"Network Error" when using iPhone Google Translate app

September 17, 2021 10:31 PM

I've been getting a "Network Error" when trying to translate text using the iPhone Google Translate app. This started about a week ago, about the time it was upgraded to version 6.23.0.

Google Translate has always worked in China without a VPN, and the other translate functions (Camera, Conversation, Transcribe) are all working fine. It's only the text translate function that isn't working online (the offline function is working but is slow).

I've tried restarting and reinstalling the app, no change.

Has anyone else encountered this? Any ideas on how to fix it or bring it to the attention of someone who can fix it?

posted by Wet Spot to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

I see at least two recent reviews for Google Translate in the Apple App Store complaining about the app no longer working in China. If you want to raise the issue you could try asking a question on Google’s Support Forum.

If the website version of Google translate is not very user friendly you could try using the Apple Translate App. I don’t know if it’s quite as effective as Google Translate.
posted by mundo at 6:29 AM on September 18, 2021

My guess would be that China tweaked their firewall settings and it now blocks whatever server is used specifically for the text translate. No idea if this is intentional or not, they've been pretty active lately in banning things so I'm not surprised. If you do post, you should give them as much location information as possible (city and cell provider etc) so they can track down what might be wrong and possibly fix it. But if it's intentional you may be out of luck and need to switch to VPN or another translator
posted by JZig at 11:51 AM on September 18, 2021