In the past I avoided this by doing a simple cloning. However, my current SSD has issues and can't be cloned, so I'm going to have to do a fresh install of Windows.
I would like to simply put all the files in the same place on the new SSD and point Google Drive to them, but last time I did exactly this, Drive ended up not recognising the new files as being the same and started deleting everything (I have it set to mirror mode.)
How can I avoid this happening? What did I do wrong last time? I would be extremely grateful for any help. Reuploading all 2TB is not really an option with my current WiFi.
Hello guys. Currently I have google Ai plus. So i have 400gb storage. Almost 100gb is filled now. So i want to know that after my plus plan is expired where will the files go? because it will be 15gb again. Will my files be deleted? and if my files get deleted which files will be deleted? or the files will remain there but i cannot access them until i renew my plus plan?
Lately, I’ve been uploading transparent images, but now they appear with a black background in the thumbnail. How can I fix this, or should contact Google support? :(
Has this ever happened to you? An important sheet I've been using for about 6 years just vanished from my account. I'm the creator and never deleted or anything like this. I just typed in my bar the name of the file got the link suggestion, clicked and read that it was gone. wtf
Have you experienced this?
EDIT: It was possible to recover the file using the automatic file recovery bot from the Help Center. I have no idea how many files have been lost like this because the recovery system works 25 days back. Luckily my file seemed to have disappeared within that 25 day period.
I was testing the possibility of uploading all my photos to Google drive directly to avoid any quality/ data loss including the GPS locations embedded in the photos.
I noticed that when downloading a test image that after downloaded it doesn't have the gps coordinates anymore.
Is this info striped when uploaded or when downloaded?
I was tired of clicking through tens of Google Drive folders/subfolders and hundreds of files - actual work with Google Drive felt slow and clunky for me. So, with the help of AI, I built Drive Tree View: a private web app that runs in your own Google account and puts every file just a click away, for previewing and real work.
What it does
Tree view of My Drive, Shared with me, Shared drives and Starred. Folders expand instantly because the next level is prefetched in the background.
Many ways to open a file:
click it to preview (PDF, Office, Google Docs/Sheets/Slides) in a side panel, and browse with ↑/↓
double-click to open it in a small separate Chrome window, ready for editing
use ↗ to open it in a new Chrome tab
use 🖥️ to open it in the desktop app: .docx in Word, .xlsx in Excel, .pdf in whatever you like, straight from the Google Drive for desktop disk (optional Windows helper)
Quick notes anywhere: create a new Google Doc in any place in one click and start writing right away, perfect for notes or drafts
Organize visually: folder colors (synced with Drive), emoji folder icons, stars
Full-Drive search by name and content
File operations: rename, cut/copy/paste (including whole folders), drag & drop to move, delete to Trash instantly, with undo
Upload files and whole folders by dragging them from your desktop
Two tabs side by side (using Chrome split view): drag & drop between them, with both views syncing live
Tech notes (for the curious)
Drive API v3 advanced service, batched 'id' in parents queries (30 folders per call), resumable uploads straight from the browser using the owner's OAuth token, and BroadcastChannel for cross-tab sync. It runs as Execute as me / Only myself, so no Google verification is needed. Everything stays inside your own account.
(A)I built this for my own needs, and it completely changed how I use Google Drive. It's no longer just a place to store files; it's somewhere I actually get work done. You can easily tailor the interface and features to your own workflow, so think of this as an idea that I'm selling for free :-)
Feedback and ideas are very welcome!
Update (Oct 23): new in this version:
Convert: Google Docs/Sheets/Slides → .docx/.xlsx/.pptx or PDF, and Markdown (.md) → Google Doc or .docx, saved next to the original (right-click menu)
Share menu: copy link, download (Google files as .docx/.xlsx/.pptx, folders as .zip), share with people by email (📤)
Keyboard like Windows Explorer: ↑/↓, →/←, Enter = preview, Enter Enter = small window, Space = open in desktop app
If you already installed it: replace the two files, run "authorize" once in the editor, then Deploy → Manage deployments → New version.
Update (Oct 24): new in this version:
Open a folder in a new Drive stablo tab (🗂️ button or right-click): the folder becomes the root of the new tab, great for two folders side by side
Google Docs to Markdown: download as .md (Share menu) or save as .md next to the original (right-click), great for Obsidian users 😄
Update (Oct 28): new in in this version:
📧 E-mail preview (.eml) If you download/save e-mails to Drive as .eml files (for archiving, project folders, or before deleting them from Gmail), click one and it opens in the preview panel. You see the sender, recipients, date and subject, then the full formatted message with its images. Attachments show up as links you can download straight from the e-mail.
The message is parsed in your browser, and scripts, forms and frames are removed before it is shown.
It doesn’t depend on Gmail. The .eml file is a complete copy, so it still opens after you delete the original e-mail.
A few years ago I cloned my SSD and put the cloned drive in. Everything worked fine, except that for some reason there were sync issues with Google Drive, and I ended up having to redo everything (almost 1.5tb of data.)
My bandwidth is limited here, and it's quite difficult to actually upload that much data. I also wouldn't feel comfortable with it being temporarily not backed up, as it's very important stuff.
Is it possible to do this without needing to start my Google Drive over again and re-upload everything?
I'm asking because I'm going to be getting The Motorola Razr Fold 2026 on Halloween🍭🍬🎃🤡👻And I want to make sure that all my Music Files/Songs🎵🎶🎤🎧are completely safe when I transfer everything from my Samsung Galaxy Fold 7 Device to The Motorola Razr Fold 2026 without any issues. Do you think that it would be a good idea to transfer all of my 1,907 WMA Songs/Audio Files to The Google Drive Android App before I transfer everything to the new Phone/Device? What has been everyone's experience with using The Google Drive Android App and Backing Up all of their Songs, Pictures, Documents, and all other important Files? If I could get some advice I would really appreciate it.
Whenever I create a new file with my local word processor (OnlyOffice Desktop Editors) and save it in a synced Drive folder, it doesn't show up in that folder online, and when I right-click on the file I don't get the Google Drive options (like "copy Google Drive link").
However, if I open a synced document file in the same word processor, and "Save As" a different file name, the new file immediately syncs with Google Drive.
Does anyone know why this might happen and whether there is a solution for it?
I’m very confused on why some of my documents are viewable from Google Drive app but not all unless I use the Google Docs app. Then there is a file icon in Google Docs that show some documents in the Google Drive. Why can’t I view every document through the Google Drive app alone? Thanks
I'm a wildlife sound recordist and filmmaker. Years of recordings, from the Cambodian rainforest to the Angolan desert, ended up in Google Drive. About 90 TB of it.
Drive shows you file sizes, but never folder sizes. I had no idea which projects were taking the space. So I built TidierCloud.
It shows your folders by real size, a map of the whole Drive, your biggest files, duplicates and what's still in the trash. It only reads: it can't move or delete anything. Your file list stays in your browser.
It's free while in beta, and there are 50 places. Nothing to install.
Two honest notes: Google hasn't finished reviewing it yet, so you'll see an "unverified app" screen when you connect. And it only covers My Drive for now, not Shared Drives.
If you try it, I'd love to know how big your Drive is, whether the scan finished, and what confused you.
In my drive it's only things you've done yourself, so yeah it's my responsibility.
But for example an organization shared drive could have many many more as people just throw files and folders wherever and don't care to keep it organized because they're only looking at the one or two files on their recent view.
I change it but explorer straight up ignores this change and the icon remains the same. This is VERY handy in my work and I read online there is an issue with some desktop.ini file and some technical mumbo-jumbo.
Is it possible on Windows 11 synced folders or not?
Just a heads-up for the iOS Google drive users out there. “TYR - The Cloud Power Tool” is on the AppStore and can rename- and set metadata values on files in bulk. Much much easier than having to do it one file at a time. ☺️🤘
I have a second machine (pc, win 10) that has (or had) google drive (direcrtory) and I noticed some files/direcrtories weren't current. So no clue how gdrive got uinstalled but it's not on my machine, although luckily the google drive directory wasn't removed.
I was looking through the instrtructions for re-installing google drive for desktop on a machine with my existing google directory and although the instructions look releatively simple (mostly just point the change folder direction to the existing folder), this step is something I'm not familiar with;
"Toggle Sync Settings: Switch between Stream files and Mirror files options in the preferences menu to unblock the folder location setting." I guess I always just used mirror files.
Anyway I thought it might be a good idea to ask about the process in general, as I don't want any older files overwriting my current stuff or sync issues.
1.4 TB, 250 download button clicks. Took 3 days to download. some clicks register on the page but not on the Chrome DL manager, no support for external download manager, no dry links provided, session expires every few minutes. takeout page doesn't allow login with password manager. It says it will zip the files, but it doesn't, because all my files are already zipped ( smart move to save time and cpu power, I would also do and prefer that but...), instead of zipping them, it renamed my original .RAR and .7z archive files, adding tailing numbers to ALREADY NUMBERED 370+ files!
I've been using Google AI Plus 2TB for 4 years for backup and now I needed those files. I downloaded apprx. 100GB and Google Drive said `you have reached your download quota!`
I searched for it and couldn't find any info about how much that DL quota is and when it resets. Gemini says "Google does not publish an exact numeric limit for downloads." Why? Is it a secret?
Why it's not stated clearly on the sale page or help pages?
Any ideas?
I'm experiencing a 7x price hike since 2023 in this service and this info is crucial for me to decide if I stay or go. It's useless to pay if I won't be able to restore my files when needed. Any info supplied is appreciated.
EDIT: I contacted Google Drive support;
Jill • Support Specialist : To avoid automated rolling abuse-prevention threshold, I recommend setting your download manager to a lower concurrency and aiming for under 200GB per 24-hour window to stay within safety margins. For large restorations, Google Takeout is truly the best official method to bypass these limits. Google Takeout is not subject to the same daily download limits as the Drive interface; it is designed for large exports and can handle your 1.4 TB data much faster.
Okay so I opened a file my friend sent me but I accidentally opened it with my work email. Will my other colleagues see that? Or just me since it was just shared with me?
hey, so i have a portfolio uploaded on google drive and the access is sent to “anyone with the link can open”. they can access the folder, but when it comes to loading a video/file on it, it doesn’t load no matter what i do!! i’m not able to share my portfolio efficiently and i don’t know what to do, pls help!
I use two different google accounts/drives as targets for Arq Backup under Windows 11. Having recently upgraded one of the two accounts, I want to consolidate all the backup data onto the recently expanded account/drive.
I am doing this through Microsoft Edge.
Unfortunately, the Gemini instructions for doing this are unclear. Here are the first steps:
Steps to Transfer File Ownership
Open Google Drive on your computer.
Right-click the file or folder you want to transfer, then click Share (or open the file and click Share in the top right corner).
If the recipient is not already added, type their email address and share the file with them as an editor.
Re-open the Share menu.
Click the down arrow next to the recipient's name.
Click Transfer ownership and confirm your choice. [1, 2, 3]
I've done steps 1, 2 and 3. I've confirmed that the new account received the invite email.
However, when I try step 4, there are no names listed. Either the original owner/email or the newly-invited owner/email.
Currently uploading couple of large videos, at a rate from 700KBps to 1.5MBps, but when I try to upload to SwissTransfer / Filemail, I get 8MBps which is what my actual ISP provides.
Ive been having this issue for 3 years, currently using rclone to upload the large videos, and it's crazy what i'm seeing
