The proxy setting on iOS is buried two levels down inside the Wi-Fi network you are connected to, which is why it takes most people a few minutes to find. Once you know the path it takes about twenty seconds.
Setting it
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Open Settings and tap Wi-Fi.
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Next to the network you are connected to there is a small blue circled i. Tap it.
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Scroll all the way to the bottom. The last item is Configure Proxy, and it will say Off. Tap it.
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Choose Manual.
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Fill in the two fields:
- Server: the address on its own, like
203.0.113.10. Do not puthttp://in front of it. - Port: the number on its own, like
8080.
- Server: the address on its own, like
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Tap Save in the top right.
That is it. It applies immediately.
Manual or Automatic
You want Manual.
Automatic is for a completely different situation. It asks for a URL pointing at a small configuration file that decides, per website, whether to use a proxy and which one. Companies and universities hand those out. If you have an address and a port in your hand, Automatic is not what you are looking for.
If your proxy needs a username and password
Turn on Authentication in that same screen and two more fields appear for the username and password. Type them exactly as they were given to you, including case.
If your proxy came off a free public list, it has no username or password. Leave Authentication off. A free proxy that demands a login is not one you have been given access to.
Check that it worked
Open Safari and visit any page that reports your IP address. A working proxy means you see its address instead of yours.
Test the proxy before you put it in the phone, though. Our proxy checker opens a real connection to the address and reports whether it answered, which protocols it spoke and how long it took. That matters here because a dead proxy and a typo produce exactly the same symptom on an iPhone: pages that spin forever with no error worth reading.
The limits worth knowing
Wi-Fi only. iOS attaches the proxy to the Wi-Fi network. Walk out of range, switch to cellular, and your traffic goes out with no proxy involved. There is no cellular equivalent in iOS settings.
Per network. Each Wi-Fi network keeps its own proxy setting. Set one at home and it does nothing at work. Set one at work and it is still there next month.
Not every app obeys it. Apple's own networking layer follows the setting, so Safari and most well-behaved apps go through the proxy. Apps that manage their own connections do not, and you cannot make them.
Turning it off
Settings, Wi-Fi, the blue circled i, Configure Proxy, Off, Save.
Worth committing to memory. When a proxy dies, an iPhone does not tell you that a proxy died. It just stops loading things while still showing full Wi-Fi bars, which looks like a broken router rather than a broken setting.
About free proxies
A phone is the worst place to leave a free proxy running. On a laptop you watch a page fail. On a phone the failures are quiet: mail stops fetching, messages do not send, and you notice much later.
We run a free proxy list where every entry is re-tested continuously by opening a real connection to it, and the uptime number on each one is measured rather than advertised. Even so, free proxies are mostly machines that were left open by accident, and they vanish without warning. Fine for a one-off. Not something to configure and forget on the device you actually depend on.