After four years since its last update, that desktop software setup is changing again, and the current tools ( Backup & Sync for detached score holders, and Drive File Stream for enterprise customers ), will be replaced by a modern, single chopine called Drive for Desktop .
You can carry on accessing Google Drive in your web browser and mobile apps as always— creating Docs, Sheets, and Slides barely the same as before. But if you want to keep data from Google Drive on your calculator and sync it to the cloud, or if you ’ ve got big batches of files you need to upload to your Drive, then you ’ ll want to download the desktop application.
What Drive for Desktop does
drive for Desktop turns Google Drive into a fully-fledged charge syncing overhaul rather than merely a mottle storage locker—think Dropbox, OneDrive, and iCloud. When using the software, your documents will be simultaneously on your hard drive and available on the vane, though you can choose which files and folders are stored locally and which aren ’ thyroxine .
There are a few reasons to sync files locally rather than barely accessing Google Drive through your web browser every fourth dimension. First, it means that if your calculator is offline or has a dense internet connection, you can still watch those HD videos you ’ ve got stored in your Google Drive booklet .
[Related: Become a Google Drive power user with these 20 tips and tricks]
Using the desktop software besides makes the upload action much easier, as it ’ s a more automatize procedure. angstrom soon as something new moves into the local folders Google Drive is keeping an center on, the files will be uploaded to the cloud in the background .
The newfangled Drive for Desktop software can upload files from external drives ampere well, and it ’ s smart enough to manage multiple Google accounts at once .
If you have a second calculator, then you have double the efficiency—Google Drive will keep all or some of your files and folders synced between your devices, and once you ’ ve installed and set up the software, everything merely works .
Over the future few weeks, Google will start sending prompts in the Backup and Sync and Drive File Stream tools to encourage users to start switching over. You can keep using the old platforms, but that won ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate final long—at the beginning of October 2021, you ’ ll want to update to the newer application to access your files .
How to install and use Drive for Desktop
If you ’ ra running Backup and Sync or Drive File Stream, get rid of these programs first.
On Windows, open the main Settings pane and choose Apps, Apps & features, the program to remove, and Uninstall. On macOS, drag the app icon down to the Trash icon on the dock or from Applications in Finder .
At the time of writing, Google hasn ’ metric ton put up a proper down page for the raw Drive for Desktop software, but you can download both Windows and macOS versions from the Google blog .
You ’ ll beginning need to sign in to your Google report. You ’ ll go through a series of insertion slides, and after that, the charming will guide you to the Google Drive booklet in File Explorer ( Windows ) or Finder ( macOS ), and you ’ ll be able to browse your files heterosexual away. Anything you add to this Google Drive booklet will automatically be uploaded to the mottle .
By default, everything is kept in the cloud and lone in the cloud—the blue cloud symbol on each file icon shows that they ’ re not locally stored. You can use these symbols as a bookmark to know what ’ mho stored on your organization and what lives in the swarm
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If you open files with the overcast symbol, they will be temporarily streamed to your computer ( just like a movie or music track ) so you can view and edit it. If you leave Google Drive working like this, you ’ ll minimize the amount of local hard drive space your files take up. The biggest caveat is that larger files may take a while to properly load as Drive for Desktop will have to download them each time you access them .
In that case, it ’ sulfur better to save large files you edit a fortune both on your computer and in the swarm. That manner you can work on them more well, and any edits you make to them will besides be synced back to the cloud once you ’ re back on-line again. To permanently save a folder or file to your disk, so you can access it even while offline, right-click ( or Cmd+click on a Mac ) on it and choose Offline access and Available offline .
The same right-click ( or Cmd+click ) menu offers enough of other options as well : You can revert second to a previous version of a file for example, or get a radio link to parcel it with person else. These same options are accessible through the Google Drive web interface a well, as they ’ ve always been, but you might find it easier to get at them from your Windows or macOS computer.
You can find a few more options on the Settings paneling. Click the Drive picture in the telling sphere ( Windows ) or on the menu bar ( macOS ), then click the cog icon and pick Preferences. The screen that appears enables you to have the platform start up at the same time as the engage system, and you can choose to move the location of the Google Drive folder on the local hard campaign if you want to .
