The disappearing icon is a known bug for iOS 10 (and was resolved in 10.3.3). If this is happening, please ensure you are running the latest version.
However, if you are unable to update your firmware, you can follow the instructions below to see what your Wi-Fi/LTE icons are doing.
While on Wi-Fi at home, without the VPN launched, make sure you see the Wi-Fi icon on the iPhone and go to a website—ensure it is working. Assuming everything is fine, go to step 2.
- Now go back to the main Settings screen.
- You should see a VPN toggle option in the 5th or 6th place down.
- Toggle VPN on manually. It should connect normally after 1 to 3 seconds. When it does, look at the icons. You should see the Wi-Fi icon and then the VPN icon as expected.
- Navigate to a website and see that it is still working.
- This will verify that your Private Internet Access service is working as expected.
- Go back to the beginning and re-enable On-Demand to on.
If you have the bug, what you will see is that suddenly and mysteriously, your Wi-Fi icon will disappear while the VPN is connecting, and may or may not be replaced with the LTE icon.
So after a few seconds or a bit longer, both the Wi-Fi and VPN icons appear together like everything was normal.
So the buggy process is as follows, while on Wi-Fi with On-Demand ON: VPN starts > Wi-Fi icon disappears > nothing seems to happen for a few seconds > then both Wi-Fi and VPN appear together.
This is a bug introduced by Apple with iOS 10, as they added networking features and enhancements, and it has been frustrating for VPN users all over the world.