diff --git a/client/ios/NetBirdSDK/client.go b/client/ios/NetBirdSDK/client.go
index 37d3e5d99..2d5460d03 100644
--- a/client/ios/NetBirdSDK/client.go
+++ b/client/ios/NetBirdSDK/client.go
@@ -158,13 +158,19 @@ func (c *Client) Run(fd int32, interfaceName string, envList *EnvList) error {
 	defer c.ctxCancel()
 	c.ctxCancelLock.Unlock()
 
-	auth := NewAuthWithConfig(ctx, cfg)
-	err = auth.LoginSync()
-	if err != nil {
-		return err
-	}
-
-	log.Infof("Auth successful")
+	// No login pre-flight here. The engine's own loginToManagement (connect.go) performs
+	// the authoritative Login immediately before the first Sync, so a LoginSync() call at
+	// this point only duplicated it — costing two extra Login RPCs (IsLoginRequired +
+	// Login) on every engine start, since IsLoginRequired is itself a full Login RPC.
+	//
+	// Auth failures still reach the caller through the engine path: loginToManagement
+	// returns PermissionDenied, which marks the shared status recorder
+	// (MarkManagementDisconnected) and fires ClientStop → onDisconnected, where
+	// IsLoginRequiredCached() reports login-required. The error is also returned out of Run().
+	//
+	// A pre-flight was also actively harmful when the server is unreachable: its 2-minute
+	// backoff blocked the start and then reported "login required" for what was really a
+	// timeout. The engine instead keeps retrying and recovers when the server returns.
 	// todo do not throw error in case of cancelled context
 	ctx = internal.CtxInitState(ctx)
 	c.onHostDnsFn = func([]string) {}
diff --git a/client/ios/NetBirdSDK/login.go b/client/ios/NetBirdSDK/login.go
index 99486839b..6cba0c411 100644
--- a/client/ios/NetBirdSDK/login.go
+++ b/client/ios/NetBirdSDK/login.go
@@ -222,17 +222,36 @@ func (a *Auth) Login(resultListener ErrListener, urlOpener URLOpener, forceDevic
 // LoginWithDeviceName performs interactive login with device authentication support
 // The deviceName parameter allows specifying a custom device name (required for tvOS)
 func (a *Auth) LoginWithDeviceName(resultListener ErrListener, urlOpener URLOpener, forceDeviceAuth bool, deviceName string) {
+	a.startLogin(resultListener, urlOpener, forceDeviceAuth, deviceName, false)
+}
+
+// LoginInteractive performs the same interactive login as LoginWithDeviceName but skips the
+// IsLoginRequired() pre-flight and goes straight to the browser / device-code flow.
+//
+// IsLoginRequired() is itself a full Login RPC against the management server, so when the
+// caller has ALREADY established that login is required it is a pure duplicate. On iOS the
+// main app decides to show the browser based on its own isLoginRequired() check and then
+// calls straight into this method, so re-asking the server would add another Login RPC to
+// every interactive login.
+//
+// Use LoginWithDeviceName when the auth state is unknown and a silent (browser-less) login
+// must still be possible; use this when the browser is going to be shown regardless.
+func (a *Auth) LoginInteractive(resultListener ErrListener, urlOpener URLOpener, forceDeviceAuth bool, deviceName string) {
+	a.startLogin(resultListener, urlOpener, forceDeviceAuth, deviceName, true)
+}
+
+func (a *Auth) startLogin(resultListener ErrListener, urlOpener URLOpener, forceDeviceAuth bool, deviceName string, skipLoginCheck bool) {
 	if resultListener == nil {
-		log.Errorf("LoginWithDeviceName: resultListener is nil")
+		log.Errorf("startLogin: resultListener is nil")
 		return
 	}
 	if urlOpener == nil {
-		log.Errorf("LoginWithDeviceName: urlOpener is nil")
+		log.Errorf("startLogin: urlOpener is nil")
 		resultListener.OnError(fmt.Errorf("urlOpener is nil"))
 		return
 	}
 	go func() {
-		err := a.login(urlOpener, forceDeviceAuth, deviceName)
+		err := a.login(urlOpener, forceDeviceAuth, deviceName, skipLoginCheck)
 		if err != nil {
 			resultListener.OnError(err)
 		} else {
@@ -241,7 +260,7 @@ func (a *Auth) LoginWithDeviceName(resultListener ErrListener, urlOpener URLOpen
 	}()
 }
 
-func (a *Auth) login(urlOpener URLOpener, forceDeviceAuth bool, deviceName string) error {
+func (a *Auth) login(urlOpener URLOpener, forceDeviceAuth bool, deviceName string, skipLoginCheck bool) error {
 	// Create context with device name if provided
 	ctx := a.ctx
 	if deviceName != "" {
@@ -255,10 +274,13 @@ func (a *Auth) login(urlOpener URLOpener, forceDeviceAuth bool, deviceName strin
 	}
 	defer authClient.Close()
 
-	// check if we need to generate JWT token
-	needsLogin, err := authClient.IsLoginRequired(ctx)
-	if err != nil {
-		return fmt.Errorf("failed to check login requirement: %v", err)
+	// check if we need to generate JWT token (skipped when the caller already knows)
+	needsLogin := true
+	if !skipLoginCheck {
+		needsLogin, err = authClient.IsLoginRequired(ctx)
+		if err != nil {
+			return fmt.Errorf("failed to check login requirement: %v", err)
+		}
 	}
 
 	jwtToken := ""