Google File Stream replaces Google Drive Sync
The “Google Drive Sync” for Mac/PC is going away in March. Google is replacing it with “Drive File Stream”.
You may have noticed the message above popping up when you sign into your computer. This is Google’s way of telling you that “Google Drive Sync” for Mac/PC is going away.
What is it?
In the beginning when Google was first coming onto the scene for cloud storage, they wanted an easier way for their cloud users to sync their files to the cloud, without having to log into a web page and drag and drop files to their “Google Drive”. So they came up with the “Google Drive Sync” application. This allowed users to work on documents on their Mac/PC, save the file to a specific folder and when the device was connected to the internet it would sync that file to the user’s “Google Drive”. This syncing back and forth allowed users to edit files on their local computer when offline and as soon as they connected back to the internet the files were synced with their “Google Drive” allowing the user to access the file from any other device connected to the internet.
Why is it going away?
For many years this was a great option for many Google Cloud users. However over time Google and it’s users found out that although the cloud storage capacity for storing documents was almost unlimited, a user’s computer’s ability to store all those files was not.
So Google searched for a better way to allow it’s users to sync their documents while freeing up space on their local computer. Finding no easy solution Google created an application that would allow users to save documents directly to their Google Drive while still giving the user the ability to work on a file offline. Thus “Drive File Stream” was born. This application is designed to allow users to save files directly to their “Google Drive” or to their “Google Team Drive”. The files are saved and accessed directly from the cloud without storing a local copy of the document on the user’s local computer. This frees up space on the User’s computer and gives them near unlimited storage in the cloud. The second feature of the application was to allow users to persist a local copy of the file so they could edit it while not connected to the internet and upon reconnecting the file would be automatically updated in the cloud.
Since this new application was so powerful Google decide it no longer needed the old “Google Drive Sync” application. Google has been announcing the deprecation of the old application for a couple of months and has officially decide to end support for the application in March of 2018.
So what is Klein doing about this?
Seeing the deprecation of the “Google Drive Sync” application, Klein ISD Technology has been working to deploy the new application “Google Drive File Stream” to everyone that already had “Google Drive Sync” installed. On Thursday February 15th, 2018, Klein ISD Technology deployed the “Google Drive File Stream” application to all computers that had “Google Drive Sync” installed. So if you are seeing the Popup from above that means you had “Google Drive Sync” installed and that we have already installed “Google Drive File Stream” on your computer. You do not need to click on the install button from the popup. Simply follow the instructions below on Signing-in into “Drive File Stream”.
If you didn’t have “Google Drive Sync” installed on your PC but you would like to install “Drive File Stream”, install it from “Software Center”.
Once you have signed in to “Drive File Stream” (See steps below to sign into “Drive File Stream”). You should sign out of the “Google Drive Sync” application(see steps below on signing out of “Google Drive Sync”),
Signing-in to “Drive File Stream”
To sign in the first time, Users can click on “Drive File Steam” from the application menu.
Or users can click on their system tray (bottom right corner) and select the “Google Drive File Stream” icon.
This will launch a prompt for the user to enter their Klein ISD email and password. Users will only need to do this one time to activate “Google Drive File Stream” on their computer and associate their Google account with “Drive File Stream”.
After entering a password and clicking next, Google will sync “Google Drive File Stream” to the user’s “Google Drive”. It will take a few minutes for it to sync the first time. “Google Drive File Stream” is now set up and is view-able in Windows explorer as an additional drive.
Google Drive Sync vs. Google File Stream Appearance
Previously, users clicked on the folder with their name from their desktop or opened a File Explorer window to get to “Google Drive” and it appeared in folders like this:
With “Google Drive File Stream”, Users will now see (Once logged into Drive File Stream, follow steps from above) a drive listed under “This PC” very similar to how their local hard drive appears.
At this point simply save a file directly to the “Google Drive File Stream” drive and it will automatically be streamed to the cloud.
Sign out of Google Drive Sync
To sign out of “Google Drive Sync” click on the “Google Drive Sync” icon from the system tray.
Next click on “Settings”
Next click on “Preferences…”
The “Google Drive Sync” Preferences window will open up.
Click on the “Advanced Tab”
Uncheck all settings under “System Settings”
Click the “Apply” button. (This will close the preferences window.)
Go back to the preferences windows by following the above steps. Then click the “Account” tab.
Click on “Disconnect account…”
Click “Disconnect” on the “Do you want to disconnect your account?” window and then click “OK” on the “You have disconnected your account.” window.
Now click on the “Google Drive Sync” icon in your systems tray, Go to “Settings” and click “Quit Google Drive”.
Delete your old “Google Drive Sync” Folder
Delete your old sync folder so that you don’t get “Google Drive Sync” and “Google File Stream” confused and free up local hard drive space at the same time.
First Delete the Desktop icon for “Google Drive”
Next open File Explorer, find “Google Drive” in “Quick access”
Right click on the “Google Drive” icon and select “Unpin from Quick access”.
Next find the “Google Drive” folder under your profile. In File Explorer expand “This PC”, expand “Local Disk (C:)”, expand “Users”, expand the folder with your username. You should now see a “Google Drive” folder with an icon that looks like a blue cloud with a line threw it.
Right Click on “Google Drive” folder and select “Delete”.
Be sure you have signed out of Google Drive before performing this step!!
Now empty your “Recycle Bin” and you will have successfully clear up space on your hard drive.