IP rotation

How rotation works

Rotating asks the phone to re-dial its cellular session so the carrier hands out a fresh IP. There are three ways to trigger it, and one honest caveat about mobile networks.

Three ways to rotate

From the dashboard — the Change IP button on any online device. Rotation is per-device: every proxy on the device gets the new IP together.

From a rotation link — a tokenized URL you can call from any tool, no auth header needed. See Rotation links.

From the API:

curl -X POST https://mobileproxy.app/api/v1/subscriptions/SUBSCRIPTION_ID/change-ip \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer mpx_live_…"

# → { "status": "rotating", "subscription_id": "…", "command_id": "…" }

Timing

Rotation is queued to the phone and applied on its next poll — typically within about 25 seconds. Watch the device's exit_ip or its IP history to confirm the change landed.

A new IP is not guaranteed

On mobile networks the carrier decides what IP you get. Some carriers re-assign the same IP on a quick re-dial. A full radio detach (airplane mode held for a few seconds) is far more likely to yield a new address than a rapid re-dial. We report rotation as best-effort rather than pretending otherwise.

Airplane timeout

Each rotation flips Airplane mode on, holds it, then flips it off so the carrier re-assigns the IP. The hold defaults to 5 seconds; if your carrier keeps returning the same IP, a longer hold gives its lease time to expire. Set it on the subscription card (Airplane timeout, 3–60 seconds) or via the API (airplane_seconds on the rotation endpoint). The setting follows the subscription across device swaps.

Scheduling

Rotate on a timer from your dashboard: on the subscription, set Auto-rotate IP to a preset (5–60 minutes) or pick Custom… to set your own interval — anything from 2 minutes up to 24 hours (1440 minutes). The phone itself keeps the timer, so rotation stays on schedule whether or not the app is in the foreground — and it keeps rotating even during a brief interruption to our service. As a safeguard, the phone checks in with your account at least once an hour; if it can't reach us for that long it pauses itself until it's back online. The dashboard shows a live indicator with the current IP and how long ago it last changed. You can also drive rotation yourself by calling change-ip (or a rotation link) from your own cron job or script.