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Do You Use Backup and Sync? Try Drive File Stream!
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0 Recommended Answers 9 Replies 3521 Upvotes Try Drive File Stream
Do you use Backup and Sync to access My Drive on your computer? The Google Drive Team is looking for people who use Backup and Sync to try Drive File Stream. Drive File Stream acts like a virtual drive that will allow you to stream all your content down on demand — no need to sync everything from My Drive to your computer. This is in contrast to Backup and Sync, which requires you to keep a local copy of your data always on your computer to maintain sync. If you wish to try out Drive File Stream, you will be able to download Drive File Stream for personal use and provide voluntary feedback directly to the Drive Product team.
This preview is appropriate for people who use Backup and Sync primarily to sync files between their computer and My Drive in the cloud. We don't recommend you to try Drive File Stream if:
- You rely on Backup and Sync to back up your local folders to the cloud, since uninstalling Backup and Sync will cause Drive to lose state with these folders.
- You use Backup and Sync’s Google Photos integration, since this feature is not supported in Drive File Stream.
Important Note
There is potential risk of perceived data loss: since Backup and Sync is not running, changes made to files in your Backup and Sync Google Drive folder will not sync to the cloud. You must instead interact with your Drive files via the Drive File Stream folder (“G:\”, for instance, on Windows). We suggest renaming the local folder below as a step towards mitigating any confusion here.
How to try Drive File Stream
- Start Backup and Sync if it is not running.
- On the “Settings” tab of the Backup and Sync preferences window, uncheck “Open Backup and Sync on system startup”. Click OK.
- Quit Backup and Sync.
- Rename your Google Drive folder to something like “Google Drive (not syncing)” as a reminder that you should not change the files in this folder. This will also differentiate it from the Drive File Stream folder, which is also called “Google Drive”.
How to uninstall Drive File Stream
In the event that you would like to revert to using Backup and Sync, uninstall Drive File Stream and undo the instructions above in reverse order to reactivate Backup and Sync.
How to submit feedback
In order to submit any feedback that you wish to share with the Google Drive team you would submit via in-product feedback from your Drive File Stream account and utilize the hashtag #BestDrive.
Please keep in mind that since this is a preview, support agents will not be able to answer all questions related to Drive File Stream.
Your feedback matters - help us shape the future of our products!
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Sounds awesome!
But how will this affect offline sync programs? I mean program that scan - in this case drive G - for changes and copy new/changed files into an external drive, etc. (or likewise delete files from the external drive if they were deleted from drive G)?
But how will this affect offline sync programs? I mean program that scan - in this case drive G - for changes and copy new/changed files into an external drive, etc. (or likewise delete files from the external drive if they were deleted from drive G)?
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Thanks for this opportunity I am looking forward to try this for the purpose of streaming video files from my Google Drive.
A few notes about the installation process:
So I never used the desktop app for backup and sync simply because it is not the right solution for me. Now I installed the app and pretty much deactivated it immediately. Is that on purpose?
The installation of backup and sync is confusing dropping me of at the desktop after finish.
This is really annoying when it comes to the rename folder part of the instructions above. Which folder do you mean? The manually selected folder for syncing or the folder automatically created during installation, which I have to find somewhere on my local drive?
Either way, I did not find a folder called google drive and as far as I can tell filestream did not create such a folder either.
Apart from this, Filestream seems to work and I am really excited about this.
Good luck with the project!
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Is it possible to use both together?,
e.g:
Backup and Sync - backup my desktop and other important folders to Google Drive
File Stream - see all my data on my local device, no need to sync it all down, plus upload files to Google drive by saving in the file stream folders.
Unless file stream has the ability to automatically upload my desktop, docs and downloads folders, there is still a need that Backup and Sync fulfils.
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Just wondering: Are there any daily(?) limits when it comes to data traffic for the FileStream?
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Amazing, I have been wanting this feature for an age.
Is there any limit on how long we will be able to access it?
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Can you use both apps at the same time?
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This is nice, but isn't drive file stream for business or enterprise? Is it going to say I'm a business or enterprise user because I installed it but it's only for home and personal use.
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I'm currently using Google Backup & Sync, and one problem my team is having is accessing certain documents that are shared with them, rather than created/uploaded by them, even though they've been granted permissions to edit.
Does Google Filestream allow editing access for shared files?
Does Google Filestream allow editing access for shared files?
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thanks for update...🙂🙂🙂
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