GoMount + Alibaba Cloud OSS & Tencent Cloud COS Setup Guide

Why OSS or COS?

Alibaba Cloud OSS and Tencent Cloud COS are the two largest S3-compatible object-storage services in mainland China. They are often the best choice for users who need low-latency access from China, want to pay in local currency, or must keep data inside the country.

Both providers also have international endpoints, so you can use them from anywhere. The main difference from overseas providers is pricing structure: domestic object-storage services usually charge separately for storage, outbound traffic, API requests, and CDN origin. This guide will help you pick the right endpoint, generate credentials, and mount the bucket with GoMount.

Prerequisites

• A Mac running macOS 13 or later.
• GoMount installed. If you have not set it up yet, start with the Getting Started guide.
• An Alibaba Cloud account or a Tencent Cloud account, depending on which provider you choose.
• A verified payment method on the cloud account, because outbound traffic is billed separately.

Alibaba Cloud OSS setup

Create a bucket

1. Sign in to the Alibaba Cloud OSS Console.
2. Click Buckets in the left sidebar, then Create Bucket.
3. Enter a globally unique bucket name, for example gomount-mac-archive-2026.
4. Choose a region. For mainland China users, oss-cn-hangzhou is a common default. For international users, choose a region like oss-ap-southeast-1 (Singapore).
5. Set Storage Class to Standard for active data, or IA for infrequent access.
6. Disable public read access unless you specifically need it.
7. Click OK to create the bucket.

Create an access key

GoMount needs an AccessKey ID and Secret.

1. Open the RAM AccessKey console.
2. Click Create AccessKey.
3. Copy the AccessKey ID and AccessKey Secret. The secret is shown only once.

OSS endpoint and region

For path-style S3 access, the OSS endpoint is:

oss-<region>.aliyuncs.com

For example, a bucket in Hangzhou uses oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com. The Region field in GoMount should match the region portion, for example oss-cn-hangzhou or simply cn-hangzhou, depending on how GoMount expects it. If one value fails, try the other.

Tencent Cloud COS setup

Create a bucket

1. Sign in to the Tencent Cloud COS Console.
2. Click Create Bucket.
3. Enter a bucket name, for example gomount-mac-archive-2026.
4. Choose a region, such as ap-guangzhou or ap-beijing.
5. Set Access Permission to Private read/write.
6. Click Create.

Create an API key

GoMount connects to COS with S3-compatible credentials.

1. Open the Tencent Cloud API Key Management page.
2. Click Create Key.
3. Copy the SecretId and SecretKey. The SecretKey is shown only once.

COS endpoint and region

For path-style S3 access, the COS endpoint is:

cos.<region>.myqcloud.com

For example, a bucket in Guangzhou uses cos.ap-guangzhou.myqcloud.com. The Region field in GoMount should be the region code, for example ap-guangzhou.

Configure GoMount

Open GoMount and add a new S3-compatible cloud-storage connection.

1. Go to Settings > Cloud Storage or click the + button to add a connection.
2. Choose S3-Compatible as the provider type.
3. Fill in the fields using the table below for your chosen provider.

Verify the mount

1. Click Test Connection in GoMount to verify credentials, endpoint, region, and bucket access.
2. Once the test passes, click Mount. The bucket appears as a volume in Finder and in the GoMount file browser.
3. Create a test folder and upload a small file to confirm write access.

If the test fails, check that Path Style is enabled, the endpoint matches your region exactly, and the key has the required permissions. Domestic providers are strict about signature versions; switching to v4 often resolves "signature mismatch" errors.

Cost and traffic tips

• Outbound traffic is the main variable cost. Storage is cheap, but downloading files from mainland China to an overseas Mac can add up. Monitor your monthly traffic on the provider dashboard.
• API request fees apply. Frequent small reads, directory listings, and metadata calls generate request charges. Batch operations and avoid constant scanning of large buckets.
• Use CDN carefully. Pairing OSS or COS with a CDN can reduce latency, but CDN origin-pull also incurs traffic charges. Make sure you understand the combined billing.
• Set billing alerts. Both Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud let you set budget alerts. Create one before you mount a large bucket.
• Do not use object storage as a scratch disk. Random writes and frequent renames are slow and expensive. Keep active work on a local disk or NAS, and archive finished projects to OSS or COS.

Add an auto-mount rule

Cloud storage is available from any network. Most users want it mounted at login rather than tied to a specific location. In GoMount:

1. Open Rules for the OSS or COS connection.
2. Add a rule that triggers on Any Network, or limit it to a specific network if you only want it at home or in the office.
3. Enable Mount at Login if you want the bucket available immediately after startup.

For more about network rules, see the auto-mount rules deep dive.

Next in this series

The next guide covers the day-to-day side of object storage: how to use S3 like a network drive, recommended sync workflows, backup strategies, and common pitfalls to avoid.

If you are new to GoMount, review the Getting Started guide, or return to the guides index for the full list.