Wesley Hilliard
Google is streamlining its Drive sync services Mac and Windows with a new Drive for Desktop app, which will replace the prior Backup and Sync service in September.
Google Drive is a cloud document storage and sync service available across most platforms and the web. Both enterprise and consumer users have been able to access the service through two apps on desktop, but Google is transitioning those apps into a single, unified experience starting Monday.
Google says the new app should provide a better in-line experience similar to accessing files directly within the file system. Local files are automatically synced to the cloud in the background, so users don't need to wait on manually synced files.
The Drive for Desktop app is currently rolling out, and should start appearing for users soon. Users of the current Backup and Sync app are being urged to move to the new app as soon as possible due to discontinuation of the old app, which will officially be sunsetted in October 2021.
Three primary features will be included with the new Drive for desktop app:
- Upload and sync photos and videos to Google Photos and/or Google Drive
- Sync external storage devices to the cloud, including flash drives and external hard drives
- Mirror Drive files on your desktop, which stores your files on your local device and enables quicker access to your content
After September 2021, users of the Backup and Sync app will begin being promoted to move to the new Drive for Desktop app. The old app will cease to function by October.
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Stephen Silver
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7 Comments
Backup and Snyc. :smiley:
What baffles me is that there were ever two products to begin with. But this looks promising and should make it much easier to work with.
It’s definitely better on its own, but there’s one use case that it’s really terrible for. If you use a personal Google Drive account and a company one under Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) then you can’t access both at the same time. You have to switch accounts. Previously, you could just run Backup and Sync at the same time as Google Drive to give parallel access to both.