Configure Google Drive for desktop

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 trusted certificates file:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.google.drivefs.settings TrustedRootCertsFile /Library/MyCompany/DriveFileStream/MyProxyCert.pem

User maximum download bandwidth:
defaults write com.google.drivefs.settings BandwidthRxKBPS -int 100

User-enabled browser authentication:
defaults write com.google.drivefs.settings ForceBrowserAuth -bool true

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
AutoStartOnLogin	Windows—DWORD* macOS—Boolean*	Start Drive for desktop automatically on session login.
BandwidthRxKBPS	Windows—DWORD  macOS—Number	Maximum downstream kilobytes per second.
BandwidthTxKBPS	Windows—DWORD  macOS—Number	Maximum upstream kilobytes per second.
ContentCachePath 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. 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 Mac— ~/Library/Application Support/Google/DriveFS
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 does not apply to files made available offline or files that are in the process of uploading. This setting is only available for admins, as an override or host-wide setting.
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.
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.
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.
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.
ForceBrowserAuth	Windows—DWORD* macOS—Boolean*	Use browser authentication.  If your organization uses security keys or SSO, this setting may resolve sign-in problems.
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.
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 machines. You can find roots.pem in: \Program Files\Google\DriveFS\<version>\config\roots.pem (Windows) or /Applications/Google\ Drive.app/Contents/Resources/roots.pem (macOS) Only settable host-wide.

* For boolean values, use 1 for true and 0 for false (Windows), or use true and false (macOS).

Related topics

• Google Drive firewall and proxy settings

 

Google, Google Workspace, and related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. All other company and product names are trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.