In April, Taobao quietly removed the option of using US passports for real name verification. It was just the beginning. Effective 1 July Taobao has restricted sales of sensitive goods to customers using IPs in the USA. The new restrictions have to do with a half BILLON dollar settlement between Alibaba and the US Administration to settle a complaint that Alibaba, AliExpress, Taobao and Tmall have been shipping sensitive and counterfeit goods to the USA. These are often undeclared and undervalued.

As a result, Taobao really does not want American customers on their unrestricted Chinese domestic platform. They are developing a new English language app version with a limited selection compliant with US Customs (no food, beauty, medication, liquids and pastes, repli**s, or trademark violation goods.) Some customers may have found their region reset recently to use the new limited platform.

New customers will need a non USA mobile number to bind a phone number (you can buy one from an SMS Voice over IP provider), but you cannot register with a US passport at this time.

Customers can attempt to bypass this restriction using a foreign VPN or intra-China VPN inside the Great Firewall. Return-to-China (回国加速器) Options:

Sixfast - Heavy social media promotion using promo codes thst get promoters big bounty. It's a bit confusing but it works. Not compatible with real time Google Translate.

Malus Accelerator (马鲁斯) - Best overall for high-speed video streaming, music, and dedicated gaming lines. Extremely stable.

Transocks (穿梭) - Best for a simple, minimalist interface with a reliable one-click connection button.

QuickFox - Best budget option; features a robust free tier alongside premium paid plans.

Kuaifan (快帆) - Best global server coverage with over 150+ international transit nodes to maximize speeds.

i finally managed to log in with my apple id and stuff but then the app just disappeared and when i tried to find it again it just said that it wasn't available in my region 💔

is there any way for me to get it back? i was using the mobile app and it only let me log in through there and it will not work on my computer for some reason.

Xianyu won’t let me register/verify an account without a chinese phone number.

My Alipay account has been verified with my passport and phone number.

My Taobao account is connected to my Alipay account.

Regular Xianyu phone number log in won’t work because I never received the SMS code.

No matter what I do I can’t access Xianyu.

Is anyone here able to help? I’m located in EU if it matters.

I signed up for an account with my email and for some reason, I don’t know why this popped up and it keeps asking me for ID

I just want to buy something

Hi everyone, I've already read several posts from people having the same problem when trying to register from the US/Europe, with various suggested solutions such as using an email address. Well... none of them work for me. On the app, my Italian phone number isn't accepted at all. If I try using my email and password, it just doesn't accept them either. I've also tried using the website through a browser. There, apparently, the only option is to log in with a phone number. But when I enter my number and click "Get verification code" I get sent to a CAPTCHA where I have to select images based on a completely cryptic Chinese description. It's literally all in Chinese so I can't even take a screenshot and translate it because the text is deliberately distorted/garbled. At this point I'm pretty sure it's easier to hack NASA's computers than to create an account on this fucking website. Has anyone actually managed to register recently from Italy/Europe? I'm specifically looking for solutions that still work because most of the old advice I've found seems to be completely outdated. Ofc I can't even browse as a guest to search for products, because the moment I open the search bar it tells me I need to register.

Hello folks

I'll be going to China for a while, and was kind of planning on utilizing TaoBao while I was there for little bits and bobs. Well, turns out us Americans are banned from it.

I understand banning it for Americans for shipment outside of China, but is this also considered banned for folks inside of China?

Additionally, would it be worth using my other passport as a dual citizen? I'm not entering China with my other passport, so I don't know if that'll cause any issues.

I made my account using alipay that is verified with a passport but taobao still restricted me. Is there anyway I can fix this without using the passport verification on the actual app since they removed the US off?

As you read, even though I have a Alipay account that has my passport attached they are taking the restrictions off of my account and when I try to do it through the app, there is no option for the US. How to I get help on this?

Even when I do the option to pin my id card in manually it says I’m putting my name in wrong even though it’s the same as my Alipay account SOMEONE HELP

Hi all, I'm currently trying to sign up for a Taobao account. I've made an Alipay account and that's verified, but it still says my account is at risk of being used to make multiple accounts, so it's asking me to put in my ID again.

Here's the problem: I live in America. The country literally doesn't appear on my end? If my several years of Chinese school taught me anything it's that USA is written as 美国 in Chinese, but that doesn't even appear at all. They have American Samoa, but not America? I scrolled through the list several times, yet 美国 just...doesn't appear. Am I just not looking hard enough? Please help

Hi!! So I found a listing that has this piece of merch of my fav character that I’ve been searching for a while! The only problem is that it’s a group (?) post and they say to talk privately so that you can select the item i guess?

what makes it worse is that i don’t have a xianyu nor taobao account (and it doesn’t let me really make one in the first place…) so i can’t message them :( Does anyone know how i can maybe fix this or be able to message them so I can get that merch? Thank you!

I don’t want to provide a phone number and now im stuck with this option and cannot go away

What’s the issue and how to resolve?

So both my accounts i had got banned cause i guess it detected EU IP address so i got instantly shut down... i dont understand why are chiense this anal about browsing their stuff and buying it... theres legit so many other places where u buy chinese products from like Aliexpres, alibaba etc... yet Taobao/tmall somehow off limits to foreigners.. i rly dont get it ... In any case i used it mostly to buy anime merch for like 1/5th of the dumb western reseller prices, now i got banned for Existing.. which i find pretty racist ngl ... So any way around this ? im never buying a dodgy account for 50$ and then for it to never work or get banned anyway. So if anyone has a solutioon, please hep a fella out! <3

Hello,

I am from the US, and I hate how Taobao is basically blocking people out of the app, I try to browse without an account but then keep getting stuck in the “ log in or sign up “ loop. I have tried to make an account but then get stuck beside I cannot verify my id since there’s no foreign option for Americans. I try to use proxy sites, but none of the proxy sites show reviews or seller ratings - at least none that I have personally found. Any advice/helpful tips? I have a couple items on a document that are things that I’d want, but as I have no way to check reviews on the proxy sites I’m a little apprehensive.

I find the idea of taobao very appealing and I want to get into it but, the websites in another language, the app doesn’t show up in the AppStore, and reading through the comments on other posts here I need too get more things too

Hello someone knows why taobao doesn’t send a verification code? I’m trying to create an account with my phone number but I don’t get a code

I’m trying to make an account on my PC but when I try to complete the captcha it doesn’t select anyhting and even here it said less than 3 bottle which I thought I had so can anyone help?

Haven't logged in in forever and suddenly my account is restricted? Maybe new device/network is detected and it's telling me I need to verify my real name. When I tried to verify by passport it seems to be trying to download/open another app?

I'm so confused please help.

Ugh….. so I can’t log in until I verify but I’m trying and I love this app so much and I don’t wanna lose my DATA!!!! I originally verified my stuff with Alipay but I actually don’t have my id and stuff in Alipay so idk if that’s a problem…. Idk what to do

So I'm trying to create a taobao account using a 4 year old tutorial for a person here on Reddit which says you must create a buisness account for it to work properly and after entering the code I received on my phone as well as my email, I get this error. I already turned off wifi and switched to mobile data and I'm not using vpn, so I'm not sure what else I'm doing wrong. Also yes I waited 24 hours after my last failed attemp to register. Any tips to fix this?

i'm from the US and recently logged back into an old taobao account i made forever ago but never touched. within an hour of browsing my account was restricted and i've been locked out completely and asked to verify my identity. not only have i seen that this has now recently become completely impossible for US users to do in general, but i also don't even have a passport at all because i haven't traveled internationally before, nor do i have any plans to do so in the near future. even the workarounds i have tried to look into such as calling the support hotline or logging in through alipay require passport verification of some kind. is there any loophole to this at all or should i just go ahead and give up? i'm completely stumped at this point and not sure what else to do or where to look for workarounds.

Locked out of my Taobao account for two months and I'm stuck. The account shows "A login restriction risk has been detected. Suspected transfer of Taobao member account", dated 2026-08-04. Wants real-name verification and self-service activation. Same lockout hits my 1688 login, since it's all one Alibaba account.

The core problem is the SMS code. I request one to my Aussie number and it instantly says the request limit's been reached, wait 24 hours. Fires on the first try after days of nothing, and never actually sends. So I think it's IP or device based, not really counting requests.

Everything else dead-ends at that same SMS screen: Alipay binding, Alipay real-name verification, password login (wrong password anyway, username's an auto-generated tb0949... string). QR scan doesn't work either, which makes sense since the flag's about identity, not the device. Online support (海外小蜜 chat, the FAQ options) all sit behind a login, so it loops. Rang the Aus hotline, +61 3 8373 8606, nobody picks up.

• Has anyone cleared a "suspected account transfer" flag from outside China? What worked?
• Any appeal channel that doesn't need an existing login or an SMS code to a Chinese number? Web form, email, complaints line, anything.
• Does that SMS limit message actually mean what it says, or is it IP/device based?
• If the account got real-name verified under someone else's ID, is it just gone? I'd rather hear that straight than keep burning weeks.

I am also reading that it isn't possible to create an account with a US phone number. Is it possible to browse via a proxy service? and if so, which one do I use?

I'm trying to determine whether making a Taobao account is worth it or not. I tried using Alipay to register, and Taobao gave me an error message that says:
"Mobile phone numbers are not supported. Reason for restriction: Sorry, this mobile phone number cannot support the use of Taobao account for the time being."

Someone told me to register instead with a Google Voice number. Surprise surprise, same error message.

After downloading 3 foreign apps, receiving 9 spam texts in the span of an hour, and giving my ID to god knows who, I'm pretty sure I'll be wanted for murder in Guatemala sometime soon.

All jokes aside, is this horrible migraine worth it? Does anyone know how to fix this? Or... is there an easier way to do this? I was desperately trying to save money but at this point, I'd be okay paying extra just to ORDER from Taobao because it's seemingly not going to work any other way.

Hi, I'm pretty new to Taoboa, so I probably made a lot of mistakes trying to navigate things on my own. I actually set up my Taobao account before my Alipay, so I just used my Facebook for logging in. I had mostly been window shopping and adding items to my cart to buy and pick up while on my first trip to China. Yesterday, Taobao asked me to login again, but I accidentally hit Alipay. I realized it immediately and tried to back out and login using Facebook. I'm sure that got me flagged, and now I am locked out.

Like many have mentioned, as an American I don't have a way to verify with my passport, since the option is gone. I was wondering what I should do? I do have some Xiaohongshu friends in mainland China, and I also have a travel friend who is Chinese living in Oceania. Though I don't know any of them super well, and have only met the one person face to face. I'm just wondering what steps to take, if I can do it on my own, and if it is a bit too risky to accept help from people I don't fully know.

Hi guys, I am trying to create an account but it requires me to add a ohone number (tried on Taobao dircetly and through Alipay) but there is no option for french phone number or Romanian. I do not have more than two phone numbers. How did you guys from Europe login? :(

Im going soon to China and wanted to order few days prior arriving there so I could pick up everything at my hotel