Understanding Google Drive

peter021072

I thought Google drive allowed the user to make a backup of files whilst keeping the original file on the original hard disk.  That's the way it's been since I started using it. However after (unwisely) choosing to sync files today I think it has been taking files off my hard disk and only storing it on the remote cloud drive.  Certainly files have disappeared from my drive and a red x is drawn against some of the folders. Also a green tick has been drawn against others which I think means it is synchronised?

Although I had enough backup space for the files I wanted, since synching it rapidly went over the 15GB free limit.  Hence I started deleting stuff from Google drive and the google drive Trash to try and get it down, thinking it was still on my hard disc. So I may have accidently lost stuff.  

I think I've stopped the sync process, and took the program which does this off my computer, but the hard drive still seems quite active slowing the computer down as if it's still transferring stuff across.  

If I now look at 'Google drive', there is just about everything I've got listed the 'Home' drive, but what is that referring to exactly, the stuff on the hard disc of my computer, or something copied from it out in the cloud? 

Below that it has a folder called 'drive' which I've almost emptied in an attempt to get below 15 GB.  (Other google stuff Mail & spreadsheets is probably less that 1 GB because I've managed this other the past year).  Unfortunately every time I get rid of stuff it seems to fill up.  The Google drive program is still active in task manager.

Confusingly Google drive takes 24 hours to update, so some of these figures may be wrong, so I don't know what exactly if the files exist on drive or not.

Can someone explain what is going on? 

Vitor

Since we can't copy the answer, I suggest going to ChatGPT and posting what you've written to get an explanation of how Google Drive for Desktop works when syncing files and steps to sort it out. Several posters on this board have got into a similar pickle with OneDrive for much the same reasons.

spile

Go to "Preferences" and make sure that you have chosen “Mirror files” instead of "Stream files". This makes all of your folders available for desktop access.

peter021072

What seems to be happening is that attempts to delete files from Google Drive to free up space is actually removing files from my local drive.  However, I notice that I can find them in my local recycle bin and can retrieve them. However this fills up the Google drive again even though I have de-synchronised.  I keep going round in circles.

Wish I could just stop google from accessing my drive altogether so I can get it back to its original condition. 

At the moment Google Drive it is stating 11.48GB of 15GB is being used  even though I've just spent the morning removing 80% of what is there.  And my computer is whirling like an helicopter as if it's moving files again.

Olinda99

what system are you on? chromebook, windows 11, other ?

in any case, google drive is syncing

google 'how to turn off google drive sync'

peter021072

Windows 11 desktop. 

I've just found Google drive in the system tray and paused sync there.  Hopefully that'll work. 

I really wish to just get back to where Google drive doesn't interact with my local drive except when I wish to manually upload files for storage.  ( I only need about 10GB)  This is what I've been doing for a couple of years now.  I do however use google spreadsheets.

DullGreyGuy

All the cloud storage apps operate in a similar way, the cloud holds the full file along with its history. You can choose if you want to hold all files locally too or optimise local storage so that only recently or commonly used files are stored locally and long unopened files are offloaded to save local space. 

We have multiple devices each and so have different settings depending on both the device and the user account. So our desktop that a large amount of external storage has all the files other than for client OneDrives (which at times can be petabytes in size). Most other devices have optimised storage turned on other than a few key files that are flagged to always be kept locally. 

Many try to default such that all your files are within the cloud, and some (looking at you M365) limit functions if files arent in their cloud, but it really depends on what sorts of files you generate/store and what you really need accessible from all devices and backed up online and which your happy to just be on your PC and wouldn't be a problem if the computer's storage died and so the files were lost. 

peter021072

DullGreyGuy

Unfortunately, google drive isn't clear which variant in that list of options it is using, and where the files precisely are.  Not to me anyway.  I certainly wouldn't have knowingly given it permission to start removing stuff off my local drive.

The risk is that by moving files to the cloud then a limit of storage is reached in which is asks for money or to delete files to keep it working.  If the user thinks they still have a local copy they will delete the files left on the cloud.  Worse still because google drive doesn't update for 24 hours, it will carry on giving warnings which might prompt the user to delete the cloud waste bin in an attempt to free up space.  The result is that files are lost through confusion rather than any failure in the hardware.

I have exactly the same problem as this guy

https://www.reddit.com/r/gsuite/comments/1eqk0oo/i_need_google_drive_to_stop_deleting_stuff_from/#:~:text=It's a sync tool, not,backups and delete individual files.

DullGreyGuy

peter021072 said:

DullGreyGuy

Unfortunately, google drive isn't clear which variant in that list of options it is using, and where the files precisely are.  Not to me anyway.  I certainly wouldn't have knowingly given it permission to start removing stuff off my local drive.

The risk is that by moving files to the cloud then a limit of storage is reached in which is asks for money or to delete files to keep it working.  If the user thinks they still have a local copy they will delete the files left on the cloud.  Worse still because google drive doesn't update for 24 hours, it will carry on giving warnings which might prompt the user to delete the cloud waste bin in an attempt to free up space.  The result is that files are lost through confusion rather than any failure in the hardware.

https://support.google.com/drive/answer/13401938?sjid=3057694560506473598-EU

Ultimately it's the risk of any software if people make assumptions as to what it does and how it works rather than checking. A long time ago an ex spent hours making changes to a document and saved it down over the original file because they "knew" they could use the undo button to remove them, what they didnt realise was that once the file had been saved and closed and then reloaded at some point in the future the ability to undo has been lost. 

With iCloud there is a warning that deleting will delete the item from all devices but then for someone who knows that the having to double confirm every action is equally frustrating so its a bit of damned if they do and damned if they dont. 

Wife ran up a big phone bill with WhatsApp because she knew texts were free and assumed pressing the call button would be free too even after it kicked her from the app to the phone app. £75 bill later and she realised it wasnt (they obviously now do support calls but didn't back then). Personally would have thought the fact you left the app would have made it obvious, a quick google confirmed the same but if you arent going to read up and blindly act there are unfortunately consequences. 

PS. Doesn't Google Drive come with 15GB as standard these days?

peter021072

I've carried out a system restore to 3 days before I synchronised. Hopefully this has got rid of the dreaded synch problem and I can use Google Drive as a normal storage backup without it deleting stuff from my hard drive.

peter021072

If anyone else makes this mistake, all is not lost because the removed local files will still be retrievable from your local waste bin.