- Pause and resume google drive. If your google backup is stuck, you can easily temporarily pause its.
- Backup and Sync Back up all of your content to the cloud – easily access your files in Google Drive and your photos in Google Photos.
- Google Drive File Stream Sync
- Google Drive File Stream Slow Sync
- Google Drive File Sync Download
- Google Drive File Sync Download
- Google Drive Backup And Sync
Adding the Google Drive app to your desktop will enable you to sync your documents and files from your computer to Google Drive. Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories.
Sync Google Drive with Your PC
Google Drive is a commonly used cloud service for file storage and sharing. To be specific, you can select multiple folders on computer and sync them to Google Drive, or in other words, sync Google Drive with PC. Thus even if your PC breaks down, these files will stay safe. And if you sign-in the same account on another device, you can sync Google Drive to that computer for further using.
Compared with direct uploading & downloading, synchronization is a more convenient way and usually implemented by a desktop app of corresponding cloud service. But please note Google Drive app for PC has been replaced by Google Backup and Sync, with which you can also sync computer to Google Drive or vice versa.
In the following article, I'll introduce how to sync Google Drive with PC folders using Backup and Sync, and also an alternative in case you want a more flexible solution to manage data between computer and cloud.
How to Sync Google Drive with PC Using Backup and Sync?
Backup and Sync is a convenient tool enables you to sync computer to Google Drive and sync Google Drive to computer. It's practical, easy-to-use, yet also has some deficiencies:
It's called Backup and Sync, but it actually only supports automatic file sync. Any changes you made to selected PC folders will be synchronized to Google Drive automatically, therefore it's difficult to retrieve an earlier version.
It's not a backup & restore tool, so you can't backup PC to Google Drive, nor can you backup the operating system in case of system failures.
Google Docs files like Sheet, Docs, and Slides are only available online, you cannot view them without internet connection.
What's more, this app only works between Google Drive and computers. It's fine with a loyal user of Google, but if you own more than one cloud drive or storage device, you may need an alternative with wider application range to manage data transferring.
By and large, Backup and Sync is an effective tool for Google Drive synchronization, you can read this tutorial about how to set it up.
1. Download Backup and Sync for Windows here. It can back up all of your content to the cloud, easily access your files in Google Drive and your photos in Google Photos.
2. Install and Sign in it. Enter your Google account and password, after authenticating, it will jump to the next interface.
3. In My Computer/Laptop, you can choose folders to continuously back up to Google Drive (click CHOOSE FOLDER to add other folders), select upload size for photos and videos, or upload photos and videos to Google Photos if you want. That is, you can also sync Google Photos with PC.
Click Backing up all files and foldes, you can choose File Types to sync. If you want to exclude files with specific format, expand Advanced settings and then enter the extensions you want to ignore.
4. After setting up PC to Google Drive sync, you can go to the next part.
In Google Drive page, ticking Sync My Drive to this computer will sync Google Drive to PC folder. If you simply want to sync computer folders to Google Drive, but don't want to do it the other way around, then just uncheck this option.
Also, you can click Change... to modify the path of Google Drive folder on PC, choose to sync everything in My Drive or only selected folders.
5. Click START to confirm all the settings and perform the synchronization. Google will provide continuous data protection to these files.
Free Alternative to Sync Google Drive with PC in Windows 10/8/7
As a complete data protection & disaster recovery solution for Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista, AOMEI Backupper Standard is not limited to backup and restore, but also integrates file sync feature which enables you to sync Google Drive with PC, and vice versa.
☛ With it, you can create multiple backup & sync tasks at the same time to build a flexible data protection strategy. Not only Google Drive, you are allowed to manage more storage locations such as OneDrive, Dropbox, external hard drive, USB drive, NAS, local PC, etc.
☛ You can sync folders to cloud drive with a schedule, or use advanced sync modes in advanced editions. As for backup, you can back up not only folders, but also system/partition/disk directly.
☛ For important files and folders that you want to capture different versions of them, you can set up a scheduled backup on regular basis, and run it in incremental mode to save space.
How to sync Google Drive with PC folders:
1. Open the software, click Sync on the left pane and choose Basic Sync. This mode is available in all editions, with it, files will be synchronized from source directory to target directory.
You can upgrade to Professional edition to enjoy following sync modes:
Real-Time Sync: Sync changed files from source directory to target directory in real time. It doesn't need a schedule.
Mirror Sync: Always keep the files in target directory exactly same as the source. Any changes mistakenly made to target directory will be erased at next synchronization.
Two-Way Sync: Any changes made to source directory or target directory will be synchronized to the other side.
2. Click Add Folder to select folders you want to sync. You can repeat this process to add multiple folders.
In advanced editions, you can click the funnel icon beside source folder to include or exclude the file formats to sync.
3. To sync computer to Google Drive, click the small triangle beside the destination select box, choose Select a cloud drive in the drop-down menu, select Google Drive in the popping out window and click OK.
Google Drive File Stream Sync
4. Set up a Schedule on Daily/Weekly/Monthly basis and click Start Sync to start synchronization.
In advanced editions, you can also choose Event triggers and USB plug in.
In this way, you can sync Google Drive with PC folders automatically. If you want to do it another way around – sync Google Drive to PC, just select the source directory as the Google Drive folder on PC.
If you want to backup PC to Google Drive, just switch to Backup tab, choose File Backup/Partition Backup/Disk Backup/System Backup as you like.
Verdict
If you want to sync Google Drive with PC continuously, you could use Backup and Sync developed by Google to specify the folders you want to sync. It supports Google Drive to computer sync as well.
However, this tool is only for Google Drive, and there's also some inconvenience using it. If you have multiple cloud drives or devices to manage, or you want to backup PC to Google Drive in addition to synchronization, AOMEI Backupper is a good choice with high compatibility and complete features.
With it, you can also sync network folder to Google Drive, sync NAS to Google Drive, sync cloud drive to external hard drive, etc. Even if you want to backup Windows Server to cloud, there's a Server edition can help.
Google's Backup and Sync tool allows you to sync specific Folder on computer with Google Drive. You may want to use this option, in case you only want to back up specific Folders to Google Drive and not the entire desktop.
If you want to backup PC to Google Drive, just switch to Backup tab, choose File Backup/Partition Backup/Disk Backup/System Backup as you like.
Verdict
If you want to sync Google Drive with PC continuously, you could use Backup and Sync developed by Google to specify the folders you want to sync. It supports Google Drive to computer sync as well.
However, this tool is only for Google Drive, and there's also some inconvenience using it. If you have multiple cloud drives or devices to manage, or you want to backup PC to Google Drive in addition to synchronization, AOMEI Backupper is a good choice with high compatibility and complete features.
With it, you can also sync network folder to Google Drive, sync NAS to Google Drive, sync cloud drive to external hard drive, etc. Even if you want to backup Windows Server to cloud, there's a Server edition can help.
Google's Backup and Sync tool allows you to sync specific Folder on computer with Google Drive. You may want to use this option, in case you only want to back up specific Folders to Google Drive and not the entire desktop.
Sync Specific Folder On Computer With Google Drive
By default, Google's Backup and Sync tool syncs your entire Desktop, Documents and Pictures Folders to Google Drive.
However, in case you do not like your entire Desktop syncing to Google Drive, it is possible to setup Google's Backup and Sync tool to sync only a specific folder on your computer with Google Drive.
Once any Folder on your computer is synced with Google Drive, any files that you add to the Synced Folder will be copied to your Google Drive account as a backup.
Any changes that you make to Synced Folder (Add, Delete or Modify Files) will get automatically synced with the back of the Folder on Google Drive.
How to Sync Specific Folder on Computer With Google Drive
The first step is to download Backup and Sync tool as available on Google Drive for both Mac and Windows PC.
Once 'Backup and Sync' is downloaded to your computer, launch the tool by clicking on it and it will take you to an information screen. Click on Get Started to start the process of setting up a specific folder on your computer to backup and sync to Google Drive.
On the next screen, Login to your Gmail Account by entering your Gmail User Name and Password. Once you are logged in, you will see an information screen, click on Got it to move to the next step.
On the next screen, you can uncheck Desktop and also uncheck Documents and Pictures, in case you do not want Pictures and Documents on your computer to be syncing with Google Drive.
After unchecking Desktop and other Folders, click on Choose Folder Link and on the next screen click on the Specific Folder on your computer that you want to Sync with Google Drive.
Google Drive File Stream Slow Sync
Once the Folder is selected, you can select Photo and Video upload size to Google Drive (see explanation below) and click on the Next button.
If you choose High Quality, Google will convert uploaded Photos to 16 MP size and in-turn provide you with unlimited Free storage for these photos on Google Drive.
If you choose Original Quality, Photos will be uploaded to Google Drive in the same format as shot by your Camera, but the uploads will count towards your allowed Google Drive storage limit.
Google Drive File Sync Download
On the next screen, uncheck Sync My Drive to this computer option and click on the Start button.
Now, only the Specific Folder that you had selected in above steps will get Synced with your Google Drive Account.
As mentioned above, all the Files that you Add to this specific Folder on your computer will also be available on Google Drive as a backup copy.
Any changes made to the Synced Folder (Add, Delete or Modify Files) will get automatically synced to the backup on Google Drive.
Google Drive File Sync Download
You can take a look at the Google Drive backup of the specific Folder at any time by clicking on the Cloud Icon located in the taskbar and then clicking on the Google Drive icon.
Google Drive Backup And Sync
To see the backup, expand the Computer section and click on your computer name.
In case you have more than one computer, you can provide a unique name to each of your computers by renaming them (See image above).
