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Network Stops After Update cover — held, not severed. In rare cases, replacing or re-enabling the network extension during an AgenShield update or a fresh install can leave it in a stuck state: macOS keeps holding every new connection for the extension’s answer, but the answers never come — in the worst variant the extension is not even handed the connections it is supposed to answer. Either way, from that moment the whole Mac loses network access — not just AI tools. Typical signs, starting at the exact minute the update or install ran:
  • Browsers spin forever; nothing loads in any application.
  • AI coding tools show connection or certificate errors — for example Unable to connect to API (UNKNOWN_CERTIFICATE_VERIFICATION_ERROR) with endless retries.
  • Wi-Fi shows connected and the network itself is fine — connections open but no data ever moves.
A Mac in this state looks healthy almost everywhere: the network extension shows as enabled, the background service is running, and the AgenShield status looks green. Do not rule AgenShield out because its own health checks pass — go by the symptom and the timing.

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What state the product is in

Nothing has been blocked by your organization’s policy, and nothing is wrong with your network. The network extension is running but stuck: it is not issuing allow or block decisions at all, and macOS keeps holding every connection that is waiting for one. Because the stuck component sits in the path of all traffic, every application is affected equally — including AgenShield’s own connection to your organization’s AgenShield backend.

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Confirm it

Three things together make this diagnosis near-certain:
  1. Timing — connectivity died at the moment an AgenShield update ran, not gradually.
  2. Scope — every application is affected, on every network destination, while Wi-Fi or Ethernet still shows connected.
  3. The toggle test — turn the AgenShield network extension off (next section). If connectivity returns immediately, this was the cause.

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Restore connectivity now

Open System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions → Network Extensions, and turn AgenShield off. Connectivity returns within seconds. No restart is needed.

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After you recover

  1. Update AgenShield to the latest release.
  2. Turn the network extension back on in the same System Settings pane.
  3. If the problem returns as soon as you re-enable it, leave it off and collect a diagnostics bundle, then contact support.
While the network extension is off, network monitoring and network policy are not applied on this Mac. Re-enable it as soon as you are on a fixed version. Two harmless quirks you may notice on the way back:
  • A stale “Disabled” row in System Settings. After the off/on cycle, the VPN & Filters pane can keep showing an AgenShield row — often the transparent proxy — as Disabled, and toggling that row does nothing. The pane is rendering a configuration that no longer exists; AgenShield already recreated and enabled a fresh one. Fully quit System Settings and reopen it (or reboot) and the row shows its real state.
  • Two “Allow” dialogs during re-enable. Older versions could show the content-filter consent dialog twice in quick succession, the newer dialog replacing the older one. Approving the one that remains is sufficient; the fixed versions only ever show one.

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Affected versions

  • Affected: the 2026.8.2 alpha line, and 2026.8.2 when installed over an earlier install that was itself unhealthy. The stuck state is rare and tied to the moment the network extension is replaced or re-enabled — most updates and installs on these versions complete normally.
  • Fixed: releases after 2026.8.2 close this from three directions. The install flow no longer restarts the network filtering while the installer’s temporary safety hold is active (the restart was what created the stuck state). If the stuck state ever occurs anyway, AgenShield now detects it within about two minutes — including the silent variant its earlier checks could not see — using a built-in connectivity probe that tells “stuck” apart from “offline”, and recovers on its own: it restarts the network filtering, then replaces the network extension entirely, and as a last resort stands the network filtering down so the Mac stays online. The stuck state also shows plainly in the AgenShield status and diagnostics instead of reporting healthy.

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When to escalate

Contact support with a diagnostics bundle if:
  • turning the network extension off does not restore connectivity — the cause is then something other than AgenShield;
  • the stuck state returns on a version newer than the 2026.8.2 alpha line; or
  • you run other endpoint-security or VPN products alongside AgenShield and hit this repeatedly — the combination is exactly what support will want to see.
The bundle records what the network extension was doing at the time, which determines the answer.