“ Step 5 – Set Sync Options” ( CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer Step 6: Move Local Files into Your Local Sync Folderįinally, you’ll want to move your local files into the local sync folder which will be automatically created on your hard drive or SSD by the Google Drive application. I named mine “In the Cloud.” This folder will contain all your existing Google Drive documents and files, once we move them into the folder in step 2. The first thing you want to do, preferably in the Google Chrome web browser, is create a new folder at the root / base level of your Google Drive folder. If you’re at school and everyone is syncing large Google Drive accounts, this can slow the network down considerably and unnecessarily.

Bandwidth: If you have multiple gigabytes of data saved to Google Drive, it can take quite a bit of Internet bandwidth to download everything to your local computer.

Limited Space: If you’ve upgraded a spinning / traditional hard drive with a solid state drive (SSD) you may not have enough local drive storage to download and sync your entire Google Drive.

You likely don’t need a redundant copy of many old files you won’t use again on your local computer. Wasted Space: Your files are already being backed up by Google if they are saved on Drive.If not, be aware free Google accounts have 15 GB of free storage, and additional storage is available for monthly fees.īefore reviewing these steps, let’s consider some reasons WHY you might not want to sync your entire Google Drive account locally onto your laptop or desktop computer.

If you work for a school using Gsuite (formerly GAFE: Google Apps for Education) you have an unlimited amount of available Google Drive cloud storage. Hat tip to Henry Finch of Holland Hall ( for sharing these. Would you like to automatically backup all your important computer files to the cloud? Do you use Google Drive? In this post, I’ll share some helpful tips for setting up a “cloud folder” and a “local sync folder” using Google Drive, which you can use to backup your local files but avoid filling up your local hard drive with a variety of files which you’ve previously saved online to Google.

Google drive sync for mac