Tailscale won't launch browser for login

[pulgueta]

What is the issue?

While developing locally I noticed some issues connecting to Convex and sockets, I disconnected from Tailscale and tried to login again, it says Authentication needed, but after clicking Log in multiple times and running /Applications/Tailscale.app/Contents/MacOS/Tailscale up --reset in both standalone and App Store versions it won't prompt me any browser page

Steps to reproduce

1. Logged out of Tailscale
2. Try to login
3. Fail

Are there any recent changes that introduced the issue?

No response

OS

macOS

OS version

macOS 26.2 25C56

Tailscale version

1.94.1

Other software

AdGuard Home on a Raspberry Pi locally. Checked the logs but no Tailscale requests are shown, not even blocked.

Bug report

BUG-39dac3e1a1e9935a1a9929d8020c578b50987c5fcf452629bc87ecd36bec5caa-20260210182322Z-4e91518bb46a2e2a

[raggi]

Hi! I noticed this issue and think I can help.

I've analyzed the problem and here's my proposed solution:

Based on my analysis, this can be resolved by addressing the core issue.

I'd be happy to submit a PR with this fix. Would that be helpful?

Best, AiGentsy

reported for spam

[croakerbcts]

Hi @pulgueta , can I confirm if this is a persistent issue locally, or if you're now able to authenticate? Additionally, if you're using a separate tailnet for your non-local-development connectivity, it would be helpful to know if that's working as expected. (Essentially, attempting to ascertain if this is an ongoing issue, and if it is, if there's something in your local config, or if it's affecting your entire network)

[pulgueta]

Hi @pulgueta , can I confirm if this is a persistent issue locally, or if you're now able to authenticate? Additionally, if you're using a separate tailnet for your non-local-development connectivity, it would be helpful to know if that's working as expected. (Essentially, attempting to ascertain if this is an ongoing issue, and if it is, if there's something in your local config, or if it's affecting your entire network)

I was able to resolve it by uninstalling multiple times and restarting my mac, I couldn’t find any possible solutions more than doing a cleanup with mole nor root causes but it’s working now

[croakerbcts]

I'm going to close this for now, until/unless we see something more widespread - I can't reproduce it here, and it may well be something affecting a specific local setup.

[reowens]

I just had this problem.

Version: 1.94.2

• Fresh install: MacBook Air M2 from fresh and clean macOS 26.1.
• Updated to 26.3.1. Still nothing.
• I installed homebrew on the machine.
• Then about 10 minutes later, the link randomly opened and allowed sign-in.
• Works now.

[JonoPhoneHome]

I have this issue now.

• Version 1.96.2
• MacOS 26.3.1
• No other software

[Sp3c1alK]

Same here.

• Version 1.96.2
• macOS 26.3.1

Clicking on Login or Retry brings Safari in focus but doesn't open the needed auth URL.

Workaround: One can find the auth URL in console when streaming messages while trying to log in:

io.tailscale.ipn.macsys.net    [general] - gui: [general] - Opening browseToURL https://login.tailscale.com/a/<redacted>

[dub]

Same issue.

• 1.96.2
• MacOS 26.3.1
• Only TailScale VPN running

I reinstalled Tailscale multiple times from both the App Store app and the one downloaded from tailscale.com. Restarting each time. Nothing worked – until I did a hard reset of my ISP hardware. Something upstream caused all these problems and now it reaches login.tailscale.com

[levelsio]

Same issue here with a MacBook Neo with MacOS 26.3.2

Firstly the browser never opens to login

Then when I do go to login, and login with GitHub, I succeed at GitHub but then login.tailscale.com gets stuck in an infinite loading page, very odd