than 50 locations, according to the announcement and TechRadar’s coverage.
How do I get the update?
Desktop installations update automatically. Mobile users can download it from the App Store or Google Play.
What does the update change for self-hosted servers?
Connection handling was refined for servers using XHTTP and XMUX. The sources give no performance figures, so test your own setup after updating.
