手机好几天没有打开inat使用，今天突然打开软件。发现新观察的植物不能添加和搜索，尝试了很多次都不行，于是我把软件卸载，尝试重新安装，或许会恢复。但是，依然不行，重新下载后的软件名称变成了：inat classic.打开软件之后需要登录账户，我输入了账号以后登录不上去。长时间加载登录，可是登录不上去，提示——请求超时。就是没办法用了，请问如何解决这个问题？我是一名热爱观察植物的人。是否是软件出现了BUG？请管理员尽快修复！谢谢。
Google Translate:
I haven’t opened inat on my phone for several days, but today I suddenly opened the software. I found that I couldn’t add or search for the newly observed plants. I tried many times but it didn’t work, so I uninstalled the software and tried to reinstall it, hoping it would recover. However, it still didn’t work. The name of the software after re-downloading became: inat classic. After opening the software, I need to log in to my account. I entered my account but couldn’t log in. It took a long time to load the login, but I couldn’t log in. It said - request timed out. I just can’t use it. How can I solve this problem? I am a person who loves observing plants. Is there a bug in the software? Administrator, please fix it as soon as possible! Thank you.
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Google Translate is correct. Better than me, I guess.
What kind of device are you using? System version? Can you visit the iNaturalist website on your phone?
手机好几天没有打开inat使用，今天突然打开软件。发现新观察的植物不能添加和搜索，尝试了很多次都不行，于是我把软件卸载，尝试重新安装，或许会恢复。但是，依然不行，重新下载后的软件名称变成了：inat classic.打开软件之后需要登录账户，我输入了账号以后登录不上去。长时间加载登录，可是登录不上去，提示——请求超时。就是没办法用了，请问如何解决这个问题？我是一名热爱观察植物的人。是否是软件出现了BUG？请管理员尽快修复！谢谢。我在中国地区使用软件
I’ve moved this comment to your existing bug report.
您好，我在手机网站上面也无法使用 iNaturalist 网站，请问您的手机能正常使用软件吗？
使用的苹果手机 版本系统是：ios18.4
网站没问题，是国内网络连接的问题
The app cannot make a connection and the inat website cannot be reached. Looks like a missing connection or a connection with the usa is blocked. Try another website in mainland china and one from the UA.
I doubt this is anything we at iNaturalist can do about, unfortunately. Our site is probably being blocked downstream from us.
I just tried checking this with https://www.dotcom-tools.com/china-firewall-test and it’s giving me errors too.
I remember I checked before I went on a trip to mainland China recently. At that time, this same testing site showed that the site worked, except for the Google Maps integration. Now I feel lucky it worked when I was there…stupid “Great Firewall”, sigh.
有办法如何解决吗?你在国内能使用手机登陆软件吗？
I am an iNat user formerly staying in Chinese mainland but currently outside of China. Since yesterday (Oct 14 2025 01:00 GMT+0), my 4-6 Chinese friends who are iNat users have been telling me that they couldn’t use iNat as they used to be, unless they used VPN. Their devices are different, but they all told me that they couldn’t use the Android app and the web version normally. Maybe because of the caching nature of DNS, at first two people told me “I can use it as usual”, but then they couldn’t use it normally. For several Chinese mainland-oriented projects that I followed, the numbers of new observations posted yesterday and today are only 1/2~1/3 of numbers the previous days.
For @reedlindwurm : My friend and I speculate that the problem is caused by the Great Firewall, GFW (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_China ; often abbreviated as “wall” = “墙" in Chinese). Obviously, GFW, information blocked by GFW, and ways to break through GFW are all sensitive topics in Chinese mainland, and because GFW is not open or transparent, users based in China may not understand what is happening at all, or can only vaguely call it a network connection problem. I kindly request you to understand this. (Of course, this reply about GFW has a bit of political risks, but if we don’t discuss it, it is equivalent to cooperating with GFW in some sense, forcing a large number of Chinese mainland users to shut up.) Before Oct 14 2025, for some users in Chinese mainland, when using iNat, only the registration step, Google Maps, and the upload page of the web version can be browsed using a VPN, and the rest can be used normally; but some users said that there is serious lag, or even cannot use iNat at all. These may be related to the GFW settings of different provinces, of internet service providers or of device providers. But now it looks like iNat could be on the blacklist of blocked sites by GFW.
@ZXY ：我觉得解决这个问题的最佳（尽管也只是差强人意）方式是使用 VPN…我的朋友告诉我，能通过使用 VPN 继续使用iNat。另一种方式是利用中国的平台，例如PPBC（中国植物图像库）、懂鸟（www.dongniao.net）和生物记（http://nol.especies.cn:8080/lifenoteapp/download/index.php ），但它们的缺点也很明显：国际专家少、不开源、添加物种不灵活等。也许另一种方法是将照片/声音发送给在国外的朋友，并帮助他们使用 iNat。
(Translation of the above paragraph: I guess the best (although still disappointing) way to solve this is to use VPN…my friends told me they were able to continue using iNat by using VPN. Another way is to use Chinese platforms, such as PPBC (Plant Photo Bank of China), Knowing Birds and Shengwuji , but their disadvantages are also evident: few international experts, not open-source, not flexible about adding species, etc. Maybe another way is to send photos/sounds to friends outside China, and help them to use iNat.)
Finally, I don’t understand the purpose of blocking iNat. This behavior does not seem to benefit anyone. As far as I know, many young scholars studying biodiversity in China also rely heavily on iNat; Although one researcher once told me “I don’t dare to upload data on iNat”, they could at least see and use the data. Chinese officials may be concerned about data security, but they can also freely browse U.S. biodiversity data. The Chinese government is also closing its own eyes to monitor biodiversity, perhaps because they feel that the benefits of encouraging citizen science are less than the political risks of allowing Chinese mainland people to communicate with foreigners? It seems that quite a few Chinese users use VPNs to access iNat, so GFW is not 100% deadly, but VPNs pay extra and are almost all targets of GFW, and there are constant gossip in the Chinese computer field that VPNs are not safe and may even be tracked, but I have no expertise to verify these mesages. I can only say that if GFW gets higher day by day, the spontaneous work of ordinary Chinese people to record and protect China’s biodiversity may become more and more isolated from other parts of the world.
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As far as I know, VPN is nowadays widespread among Chinese young people, but if the loss of 1/2~1/3 observations in my last reply is representative, there might be 1/2~1/3 Chinese users trapped by GFW and without VPN. But just now I searched for popular observations in China these days, finding a user saying being able to receive comments of their own observations without VPN (I admit that’s weird, but I heard that WhatsApp behaves similar in China, i.e., only able to receive/send texts). So @tiwane I’m not sure if my thought below is appropriate or feasible: 1 week later (Oct 21), if iNat admins can filter users meeting (a) last presence between Oct 7 and Oct 13 + (b) observations >90% in China, some users (maybe a socket specifically for this event to avoid political risks?) can paste a comment in their newest observations, to lead them to this webpage, but I’m not sure if iNat forum is also blocked by GFW then…
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Update: some Chinese friends of mine said they could “normally” (see my first reply) use iNat again from Oct 16, 2025 08:00 (GMT+0), but we don’t know what the reason was. Similar event that a certain website was blocked but then unblocked in several days has happened before. There might be some viewers thinking my comments above are too hostile to the Chinese government, but after all, we as ordinary Chinese users can’t decide if we can freely use iNat.
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Thank you for the update. We also did get some support emails about it yesterday, but I don’t see any new ones today.
If it was unblocked, then that’s great news!
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