Advanced Drive for desktop configuration

This article is for advanced users and administrators. To change common Drive for desktop settings, go here instead.

You can set custom options for Google Drive for desktop, including the default drive letter on Windows, the mount point on Apple macOS, the cache location, bandwidth limits, and proxy settings. These configurations can be set at the user or host level, and persist when Drive for desktop restarts. Admins can override user settings.

Where to update settings

To set the Drive for desktop options on Windows devices, you update registry keys. On macOS devices, use the defaults command.

In-app user preferences are stored in the user settings location and take precedence over the host-wide settings. Override settings take precedence over the in-app user preferences.

Windows

Scope	Location
Host-wide	`HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Google\DriveFS`
User only	`HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\DriveFS`
Override	`HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Google\DriveFS`

macOS

Scope	Location
Host-wide	`/Library/Preferences/com.google.drivefs.settings`
User only	`~/Library/Preferences/com.google.drivefs.settings`
Override	`/Library/Managed Preferences/com.google.drivefs.settings.plist`

How to add or update settings

Set the name and value pairs using the registry keys or defaults command. On Windows, create the registry keys if they don't already exist. On macOS, the defaults command maintains a plist file for settings. You should not modify the plist file directly, as some changes might not be applied.

macOS examples

To set a host-wide mount point, run:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.google.drivefs.settings DefaultMountPoint '/Volumes/Google Drive'

To set host-wide bypass of proxy configurations, run:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.google.drivefs.settings DirectConnection -bool true

To set the user maximum download bandwidth, run:

defaults write com.google.drivefs.settings BandwidthRxKBPS -int 100

Drive for desktop settings reference

Set these name and value pairs using the registry keys or defaults command, as described above. On Windows, create the registry keys if they don't already exist. On macOS, the defaults command maintains a plist file for settings. You should not modify the plist file directly, as some changes might not be applied.

Setting name	Value type	Value description
AllowedAccountsPattern	String	Regular expression indicating which accounts are allowed to sign in on this device. For example, to allow all users of mydomain1.com and mydomain2.com: *.@(mydomain1\|mydomain2).com Note for macOS: To specify a value with parentheses at the command line, the value needs to be enclosed in both double and single quotes: "'.@(mydomain1\|mydomain2).com'"*
AutoStartOnLogin	Windows: DWORD* macOS: Boolean*	Start Drive for desktop automatically on session login.
BandwidthRxKBPS	Windows: DWORD macOS: Number	Maximum downstream kilobytes per second. Note: kilobytes, not kilobits
BandwidthTxKBPS	Windows: DWORD macOS: Number	Maximum upstream kilobytes per second. Note: kilobytes, not kilobits
ContentCachePath	String	Warning: Be cautious about clearing the Google Drive for desktop cache to try to fix general problems. Files are moved here before they're uploaded. If you clear the cache before an upload is complete, that file will be lost. Sets the path to the content cache location on a connected APFS, HFS+, or NTFS file system. When Drive for desktop restarts, local data in the old content cache will move to the new content cache location. If you delete your custom setting, data will move back to the default location. The default cache location is: Windows: `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\DriveFS` macOS: `~/Library/Application Support/Google/DriveFS` This setting does not apply to macOS version 12.1 and later. For these versions, Drive for desktop uses File Provider and macOS controls the location of cached data.
ContentCacheMaxKbytes	Windows: QWORD macOS: Number	Sets the limit on content cache size in kilobytes. The limit is capped at 20% of the available space on the hard drive (regardless of the setting value).The setting doesn't apply to files made available offline or files that are uploading. This setting is only available for admins, as an override or host-wide setting. This setting does not apply to macOS version 12.1 and later. For these versions, Drive for desktop uses File Provider and macOS controls the size of the cache.
DefaultMountPoint	String	Windows: Set a mounted drive letter or a path on an existing drive. You can use an environment variable to specify the drive letter or customize the path (for example C:\Users\%USERNAME%\GoogleDrive). If the mount path already exists, the destination folder needs to be empty. If the folder does not exist, a new folder will be created. macOS: Set the mounted drive path. You can include tilde (~) or environment variables in the path. This setting does not apply to macOS version 12.1 and later. For these versions, Drive for desktop uses File Provider and macOS controls the mount point.
DefaultWebBrowser	String	Set the browser path used to open URLs instead of the system default browser during authentication processes or when clicking “Learn More” links. Note: This setting is only available on Windows.
DisableExternalMediaSync	Windows: DWORD* macOS: Boolean*	Disables backing up files and folders from external media, such as USB drives, cameras, and phones, to Google Drive or Google Photos.
DisableLocalizedVirtualFolders	Windows: DWORD* macOS: Boolean*	Disables localized names for My Drive, Shared drives, and Computers. Names remain in en-US instead of being localized to the OS system language.
DisableMeetOutlookPlugin	Windows: DWORD* macOS: Boolean*	Available with Drive for desktop version 39 and later. Disables the Microsoft Outlook Meet plugin that's bundled with Drive for desktop.
DisableMirroredMyDrive	Windows: DWORD* macOS: Boolean*	Disables mirroring of the entire My Drive folder.
DisableMirroredFolders	Windows: DWORD* macOS: Boolean*	Disables mirroring of arbitrary folders (such as "Documents") to Google Drive.
DisableOnboardingDialog	Windows: DWORD* macOS: Boolean*	Disables the welcome window for new users.
DisableOutlookPlugin	Windows: DWORD* macOS: Boolean*	Disables the Microsoft Outlook Google Drive attachment plugin that's bundled with Drive for desktop.
DisablePhotosSync	Windows: DWORD* macOS: Boolean*	Disables backing up photos and videos to Google Photos.
DisableRealTimePresence	Windows: DWORD* macOS: Boolean*	Disables real-time presence in Microsoft Office. This can also be disabled for organizational units from the Admin console. See step 4 of Deploy Google Drive for desktop.
MinFreeDiskSpaceKBytes	Windows: QWORD macOS: Number	Controls the amount of local space used by Drive for desktop's cache. Stops writing content to the disk when free disk space gets below this threshold, in kilobytes.
OpenOfficeFilesInDocs	Windows: DWORD* macOS: Boolean*	When using Copy to clipboard on MS Office files synced by Drive for desktop, create links that open in the respective Google Docs Editor instead of the read only Google Drive web preview. Default: `true`
Proxy settings:
DirectConnection	Windows: DWORD* macOS: Boolean*	This bypasses proxy configurations.
DisableCRLCheck	Windows: DWORD* macOS: Boolean*	This disables checking Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) provided by certificate authorities. If not explicitly set, this defaults to `true` if TrustedRootCertsFile is provided, otherwise `false`. Sites that use self-signed certificates for their content inspection proxies typically don’t provide a CRL. Enterprises that specify a CRL in their proxy certificate can explicitly set DisableCRLCheck to `0` for the added check.
DisableSSLValidation	Windows: DWORD* macOS: Boolean*	This disables validating SSL traffic. Traffic will still be encrypted, but we will not validate that the SSL certificates of the upstream servers are all valid. This is inherently insecure. It would allow a man-in-the-middle attack against traffic to Google Drive. Only settable host-wide.
TrustedRootCertsFile	String	This is the full path to an alternate file to use for validating host SSL certificates. It must be in Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM) format. Set this if your users are on networks with decrypting proxies. The file should contain the contents of the `roots.pem` file shipped with Drive for desktop, plus the certificates used to authenticate your proxy. These additions should correspond to the proxy-signing certificates you added to the certificate stores in your fleet of devices. You can find `roots.pem` in: Windows: `\Program Files\Google\DriveFS\<version>\config\roots.pem` macOS: `/Applications/Google\ Drive.app/Contents/Resources/roots.pem` Only settable host-wide.

* For Windows DWORD values, use 1 for true and 0 for false. For macOS Boolean values, use true and false.