Pihole blocks certain domains for android phone even when disabled

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1

The issue I am facing: Pi-Hole Blocks apps like Disney Plus videos and Twitter images, even when its turned off and/or tons of whitelists have been added to avoid this.

Details about my system: Samsung Note 9, Samsung S21 Ultra

Apps affected: : Disney+ app, Twitter official app

What I have changed since installing Pi-hole: Set up the DNS servers (multiple combinations, same result), added default recommended online lists., whitelisted domains.

Issue: Seems NOBODY absolutely NOBODY has been able to solve this anywhere.
I have asked and browsed other similar request and almost every single thread ends empty, abandoned, closed or noone has any clue other than recommending to "check your tail log". Problem is that the tail log looks fine and I have added every whitelist recommended.

The behavior is similar to this: Pi-hole blocking Instagram even when not enabled

But on Twitter's official app.
The text and ads will display correctly, but images and videos will NOT LOAD until after a specified amount of time ( I suspect a timeout inside the app) which is around 1-2 minutes.
Disney plus at first did not load, but after a ton of whitelists. It goes to the main screen which is empty with the circling loading animation then throws an error "Unable to connect to Disney+"

Stopping pihole's dock resolves the issue and/or disconnecting from wifi and doing cell DATA mode also solves the issues. Both images loads instantly and Disney+ immediately loads the main screen.

This behavior happens EVEN when disabling pihole.

I have tried every DNS server that is listed as well with no change at all.

NOTE: this issue only affects my android phones.
I can see Disney+ and Twitter with no issue on Web with a PC.
Also I can see Twitter using a TweetDeck app or a Web version for Android.
All the android phones have no adblockers or anything else.

Pihole is installed in a server as a Docker. The requests are set to go to pihole's IP address from my Gaming WIFI router.

Any ideas what could be the cause? or what else to try to diagnose?

2

Please upload a debug log and post just the token URL that is generated after the log is uploaded by running the following command from the Pi-hole host terminal:

pihole -d

or do it through the Web interface:

Tools > Generate Debug Log

3

Thanks!
I ended doing the nuclear solution. Reset my fiber modem, my gaming router, cell network setting and pihole. Radded and reconfigured everything..

And still failed for 6 hours.
Then out of nowhere.. today in the morning.. everything is now working as expected.
All apps work and most ads are blocked correctly.

So I'm completely baffled. :frowning:

now 12 hours AFTER...
The issue returned. So I have no idea what the hell is going on..

TL DR: Could not find solution, deleted everything, reinstalled everything and reconfigured everything.. started working as it should 6 hours later. Then I reviewed 12 hours later.. and its back to the same behavior

Tail log: https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/EQboQyOk/

4

Your debug log shows your router to distribute two DNS servers via DHCP:

*** [ DIAGNOSING ]: Discovering active DHCP servers (takes 10 seconds)
   Scanning all your interfaces for DHCP servers
   
   * Received 300 bytes from eth0:192.168.1.1
     Offered IP address: 192.168.1.16
     DHCP options:
      Message type: DHCPOFFER (2)
      dns-server: 192.168.1.2
      dns-server: 9.9.9.9
      router: 192.168.1.1

A client may choose any one of those DNS servers for any given DNS request at its own discretion. Any client using 9.9.9.9 would by-pass Pi-hole completely.

Pi-hole has to be your sole DNS server for clients in your network.

5

Yes, I understand.

But that is not the issue.

The issue is why only a few specific services refuse to load (images and videos on twitter) or services (example, netflix works, but Disney+ does not load )
It must be something related to analytics because even when videos from Disney+ are downloaded.. you get a blank screen unless you get into DATA cell phone mode.

Would you think that enforcing pihole would somehow resolve this issue?

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6

Ladies and Gentlemen, I think I have finally solved the issue.

The problem is NOT pihole itself, its the MODEM that I was assigned.

To explain: It seems there are many fiberoptic modems (specially those from HUAWEI) that are NOT PROPERLY CONFIGURED by default (on the hidden settings). This issue is particularly specific. It affects IPv6.

The modem while had IPv6 enabled, it was not receiving the IP nor the DNS.

To resume the problem: The modem claimed to have IPV6 enabled and ready when it was not. This in turn advertised IPv6 availability to my gaming router, which could not route the traffic properly.
So both Disney+ and Twitter tried to connect via IPv6 (or caused conflict) and thus ended in a timeout after a long time. On Twitter, it caused the app to try again after 5 minutes using IPv4.
Disney just threw an error.

Searching around (funnily, in spanish) found a latinamerican person who also has similar modems and fiberoptic.. and yup.. the configurations were as he mentioned.

IPv6 was not configured properly and thus did not proper IPv6 configuration and still incorrectly advertised IPv6 availability to the hosts or routers in question.

For reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyn3UpyeP5U

Text: https://www.promodescuentos.com/discusiones/ayuda-problema-con-red-de-telmex-y-apps-en-telefono-437348

The answer comes from the user TADEOCHIPOTE.

I thank Bucking_Horn for his time and patience! (site claims I'm a new user, so can't mention him directly)

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