You can specify 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.
If you haven't done so already, download and set up Drive for desktop.
Where to update settings
To set the Drive for desktop options, you update registry keys (Windows) or use the defaults command (macOS). If you’re not familiar with making these updates, contact your administrator or check your operating system documentation. Additionally, note that administrators can set override values that end users can't change.
Windows
| 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
| 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 |
macOS examples
Host-wide mount point:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.google.drivefs.settings DefaultMountPoint '/Volumes/Google Drive'Host-wide bypass of proxy configurations:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.google.drivefs.settings DirectConnection -bool trueUser maximum download bandwidth:
defaults write com.google.drivefs.settings BandwidthRxKBPS -int 100
Settings
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 |
|---|---|---|
|
String |
Regular expression indicating accounts that are allowed to sign in on this machine. For example, to allow all users of mydomain1.com and mydomain2.com: .*@(mydomain1|mydomain2).com Note for macOS: In order 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'" |
|
|
Windows—DWORD*
|
Start Drive for desktop automatically on session login. |
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|
Windows—DWORD
|
Maximum downstream kilobytes per second. |
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Windows—DWORD
|
Maximum upstream kilobytes per second. |
|
|
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. |
String |
Sets the path to the content cache location on a connected APFS, HFS+, or NTFS file system. Windows— |
|
Windows—QWORD
|
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 does not apply to files made available offline or files that are in the process of uploading. |
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|
String |
Windows—Set a mounted drive letter or a path on an existing drive. macOS—Set the mounted drive path. You can include tilde (~) or environment variables in the path. ** Read more about DefaultMountPoint. |
|
|
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. |
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Windows—DWORD*
|
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*
|
Available with Drive for desktop version 39 and later. Disables the Microsoft Outlook Meet plugin that's bundled with Drive for desktop. |
| DisableOnboardingDialog |
Windows—DWORD* macOS—Boolean* |
Disables the welcome window for new users. |
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Windows—DWORD*
|
Disables the Microsoft Outlook Google Drive attachment plugin that's bundled with Drive for desktop. |
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Windows—DWORD*
|
Disables real-time presence in Microsoft Office. |
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Windows—QWORD
|
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 |
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Proxy settings: |
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Windows—DWORD*
|
This bypasses proxy configurations. |
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Windows—DWORD*
|
This disables checking Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) provided by certificate authorities. |
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Windows—DWORD*
|
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. |
|
|
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. |
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* For boolean values, use 1 for true and 0 for false (Windows), or use true and false (macOS).
** When setting the DefaultMountPoint, the in-product user preferences takes precedence over the user and host registry (or plist) settings. The override registry (or plist) settings takes precedence over the in-product user preferences.
Related topics
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