Some DNS-based ad blockers and privacy VPNs block a hostname MonAI needs. When that happens the app can look partly broken while your internet works fine everywhere else.

Symptoms

  • Your Posted / Published gallery is empty or missing images, while the Creations tab works
  • The home feed won't load or update
  • Likes and follower counts don't appear
  • Image generation fails or you're told your account can't be verified
  • Everything fixes itself when you switch networks or turn off private DNS

Why this happens

MonAI's backend runs on Google Cloud Functions at the address cloudfunctions.net (full address: us-central1-ai-art-7c643.cloudfunctions.net). Some ad-blocking DNS services and VPN filters block this address because unrelated projects also host content there. When it's blocked, your phone can't reach MonAI's servers — the app will show a "Network filter detected" message naming the blocked address.

The fix: allow the blocked address

Add cloudfunctions.net to your blocker's allowlist (sometimes called a whitelist) — that's the address blocked in almost every case. If the app's message names a different address, allow that one instead.

AdGuard (app or AdGuard DNS)
Settings → Filtering → User rules → add:
@@||cloudfunctions.net^

NextDNS
Open your configuration at my.nextdns.io → Allowlist tab → add cloudfunctions.net

Pi-hole
Admin page → Domains → enter cloudfunctions.net → Add to Allow List (choose wildcard)

Phone Guardian / other VPN-based blockers
Open the app's protection or filtering settings and add cloudfunctions.net as an allowed/trusted domain. If there's no allowlist option, pause protection while using MonAI.

Or turn off Android Private DNS
Settings → Network & internet → Private DNS → Off (or Automatic). You can turn it back on afterwards — but the block will return unless the address is allowlisted.

Full list of addresses MonAI uses

If things still misbehave after allowing cloudfunctions.net, your blocker may be filtering more than one address. This is everything the app talks to:

Address What stops working when it's blocked
us-central1-ai-art-7c643.cloudfunctions.net Published gallery, home feed, likes, followers, account verification
media.monai.art Artwork images everywhere in the app
images.monai.art Live preview while your art is rendering
websockets.monai.art Progress updates during generation
firestore.googleapis.com Creating art, your galleries, almost everything
firebasestorage.googleapis.com Uploading your own photos (image-to-image, inpainting)
identitytoolkit.googleapis.com and securetoken.googleapis.com Signing in
wiki.monai.art These help pages

The Google addresses (googleapis.com) are almost never blocked — check them last.

Using MonAI for free? The free version is funded by ads, and reward ads are also how free accounts are verified for image generation. Ad blockers block ad delivery by design, so with one active you may not be able to generate at all. The simplest reliable setup is to exclude the MonAI app entirely from your blocker's filtering.

Still not working?

  • Restart the app after changing DNS settings (Android caches lookups briefly)
  • Try on mobile data with Private DNS off to confirm the diagnosis
  • Reach us on Discord or tesseractmobile.monai@gmail.com and mention "private DNS" — we'll know exactly what you mean

Source: the MonAI wiki · Updated · First published