dude this was great. i tried an earlier iteration of this google drive for desktop years ago and didn't like it. but i suspected google would eventually get it right and it seems from your tutorial they did. i look forward to his really helps me out. thanks for posting.
Still not clear about one thing on the laptop backup. If I backup (sync a file from my laptop to Google Drive) and then also use Mirror at Google drive for Desktop, does that mean I have the original backup file from " my Document" folder and also "my drive" folder. So I have double original files??
Can you make a video that shows how to use Google Drive has a backup tool. I have Google Drive for desktop installed and am syncing my documents folder. But - When I accidently deleted a file on the PC it was also delete in drive. Is there a way to stop this from happening.
Thank you. My recollection is that there is a difference between back up and sync. When you chose sync, if you delete a file from your laptop, it gets deleted in Google drive, too. This may pose a problem if we accidentally delete a file. Is my inference right? I use more than one system for work. It is useful to have all my important files on Google drive and locally, This enables me to shift seamlessly between systems.
uu da best!!! I had to watch 3 tutorials to understnad how to sync my ggl drive, only after yours i understood. Thankuuuu. Plus, I love the screen in laptop-thingy-mockup idea. Looks cool
I saved a file to Google drive under stream setting . After that I changed the setting to mirror & ran the sync but it did not download that file to my laptop. No error messages . Do u know how to fix it ?
Hey there! Thank you for the video I am however facing a problem I’ve done everything you said in the video step by step, but when I try to open the folder “Google Drive” > “my drive”, it shows ‘folder is empty’ when it at the same time shows that I have 9.44 GB of 15.0 GB (like the folder contains files but they are hidden or something) What can I do about it?
Hi Eric, I working on my google drive folders on my imac with no problem. But now a want to share a folder with other designer so we can both work on the same folder. How I do that?
Make sure you are in the google drive for desktop lol in your finder then two finger tap the file and move for the menu until you see the share this folder option, then click that and add the email address.
Thank you very much for your useful video. I have a problem and I hope you can help me. I have a folder having automatically created and named Classroom in my Google Drive and my desktop Google Drive. This folder contains the stuff that I have posted and stuff that my students have submitted in my Google Classrooms. I do not want this folder on my desktop because it occupies too much storage on my hard drive. How can I stop syncing this folder? If I delete this folder, do the files in this folder will disappear from my Google Classrooms? Thank you in advance!
@Thanh Le - thanks for watching this video, you are right about the classroom folder that was automatically created in your Google Drive, this happens when you sign up or create new Google classrooms. Currently you have “mirror” selected which backs up every file in your google drive, if you want to individually select files go back and change mirror files to Stream Files, and then in Explorer or finder depending on which operating system you’re using, you will have to select the individual folders you want to synchronize. Right click on these files or folders and you will see an option that says off-line access, select available off-line from that menu and then it will place a copy of that file or folder offline for you to use. I hope that makes sense - good luck!
That depends on your Internet speed and network, Google Drive for desktop has the ability to set restrictions on how fast files can sync, but they are not on by default. For example on my laptop my home Internet takes less than five minutes to synchronize a gigabit file, however at school when I am sharing bandwidth with the rest of my teachers it can take up to 30 minutes. However again that depends on your Internet and network speed. Hope that helped!
Hi Eric, You are a fantastic teacher ! Thank you ! I have installed the and played around with Google Drive before watching your video. Probably have made a mistake. My question: On the right side of the screen there is a section called "My Drive" and another section called "computers". I have my data under both. Is the first one the backup, and the second is the mirror? Which one should I delete in order not to delete the whole data from my internal Drive? How should I do that? Thank You Daniel
Hello, I am Mirror files from google drive, few days its working fine but for 2 days it doesn't sync, i add some folders and files where I am mirror my drive, it doesn't sync in the original drive. can you please help me to resolve my problem, Thank You
Hi Eric, I am facing an issue with drive for desktop (DFD) (stream - virtual drive) and it is " uploading queued" and it never uploads. I disconnected account and reinstalled software again(DFD) Now I Have 3 folders in drive and only 1 of them are syncing In remaining 2 folders , for 1 folder " uploading queued " issue still exists. In 1 other folder i can see data in Google drive website, but no data in virtual drive. Can you please help me in solving this problem sir?
Sounds like your Google Drive upload is stuc. In this case, it is best to clear the cache. To do this, just go to Google Chrome > Settings (3 dots on right hand side) > Privacy & Security > Clear Browsing Data. In the Advanced tab, select all the checkboxes and choose Clear Data. Yes you will have to log in again and to every website that you logged into prior, meaning your browser will not remember that you have visited that site before, but it could allow your DFD backup to resume. Hope that fixes it for you!
Hi Eric. what if you wish to sync an external hard drive? I've tried to do this but I've found it doesn't sync new documents I create on my external hard drive. My laptop has limited space and I sometimes forget to bring my external hard drive to school, so I was great a few years ago when I could easily sync my external hard drive to the online google drive. With google drive desktop, I started by mirroring my documents but they only synced a few files, like you said. What do you suggest I do?
@Petra Nieuwendyk - Great Question! You can switch from mirror files to stream files then select individual files and folders within your explorer or finder, depending on which operating system you use and set them to synchronize offline. Oh this will reduce the amount of files synchronized to your local computer. As far as external drives, there’s a setting within the Google Drive for desktop preferences called “Prompt me to back up devices,” make sure that setting is on and then whenever you plug in a new device or the same back up drive in your case, it should start sinking. You are correct when you say whenever you send a new file to that backup drive it does not automatically sync. The synchronization only occurs whenever the drive is first plugged in, so that is the solution once you are done saving files to the thumb drive disconnected and reconnected and it should start synchronizing. That is currently the only way I know how to resolve your issue. Hope that helps -thanks for watching!
Sorry you’re experiencing that, I would completely uninstall Google drive for desktop reboot your machine and then reinstall it and let the process start over, it works fine for all my devices, staff and students here and really does not take up that much system resources. Good luck!🍀👍🏻
I am trying to install Google Drive for desktop on a MacBook Air. I can get it downloaded and start through the install, but it just tells me it's installed. Doesn't show the questions that you showed on the screen. I end up with a Google Drive logo on my desktop that doesn't do anything. You can't click it and have it do anything. There's an app in Applications that says Google Desktop and that doesn't open either. I really want it to be backing up files like it did before they stopped back up and sync.
Hi Eric, thanks for the video! I'm on Mac and I'm having an issue here: I've successfully downloaded Drive, everything's backed up - BUT when I try to open my doc files in my new Google Docs app, it opens a browser window that is full of all of my docs, not the one I intended to open. I don't mind going to browser (though I figured the point of the new app is to not head to browser), but heading to a library instead of my desired app is really annoying. That said, when I right click the file there are some "Quick Actions" - one of them being open the file with Google Docs. This, despite seeming to be the exact same process, works for me. Do you have any idea what's happening here? This is the last leg of my file journey and I really wanna figure it out. Thanks for your consideration.
@@MobileTekServices I am floored you took the time to make a video for me. Thank you so much! I didn't articulate my issue well, hard to without screenshots, but I still got value from your video, the new doc shortcut is clever and I will use it. The issue is that after I synced my Google Drive to my desktop - mirrored, not streamed - and when I click on a doc on my desktop mirrored from my Drive, my journal for instance, it doesn't take me to my journal doc. It takes me to the generic Google Docs page. And there is a 2 click way to get around it and get right to the doc, but it's labeled as the exact same process that one click does.... so I want to know why it doesn't work. I hope that's more helpful. I'd be very grateful to hop into a Google Meet if you have the time. My email is my full name at gmail. Thank you again for your consideration and effort.
How can I use multiple accounts at the same time, one for personal and the other for work, and sometimes I transfer files from one to the other? I need to share my uncle’s files with my partner, and he in turn sends me the files and sees what he sends in a separate file
Under the preferences tab there is a button that says add additional accounts, if you don’t see that uninstall and reinstall the app and it should appear good luck and let me know if that does it for you.
Hello! I am just starting to use GD desktop and it has been syncing files for several days now. It is slowing down my wifi for all devices. Does sync mean it's moving PC things to GD or is it moving GD things to PC?
If you have a large number of files and a slow Internet connection, then yes it may take a while for Google to back up all of your files. The good news is that’s a one time thing, after that it doesn’t back up every single file every day, it only backs up any new files you add or changes to the existing files you already have backed up, so it doesn’t affect your Internet speed that much after that. Google drive for Desktop keeps a copy of the things on your computer as well as in your Google Drive account that lives in the cloud, and if you selected the mirroring option during the set up process those files live in two places and when edited they are automatically backed up to either the computer or your Google Drive account online, depending on where you edited the file. Hope that answered you question - Eric
The reason I started using GD is because I accidentally deleted some important files (3000 of them) and couldn't get them back. But with GD if I delete them from my PC (as I accidentally did), doesn't it also delete from GD? So how are my files safe...and backed up?
@Lisa Jimerson - great question, if you are using Google Drive for desktop and delete them from your new Google Drive folder there, all of those files live in your trash in your Google Drive cloud account, so you should be able to visit drive.google.com, sign in, and then visit the trashcan and all of your files will be there and you will be able to restore them. Your files are safe because they can’t be accessed by anyone except for you unless you purposely share them with others, Google also has some thing called two factor authentication, where every time you sign into your account it says your cell phone a text message verifying you are who you are, so in short a secondary form of identification ensuring the safety of your email and files. Lastly how are they backed up? As long as you have a Google Drive for Desktop installed and save those files to your Google Drive account on your computer, they automatically back up to the cloud Version of your Google Drive. Let me know if you have any more questions and thanks for watching - Eric
I am changing computers because my current has gotten old and slow. Is GD the best way to switch files or should GD even be an option? It's taken over a week to sync 2000 files and it says I have 5000 to go. I don't have that long. I need to get my PC's switched out now. Also, for the files that are streamed and not synced, will I lose those in GD once the old computer is gone? Is syncing them the only way to keep them so I can upload them to new PC?
What happens to my data if my account is blocked by Google or hacked and I use mirror mode How can I make a copy of the files that is not affected by what is being tried on the account even if Google itself tried to erase my data and my attendance will not be able to Because some programs, or most of them, crash if the data source is disrupted or changed, such as images and the like, which causes the project to fail
The only thing I hate about the Google is that even I selected stream but it still mirrors my files offline on my computer when I upload files from my mobile to Google drive or upload from anywhere I want only one folder to automatically download in my PC And the my computer option is great for that But I can still se the other files of my drive app in my offline hard drive I don't want any other file of my Google drive app in my hard drive I only want to see that one folder i selected to sync
I have sent a Google Drive Link to an Associate. My Associate CAN open the link and see the two Main Folders with all sub-folders and files. Good so far. Now, she would like to be able to download the two folders onto her desktop. I "Believe" that I have given her Editor Permission, but we can not seem to download. Does she need to have a Google Drive Account of some sort? I do not believe that she has one. OR should she simply be able to download the folders onto her desktop. If this is the case, I suspect that I am not giving her the appropriate permission.
Carlos, if you are the owner of the folder you can allow her to download the contents of the folder, however if you are not, that feature may be disabled. In addition, if it is enabled, she should be able to select the individual files within the folder and select download, which will put them into a zipped file allowing her to download them all at once, not the case if there are folders within the original shared folder. Hope that makes sense.
This is by far the most clear, comprehensive and shortest explainer on Google Drive. Thanks Eric!!
YES!!!!! He is sooo clear and step by step. I will definitely suscribe to his channel!!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!
Thanks. Battled for a long time. Then I found this video. It really helped.
dude this was great. i tried an earlier iteration of this google drive for desktop years ago and didn't like it. but i suspected google would eventually get it right and it seems from your tutorial they did. i look forward to his really helps me out. thanks for posting.
an you talk about the shared with me folders on the google drive. apparantly those are not synched any morewith the desktop
Still not clear about one thing on the laptop backup. If I backup (sync a file from my laptop to Google Drive) and then also use Mirror at Google drive for Desktop, does that mean I have the original backup file from " my Document" folder and also "my drive" folder. So I have double original files??
Can you make a video that shows how to use Google Drive has a backup tool. I have Google Drive for desktop installed and am syncing my documents folder. But - When I accidently deleted a file on the PC it was also delete in drive. Is there a way to stop this from happening.
Thank you. My recollection is that there is a difference between back up and sync. When you chose sync, if you delete a file from your laptop, it gets deleted in Google drive, too. This may pose a problem if we accidentally delete a file. Is my inference right?
I use more than one system for work. It is useful to have all my important files on Google drive and locally, This enables me to shift seamlessly between systems.
uu da best!!! I had to watch 3 tutorials to understnad how to sync my ggl drive, only after yours i understood. Thankuuuu. Plus, I love the screen in laptop-thingy-mockup idea. Looks cool
I saved a file to Google drive under stream setting . After that I changed the setting to mirror & ran the sync but it did not download that file to my laptop. No error messages .
Do u know how to fix it ?
Hey there! Thank you for the video
I am however facing a problem
I’ve done everything you said in the video step by step, but when I try to open the folder “Google Drive” > “my drive”, it shows ‘folder is empty’ when it at the same time shows that I have 9.44 GB of 15.0 GB (like the folder contains files but they are hidden or something)
What can I do about it?
Hi Eric,
I working on my google drive folders on my imac with no problem. But now a want to share a folder with other designer so we can both work on the same folder. How I do that?
Make sure you are in the google drive for desktop lol in your finder then two finger tap the file and move for the menu until you see the share this folder option, then click that and add the email address.
Thank you very much for your useful video. I have a problem and I hope you can help me. I have a folder having automatically created and named Classroom in my Google Drive and my desktop Google Drive. This folder contains the stuff that I have posted and stuff that my students have submitted in my Google Classrooms. I do not want this folder on my desktop because it occupies too much storage on my hard drive. How can I stop syncing this folder? If I delete this folder, do the files in this folder will disappear from my Google Classrooms? Thank you in advance!
@Thanh Le - thanks for watching this video, you are right about the classroom folder that was automatically created in your Google Drive, this happens when you sign up or create new Google classrooms. Currently you have “mirror” selected which backs up every file in your google drive, if you want to individually select files go back and change mirror files to Stream Files, and then in Explorer or finder depending on which operating system you’re using, you will have to select the individual folders you want to synchronize. Right click on these files or folders and you will see an option that says off-line access, select available off-line from that menu and then it will place a copy of that file or folder offline for you to use. I hope that makes sense - good luck!
Hi Thank you for the tutorial. How long it take to sync 1GB of files approximately. using mirroring method.
That depends on your Internet speed and network, Google Drive for desktop has the ability to set restrictions on how fast files can sync, but they are not on by default. For example on my laptop my home Internet takes less than five minutes to synchronize a gigabit file, however at school when I am sharing bandwidth with the rest of my teachers it can take up to 30 minutes. However again that depends on your Internet and network speed. Hope that helped!
Thank you.
Hi Eric, You are a fantastic teacher ! Thank you !
I have installed the and played around with Google Drive before watching your video. Probably have made a mistake.
My question: On the right side of the screen there is a section called "My Drive" and another section called "computers". I have my data under both. Is the first one the backup, and the second is the mirror?
Which one should I delete in order not to delete the whole data from my internal Drive?
How should I do that?
Thank You
Daniel
Can multiple users with different desktops sync into the same google drive & would it be synced onto the desktops of the other users?
My 15GB of google storage won't back up much 🤦🏼♂️. great video ✌🏻
How about shared folders?
Hello, I am Mirror files from google drive, few days its working fine but for 2 days it doesn't sync, i add some folders and files where I am mirror my drive, it doesn't sync in the original drive. can you please help me to resolve my problem, Thank You
Hi Eric, I am facing an issue with drive for desktop (DFD) (stream - virtual drive) and it is
" uploading queued" and it never uploads.
I disconnected account and reinstalled software again(DFD)
Now I Have 3 folders in drive and only 1 of them are syncing
In remaining 2 folders , for 1 folder " uploading queued " issue still exists.
In 1 other folder i can see data in Google drive website, but no data in virtual drive.
Can you please help me in solving this problem sir?
Sounds like your Google Drive upload is stuc. In this case, it is best to clear the cache. To do this, just go to Google Chrome > Settings (3 dots on right hand side) > Privacy & Security > Clear Browsing Data. In the Advanced tab, select all the checkboxes and choose Clear Data. Yes you will have to log in again and to every website that you logged into prior, meaning your browser will not remember that you have visited that site before, but it could allow your DFD backup to resume. Hope that fixes it for you!
What about files and folders that are shared with you?
Hi Eric. what if you wish to sync an external hard drive? I've tried to do this but I've found it doesn't sync new documents I create on my external hard drive. My laptop has limited space and I sometimes forget to bring my external hard drive to school, so I was great a few years ago when I could easily sync my external hard drive to the online google drive. With google drive desktop, I started by mirroring my documents but they only synced a few files, like you said. What do you suggest I do?
@Petra Nieuwendyk - Great Question! You can switch from mirror files to stream files then select individual files and folders within your explorer or finder, depending on which operating system you use and set them to synchronize offline. Oh this will reduce the amount of files synchronized to your local computer. As far as external drives, there’s a setting within the Google Drive for desktop preferences called “Prompt me to back up devices,” make sure that setting is on and then whenever you plug in a new device or the same back up drive in your case, it should start sinking. You are correct when you say whenever you send a new file to that backup drive it does not automatically sync. The synchronization only occurs whenever the drive is first plugged in, so that is the solution once you are done saving files to the thumb drive disconnected and reconnected and it should start synchronizing. That is currently the only way I know how to resolve your issue. Hope that helps -thanks for watching!
why is this year's google drive update so heavy on my laptop? though, before the latest update it was fine.
Sorry you’re experiencing that, I would completely uninstall Google drive for desktop reboot your machine and then reinstall it and let the process start over, it works fine for all my devices, staff and students here and really does not take up that much system resources. Good luck!🍀👍🏻
I am trying to install Google Drive for desktop on a MacBook Air. I can get it downloaded and start through the install, but it just tells me it's installed. Doesn't show the questions that you showed on the screen. I end up with a Google Drive logo on my desktop that doesn't do anything. You can't click it and have it do anything. There's an app in Applications that says Google Desktop and that doesn't open either. I really want it to be backing up files like it did before they stopped back up and sync.
Hi Eric, thanks for the video! I'm on Mac and I'm having an issue here: I've successfully downloaded Drive, everything's backed up - BUT when I try to open my doc files in my new Google Docs app, it opens a browser window that is full of all of my docs, not the one I intended to open. I don't mind going to browser (though I figured the point of the new app is to not head to browser), but heading to a library instead of my desired app is really annoying. That said, when I right click the file there are some "Quick Actions" - one of them being open the file with Google Docs. This, despite seeming to be the exact same process, works for me. Do you have any idea what's happening here? This is the last leg of my file journey and I really wanna figure it out. Thanks for your consideration.
I think this may answer your question:
www.loom.com/share/1c55279e55be4ab786085a06e1ee3793
Let me know if not
@@MobileTekServices I am floored you took the time to make a video for me. Thank you so much! I didn't articulate my issue well, hard to without screenshots, but I still got value from your video, the new doc shortcut is clever and I will use it. The issue is that after I synced my Google Drive to my desktop - mirrored, not streamed - and when I click on a doc on my desktop mirrored from my Drive, my journal for instance, it doesn't take me to my journal doc. It takes me to the generic Google Docs page. And there is a 2 click way to get around it and get right to the doc, but it's labeled as the exact same process that one click does.... so I want to know why it doesn't work. I hope that's more helpful. I'd be very grateful to hop into a Google Meet if you have the time. My email is my full name at gmail. Thank you again for your consideration and effort.
Thanks! Helped me at Brasil.
Happy to help anyone where ever you are 😎
How can I use multiple accounts at the same time, one for personal and the other for work, and sometimes I transfer files from one to the other? I need to share my uncle’s files with my partner, and he in turn sends me the files and sees what he sends in a separate file
Under the preferences tab there is a button that says add additional accounts, if you don’t see that uninstall and reinstall the app and it should appear good luck and let me know if that does it for you.
Hello! I am just starting to use GD desktop and it has been syncing files for several days now. It is slowing down my wifi for all devices. Does sync mean it's moving PC things to GD or is it moving GD things to PC?
If you have a large number of files and a slow Internet connection, then yes it may take a while for Google to back up all of your files. The good news is that’s a one time thing, after that it doesn’t back up every single file every day, it only backs up any new files you add or changes to the existing files you already have backed up, so it doesn’t affect your Internet speed that much after that. Google drive for Desktop keeps a copy of the things on your computer as well as in your Google Drive account that lives in the cloud, and if you selected the mirroring option during the set up process those files live in two places and when edited they are automatically backed up to either the computer or your Google Drive account online, depending on where you edited the file. Hope that answered you question - Eric
How can I download the synced folders on another pc? After choosing the mirror option nothing downloads.
Try rebooting your PC and signing back in and it should start this time.
Thanks for the video! :)
Excellent. Thank you!
The reason I started using GD is because I accidentally deleted some important files (3000 of them) and couldn't get them back. But with GD if I delete them from my PC (as I accidentally did), doesn't it also delete from GD? So how are my files safe...and backed up?
@Lisa Jimerson - great question, if you are using Google Drive for desktop and delete them from your new Google Drive folder there, all of those files live in your trash in your Google Drive cloud account, so you should be able to visit drive.google.com, sign in, and then visit the trashcan and all of your files will be there and you will be able to restore them. Your files are safe because they can’t be accessed by anyone except for you unless you purposely share them with others, Google also has some thing called two factor authentication, where every time you sign into your account it says your cell phone a text message verifying you are who you are, so in short a secondary form of identification ensuring the safety of your email and files. Lastly how are they backed up? As long as you have a Google Drive for Desktop installed and save those files to your Google Drive account on your computer, they automatically back up to the cloud Version of your Google Drive. Let me know if you have any more questions and thanks for watching - Eric
I am changing computers because my current has gotten old and slow. Is GD the best way to switch files or should GD even be an option?
It's taken over a week to sync 2000 files and it says I have 5000 to go. I don't have that long. I need to get my PC's switched out now.
Also, for the files that are streamed and not synced, will I lose those in GD once the old computer is gone? Is syncing them the only way to keep them so I can upload them to new PC?
What happens to my data if my account is blocked by Google or hacked and I use mirror mode How can I make a copy of the files that is not affected by what is being tried on the account even if Google itself tried to erase my data and my attendance will not be able to Because some programs, or most of them, crash if the data source is disrupted or changed, such as images and the like, which causes the project to fail
The only thing I hate about the Google is that even I selected stream but it still mirrors my files offline on my computer when I upload files from my mobile to Google drive or upload from anywhere
I want only one folder to automatically download in my PC
And the my computer option is great for that
But I can still se the other files of my drive app in my offline hard drive
I don't want any other file of my Google drive app in my hard drive
I only want to see that one folder i selected to sync
Thanks alot
great video
Thanks - Hope that was informative 😎
@@MobileTekServices you were a great help thanks from ireland
I have sent a Google Drive Link to an Associate.
My Associate CAN open the link and see the two Main Folders with all sub-folders and files.
Good so far.
Now, she would like to be able to download the two folders onto her desktop.
I "Believe" that I have given her Editor Permission, but we can not seem to download.
Does she need to have a Google Drive Account of some sort? I do not believe that she has one.
OR should she simply be able to download the folders onto her desktop.
If this is the case, I suspect that I am not giving her the appropriate permission.
Carlos, if you are the owner of the folder you can allow her to download the contents of the folder, however if you are not, that feature may be disabled. In addition, if it is enabled, she should be able to select the individual files within the folder and select download, which will put them into a zipped file allowing her to download them all at once, not the case if there are folders within the original shared folder. Hope that makes sense.