Can you use Google Drive while in Mainland China?

[abcdefg]

Am in the US currently, setting up a new laptop computer to take back to Kunming with me in a couple weeks. Wondering about which international cloud storage sites I will be able to use there so I can set them up now. 

 

1. Will I be able to access Google Drive? Am guessing it is blocked and will require a VPN. If so, that's not great because my VPN slows things down a lot.

2. Last time I checked, middle of 2017, Dropbox was blocked and not easily useable. Any change in that? 

3. What about Microsoft One Drive?

4. Amazon Drive? I've had pretty good luck with Amazon in dowloading books to my Kindle and accessing music for the Amazon Music app on my phone, even after the latest crackdown. 

 

Any other suggestions on cloud storage? Doesn't need to be free. Would rather not use one that is based in China, such as Baidu or Tencent. Would prefer one that I can access from inside China without a VPN and can also access when I travel outside the Mainland, such as to Hong Kong or Taiwan. I do use Xiaomi's cloud to back up limited data on my (Xiaomi) phone. 

 

Thanks for your thoughts. 

[Jim]

OneDrive works for me with no VPN, tested in Beijing and Fujian so far this year. Not tried Amazon Drive but never any problem accessing their UK book site which I do use.

[abcdefg]

Thank you, @Jim. That's just the sort of first-hand data I was hoping to find. 

 

----------------------------------------------- 

 

I tried it on a test site just now and it failed. Wonder if its status has changed recently. 

 

http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org/index.php?siteurl=onedrive.com 

 

[DavyJonesLocker]

One drive works in Beijing.

 

Google drive works only if you have a good VPN like ExpressVPN, Many VPN add-ons in Chrome cannot access Google drive but can access gmail for some reason.

 

Amazon.com, .co.uk, .eu all work in China  as I use it many times to buy presents for people outside China. Amazon Prime works too. 

 

1 hour ago, abcdefg said:

 

I tried it on a test site just now and it failed. Wonder if its status has changed recently. 

 

 

My comments above are  from a month ago though as I am not in China now.

 

To be honest I would just get a VPN like ExpressVPN, it makes life so much easier, I avoided it for years and now thinking why was I making  life hard for myself? When I accessed UK bank accounts I was sometimes locked out as they see the request is coming from China and it meant an international phone call.

 

SKYPE works faster with a VPN than without for me in China.

 

ExpressVPN also has the ability to be application specific which is great so i don't need to keep turning it off and on for different applications (i.e. Chinese shopping sites, xiaomi music, qq music etc)

[abcdefg]

Thanks @DavyJonesLocker -- I've got a VPN in China, but it slows things down. 

 

Update: I just now purchased a terabyte of space on Amazon Drive and will try that. Have set it up here in the US and loaded some photos and videos. Will report back from Kunming next month. 

 

12 minutes ago, DavyJonesLocker said:

Amazon.com, .co.uk, .eu all work in China  as I use it many times to buy presents for people outside China. Amazon Prime works too. 

 

My experience with Amazon while in China has been good too. Time will tell whether their storage measures up. 

 

Quote

SKYPE works faster with a VPN than without for me in China.

 

I get better SKYPE results in China without my VPN. 

 

[Jim]

I hadn't actually thought about the OneDrive web portal, I was going by the integrated application which backs up files automatically as you work and has a folder accessible through File Explorer in Windows. 

On the phone ATM but will try the website later and report back, though I see you're giving Amazon a go.

 

ETA: Just tried on the laptop and the OneDrive site is timing out (not the quick refusal of a hard block) while the intergrated app looks to be working fine. If that's the general state of play probably reduces its utility for you.

[abcdefg]

19 minutes ago, Jim said:

ETA: Just tried on the laptop and the OneDrive site is timing out (not the quick refusal of a hard block) while the intergrated app looks to be working fine. If that's the general state of play probably reduces its utility for you.

 

Thanks for checking it out, Jim. 

[ChTTay]

My personal/free onedrive doesn’t work in China but my (paid for) subscription to office 365 includes onedrive and that works. 

 

Google products of all kinds don’t work in China without a VPN.

 

The Amazon website works for me in China most of the time but that doesn’t necessarily mean their cloud service will work. 

 

If you don’t want to use a VPN then I think you already know the answer is use a Chinese provider. Otherwise you run the risk of whichever service you use being one day blocked and everything on there out of your reach. As long as it’s not sensitive data or something you could just use Baidu Pan or QQ’s services. 

 

Otherwise, I guess you could check out a 365 subscription as well. It includes office etc. Who knows how long it will remain unblocked though. I guess if Microsoft stays on the right side of the line it could be ok. I never know why my personal one doesn’t work though.

[abcdefg]

Many thanks, @ChTTay -- I do have a MIcrosoft 365 subscription. Maybe OneDrive will work for me that way, as it has for you. That's a useful tip.

 

I do have a VPN, but it slows things down a lot. I use it to read the NY Times, see BBC and such, but it's not up to the task of large uploads and large downloads. 

 

My thought, since I'm now in the US for a short time, was to put what I might need or want during the year on a couple of different clouds so that I can hopefully access one or the other when I go back to the mainland. Microsoft OneDrive and Amazon Cloud looked like the two best bets. Wanted to have some redundancy in case one got blocked. As you noted, those things change from week to week. 

 

Just finished uploading all 95 episodes of the "Three Kingdoms" video series. It ran to a total of 16 GB. Put it on Amazon Drive and  also on Microsoft OneDrive. I have them on an external hard drive as well. They really impressed me and I want to study them through multiple viewings spaced out through the year. 

 

https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/55971-three-kingdoms-tv-movies/?tab=comments#comment-431780 

 

I also stored all the Lazslo Montgomery China History Podcasts going back to the beginning. Did them the same way. Have heard most of them before, but would enjoy giving many a second or third hearing. Of course these are small files, being only audio, so they are much easier to store.