Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, and Google Drive - How to Synchronize Your Data Across All Devices 

Thank you!

Thank you so much!

Thank you!

Thank you for watching!

Thank you!

I'm glad I could help, and thank you for watching. Multi-way synchronization with Google drive is super useful!

​@@frankwestphal8532 Is this tbe same process I would use to restore lost data on dri e for desktop? The icon in my desktop tray disappeared as well. I want to get the drives back. I had 4 for for different email accounts on my laptop windows 11. All my downliads exist and synched on my android phone and galaxy tablet but are no longer on my pc. I did not delete them. They disappeared during the recent google drive debacle. Please advise if you can.

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Thank for you watching! I'm glad it is helpful.

Thank you!

Hi, and thank you for watching. With regards to your question, what I would do is set up the google drive file sync app exactly like I do in the video, and all of your data in your google drive online storage will be automatically synchronized with your local google drive folder. Technically, if you already have your data in google drive online, there’s no need to do a manual copy/paste to and from an external drive, because once you set up the google drive file sync app on the new computer (exactly like I did in the video… because you want to “mirror” the data, not “stream” the data), a copy of all your data in google drive online storage will be downloaded to that local google drive file sync app folder. But there’s also no harm done in doing a manual copy/paste… you just end up with 2 copies of the data, and they are most likely in 2 separate locations on your local hard drive. One location would be wherever you copied the data from the external drive to, and the other location would be the local google drive folder that is assigned to be synchronized with google drive online. What I recommend doing for future management of your local data is to build out your entire folder structure WITHIN the google drive folder that you’ve assigned to be synchronized on your local computer via the google drive file sync app. This makes it so that every time you get a new computer, or if you have multiple computers, all you have to do is install the google drive file sync app, define the target folder on your local system drive, and set google drive file sync app to “mirror data”. It will automatically download all of your folders and data to the new computer. The folder and file structure will be identical on every computer you do this on, and they will all synchronize automatically. It’s powerful stuff because you really don’t have to manage data between multiple computers anymore. And in addition to that, if you keep all of your data in google drive online, any device that you install the file sync app on, will have the exact same data. For google drive file sync app for Android and iOS, there is no option to “mirror” the data because for many people that would immediately consume all of the phone’s storage, but you can still “stream” (which just means that it’s reading a copy from google servers), and that means you always have access to your data on your phone as well, no matter where you are, unless you don’t have an internet connection to the phone.

Thank you for watching, and I'm glad it was useful!

Thank you for watching. And thank for you acknowledging this. When it comes to IT security, one of the fundamental rules is: Implicit deny Explicit allow To elaborate on the definition of that phrase, it means that all unsolicited communication attempts are denied, by default. Anything that gets through does so only because it has been specifically (explicitly) allowed. This can take the form of something as simple as not an opening an email from an unknown source, or/and (there is an and here because good security is also always layered), it can be at the firewall level where the attempts at unsolicited communications are simply discarded by the firewall immediately and permanently. The rule is the same throughout. Nothing gets through, unless it has been specifically allowed. Anyone who follows this will be a very difficult target for malicious actors because our awareness will cost them too much time and effort for it to be worthwhile to them.

Thank you for watching, and thanks for the encouragement! I have more quality videos coming.

Thank you for watching! I'm making more computer tutorial videos right now.

Glad it was helpful!

Hi, and thank you for watching. I just did a couple quick tests to see how much RAM (random access memory) Google Drive uses while syncing. It was actually very low... about 50MB total, even while syncing. Do you have a solid state drive (SSD), or a mechanical hard drive in your computer? If you have a mechanical hard drive that could explain the slowness of the computer while Google Drive is syncing because the disk is doing a lot or reads, or writes, or both. Here's a quick test you can do to find out: Type in "task manager" in the search/run box, run task manager, and look at the processes tab. There is a column for disk usage. Now, with task manager open, sync a large file or group of files by putting them in your Google Drive folder. Then look at that disk usage. I'm only guessing here, but it probably spikes and if that disk usage is getting in the 70-80% range or more, that's probably the bottle neck slowing down the operating system responsiveness. You can also watch your Google Drive RAM usage here and see if that's spiking for some reason. But RAM shouldn't be spiking, because once the sync is queued up, it's the disk and the network doing all the work. And in task manger you can also look at your network usage while that test sync is happening. That could also be the issue if what you're doing on your computer needs the network, and you have low bandwidth available. In my test that I just did, the Google Drive sync was using about 10Mbps. I don't where you live, but on rural ISP networks 10Mbps is very often the entire available network bandwidth. You can run a speed test by typing "speed test" into a google search, then run it. If you do this test and see your disk usage spike, and you have a mechanical hard drive, that is most likely the bottleneck. An SSD will solve it. Crucial MX series and Samsung EVO or Pro SSDs are VERY fast and reliable, and they are what I use, and recommend. But don't rule out the network unless you have above 25 or 30 Mbps results in your speed test. I hope this helps!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you for watching. And yes! This is the beauty of multi way synchronization. Just do the exact same steps for both computers and everything in your google drive folder on both computers will be identical, and constantly sync between the two computers. And that exact same data will also be in your google drive ONLINE storage as well. You can even set it up on your phone to see the exact same data there too, if you want. Multi-way synchronization.... you always see the same data, no matter how are you are accessing it.

Thank you!

Thank you very much. Yes I believe so. They added a section on google drive online that separates individual computers that have the file sync app installed on them. And if you chose the “My Computer” option during file sync app setup, the sync will only occur with files that are under that particular computer in drive online. This means you can have files in “My Drive” online, that won’t sync locally. But anything that’s under “Computers” (and that specific computer) option, in drive online, will be synced. It’s a little tricky to explain, but what I would do is (and the order you do these things matters here): first make a temp copy of your google drive data on your local computer (just copy/paste it to a new folder on the desktop). This is just to make sure you don’t lose data if something goes wrong. Then, uninstall the file sync app, and delete the Google drive folder that it was originally syncing with (make sure you have that copy of your data temporarily stored). Restart, then reinstall the file sync app, but this time during setup choose the “My Computer” option instead of the "Google Drive" option, then recreate that Google Drive folder you just deleted (this way it will be empty this time when it syncs), and use the “add folder” option during file sync app setup, to choose the new Google drive folder you just created. After doing this, when you look online, you should see all your previous data under “My Drive”, and then under “Computers” you should see the computer you just reinstalled file sync app on there, but with no data in it yet. From that point forward, any data you put in to the Google Drive folder on your local computer, will sync to that particular computer’s folder in drive online, but all the data under “My Drive” won’t be synced with your local computer. Essentially, you can choose to sync everything in your drive online, or break it down in to individual computers. I will caution though, separating data in to multiple locations that are syncing, or not syncing, with your local computer(s), is opening the door for more variables to possibly break moving forward. Clean and simple is also highly reliable.

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Hi, and thank you for watching! I think what's happening in your case is that when google photos are moved to the trash, they are not actually deleted for 60 days. So, this is counting against your google drive available storage. However, you can manually empty the trash and google drive will update with the correct available storage in a day, or sooner. To do this, go to: google photos > trash > empty trash. That should get it done but if not let me know with any more details you have, and I'll figure it out.

I've had this happen in the past becasue the google drive file sync application became corrupt. There could be a number of reasons for this, but the easy way to fix it is to completely uninstall the file sync app, restart the computer, and then reinstall it, sign in to it, and point it right back to your local google drive folder, in mirror mode... Exactly like I do in the video. Uninstalling the file sync app will not remove the local folder, or delete any files. After doing these steps, it should sync properly again.

Hi. Thank you for watching, and for this question. The actual files in Google Drive online storage, or OneDrive online storage, are exactly the same as if they were on your local computer. And when you set up synchronization between the online storage application and the local synchronization app, like I show in the video, the files actually are on your computer because they are being mirrored in both locations at the same time. So, there is no such thing as a "OneDrive file" or Google Drive file". Those names are just describing WHERE the files are, not what TYPE of files they are, or how they can be used. And the easiest way to use any TYPE of file in Google Drive or OneDrive is to set up synchronization, exactly like I show in this video, and then open and edit those files directly on your local computer, like you would do for any other files. The terminology with Google Drive and OneDrive gets tricky because those names are actually describing two very different things. But the key is to use them TOGETHER, because then you can do exactly what you're asking about... which is open and edit those files on your computer any way you want exactly like you would for any other files on your computer, without having to download or upload files constantly, because that's all being done automatically once you set synchronization up. I hope this info helps.

I also have a OneDrive tutorial video that may help you understand how to use OneDrive and Google Drive better. Both OneDrive and Google Drive basically do the same thing. They're just two different companies versions of the same concept. Here is that video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JQ3ki35yTbc.html

Hi, and sorry for the delay. Yes you can. It supports any combination of phone/desktop/laptop/web app. Just install the app on your phone and you can upload from your phone or any other computer when you log in to the web app.

Yes. 100%. Any files or folders that you put in the Google Drive folder, will be synchronized with google servers. Then, if you install google drive on another device, and sign in with the same user account, those files will get mirrored to that device as well. And, you can do this on any number of devices. For example, I always have my files mirrored using google drive and one drive, between my desktop, laptop, and phone. It is the same user account that is used to sign in, and synchronize. I show how to create the Google Drive folder, and how to point the google drive file sync app to use that folder as the synchronization location, in the video. This means that anything you put in that folder will be synced across all your devices that are signed with the same user account. Here's the part of the video that covers that: 06:56 installing and setting up Google Drive file sync app

Hi, and thank you. Ok, so I understand exactly what you are saying. Using an external USB drive to store data on, and keeping it with you is relatively common, but very risky. These types of drives always eventually fail when being transported and plugged in and out long enough. I've seen it first hand many times. My first recommendation is that if you have enough space on your system drive, copy your data on to that, and then set up google drive file sync app, to mirror it on google drive online. Then, if you set google drive file sync app on one or more different computers, the data will be mirrored there too. This removes the variable of a vulnerable external drive, and gets the data in two locations at any given time. Now, if you don't have enough space on your system drive in the laptop, you CAN mirror the external drive using google drive file sync app. The option is under: preferences>add folder>(choose external drive). Obviously it won't sync when that drive is unplugged, but it will get your data in two different locations, so the risk of data loss will be much lower, And actually, if you are able to move the external drive's data on to your system drive, that external USB drive is perfect for backups. That is what I recommend, and what i do myself... Data mirrored on all computers' system drives using google drive file sync app, then a backup of files, and a system image, on an external USB drive. With that combo, you have extremely high restore granularity, up to and including the entire operating system,, and essentially zero risk of data loss. If you do decide to set up backup on that USB drive instead of using at as a primary storage device, here's how to do it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-G31wj2wii74.html

@@frankwestphal8532 So, it looks like i don't have enough space on my system to store files there, perhaps that will be my next move. My other questions would be the following if you'd be so kind: 1) Would I use mirror or stream 2) If I'm traveling, would I need my home computer to be on to access files 3) I'm worried sometimes that I may not have the fastest internet speed where I travel so not sure what method would be best for that.

​@@devonlovings7979 1) Would I use mirror or stream A: If you have the space on the system drive, use mirrored. This is called hybrid, because you have online access to your files if needed, but they also exist locally so you get essentially zero latency when working with your files. If you work with them extensively, the latency from having to read/write from/to a remote server adds up and becomes pretty annoying. 2) If I'm traveling, would I need my home computer to be on to access files A: No. Once they are synced with google drive online, the latest available copy is the master at any given time. And the beauty of this is that if you're modifying your files on the road, the moment you turn your home computer on, those files are going to sync and you can pick right where you left off , on your home computer. It's seamless. I do exactly this all the time. 3) I'm worried sometimes that I may not have the fastest internet speed where I travel so not sure what method would be best for that. A: Mirrored. This eliminates the read of the entire file from the server. Only the changes to the files are read/synced and it requires very little data to do this. In addition, the files exist locally as well, so even if you have zero internet connection, you can still work on them, and the moment you connect again, they will automatically sync. NOTE: The downside to mirroring is that it requires more system drive disk space (local disk space). But SSDs are so cheap now it's highly worth it to just get a large SSD and if you have to, reinstall the OS on the new disk. Once this set up, everything is seamlessly synced from that point on, not to mention lightening fast startup and use of the computer and synced files. And lastly, if you do have to reinstall the OS, it's easy, free, and super fast when it's written to an SSD. I show exactly how to do it here. I labeled it as switching from 10 to 11, but it's a clean install, not an upgrade, so it's the same as installing a brand new factory OS: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-O53zJLFtpXg.html Here's what's covered in that video: 1. Preparing what you will need 6:56 2. Backup up your user data (files) and software license keys 7:51 3. Creating a bootable USB drive with Windows 11 on it 13:40 4. Updating the system BIOS/firmware 19:34 System BIOS/firmware UEFI boot mode settings 26:22 5. Installing a new Solid State Drive 23:17 6. Installing and activating Windows 11 27:26 7. Restoring your user data to the new Windows 11 system 31:11 And if you're running Win 10, I show a clean install of that in this video as well (same process, just a different OS): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dn42i8S1lNc.html

Hi, and yes. Basically, they are giving the people option to synchronize different data sets for each computer. I do not recommend this because most want to see the same data set across all devices, and if it's separated into individual computers, we will not see the same data if we log into a different computer. I like to sync with only the "my drive" root online folder. All of my computers are synced with that same folder, so I see the same data, regardless of which computer I am on. To sync only with "my drive" online folder do these steps: 1. Download a backup of everything online just to be safe. 2. Delete everything under the "computers" tab in google drive online, but leave everything in place under "my drive". 3. Uninstall google drive file sync app from your computer, restart, then delete everything in your local computer (laptop in your case) google drive folder. 4. Reinstall google drive file sync app and chose: "google drive" "mirror files" (make sure you have the local disk space for this... if not, choose "stream") and then point it to the local google drive folder during the "add folder" step. At that point, you should see everything in your "my drive" online folder sync with you local computer folder. I would do this on a wired connection if possible, for the initial sync. It will be faster and less possibility of sync errors. Once the initial sync is done, wireless is fine again.

And it probably got that way, when they updated the app to add the "computers" option. That's when the duplicate copy of your data was created online. Mine got messed up too, and I did exactly what I described above to clean it up again.

@@frankwestphal8532 Thanks so much for explaining what happened and makes total sense! I'm concerned that there are files in the My Drive folders that are not in the My Computer folders. Would it be "safer" to manually check each folder, then drag and drop files that I do not see in the My Drive location? Before I saw your video I was saving files to the cloud severs and also working from the local server (my laptop) creating files. So, there are likely files in each location that are not duplicates. What a flipping mess!!! Thanks again for your help and guidance

@@frankwestphal8532 Would appreciate it if you would produce a video--that would make it easier to follow the steps and minimizing errors. Thanks

Hi. Thanks for watching. It really comes down to personal preference on this one because both Google Drive and OneDrive basically do the same thing... they're just two different companies versions of the same concept. And they will both run without issues, at the same time, on the same computer. I actually really like using both OneDrive and Google Drive (synced up on both like I describe in this video and in my OneDrive video) at the same time, because I can store business related files with OneDrive and keep my personal files separate in Google Drive. Using them both is a really nice way to completely separate business and personal, while still having access to both data sets at any time, and anywhere!

Hi. Lots to unpack here. I need more info to give any helpful advice. So here are some questions: 1. Do you ONLY have chromebooks, or do you also have a windows platform? 2. Are you currently using both the google drive file sync app, and google drive online storage app together, or just one of them?

Hi, is it a new installation of google drive or an older one? If it is older one, copy any google drive data on your computer to a separate folder for temporary storage. Then uninstall google drive. Then it's usually a good idea to run a malware scan. I use "malwarebytes free", and it's really good. Run that and make sure you don't have malware that's messing up the functionality of the computer. Sometimes malware uses proxy servers, and those can mess up things like sync. Then restart after malware scan, and reinstall google drive. Sync should work then. Also, for local data to/from cloud sync, make sure you choose the mirror option when setting up google drive file sync application for the first time. If you want to send some screenshots my email is frankwestphalk@gmail.com.

Hi, I'm answering questions for comments that I missed so sorry for the delay. I'm not sure if you'll be able to edit the .pdf in google drive online. I would guess not, because editing is typically a paid feature of .pdf apps. However, if you highlight it on your local computer, and then upload it, yes the highlights will be there. The file that is uploaded will be exactly the same as the one on your computer, the moment you same it on your local computer. Once it is uploaded, you can then share it out and have it be downloaded again and again with the highlights. And the 300MB size is no problem whatsoever.

Hi Steve, I'm sorry didn't see your question earlier. I would guess one of these two things is happening in the situation you describe: 1. Video files are very large, and it could be that they are simply taking a very long time to upload. This is particularly likely if you are on a wireless network. If the video file is still uploading to google drive online, you won't be able to play it until it is complete. If you can use a wired connection to your router (CAT5/CAT6 Ethernet cable) while you do your large uploads, that will speed it up a LOT. If you have to do wireless, get as close as possible to your wireless router. Also, you can test your network speeds by google searching "speedtest". Google has their own speedtest app that will show up as the number 1 result. 2. The google drive file sync application could be not working right on your computer. There is no harm in completely uninstalling it, and reinstalling it. Uninstalling does not affect the ACTUAL data in your local folder or the online storage. So, you can just uninstall the google drive file sync app from your computer, restart the computer, and set it up again, like I describe in this video, and it should work fine. I have been using google drive for about 10 years now. There was one time when the application become corrupt, and I had to uninstall/restart/reinstall it. So, corruption of the file sync is possible, but it is rare.

Beautiful question. This is the exact power and beauty of file sync. And the answer is very simple: On your office PC, create the exact same folder in the exact same location. Install google drive and point it to that folder just like you did on your home PC, then sign in to google drive( if it didn't prompt you to already). It will sync automatically and you will have the exact same data (in that folder only), on your home PC, your office PC, and google drive online storage. And you can even install it on your phone if you want, and have the exact same data accessible there too. With multi-way data synchronization, as long as you have an internet connection, you ALWAYS have access to your data.

​@@frankwestphal8532 Hi, thanks for the answer. I already did that on my personal GDrive and it works like a charms. BUT I fill that folder very fast, since it is only a free account with 150GB of space. So I asked my company to buy a paid Drive with 1 TB of space. I tried to do the same thing like before but there is a problem. Since it is company drive multiple person is using the drive, and I dont want to synch other people files. so my question is, is there a way to only synch 1 folder instead the whole google drive? I tried the My computer option on google drive setting preferences. It synch 1 folder only on the google drive, but I cannot find a way to synch that particular folder on my other Computer. Thanks in advance, Cheers from Indonesia. EDIT : wow my comment was 1 year ago??? I was already using the folder for a whole year, that was awesome. Thanks for the your first video tutorial.

Hi, and thank you for watching. Currently there is no way to filter by file type, what is synchronized and what is not. However, you can just create a separate folder on your C:\ drive, then right click and choose "send to desktop create shortcut". Then you can save your mp4 files to that shortcut directly from the desktop, but the actual folder will be on the C:\ drive, so the mp4 files will not be synchronized with google drive. The only way to seperate what is synchronized and what is not, is by folder location.

@@frankwestphal8532 I would like thank you for provided me with a helpful solution. I am grateful for your expertise and willingness to assist me. Thank you!

In the google drive app, there are two tabs up on top. The left tab is the google drive root, or main drive. You can think of it like a system drive on a computer. On the right tab, is the computers. You can think of that like partitions on a drive, or even folders on a system drive. If you select the right hand side tab, you will see the computers that have google drive installed on them. And then you can choose the computer and see the data that is in the google drive on that particular computer. Personally, I like storing on the root of google drive, rather than dividing data between computers. For me, the whole point of google drive is to have the same data on all my devices. So I don't like separating them based on computer, but you can if you want.

I did a OneDrive video as well. And you can do the same thing with google drive. In addition to that, not everyone is using the file sync app in conjunction with the online storage application, so some can only share from the online storage application side. When file sync and cloud storage was new, Google Drive got there first, and because of that it is the most popular cloud storage and file synchronization apps. With that said, I agree, OneDrive does the same thing. I use both, and it's a great way to separate work from personal on the same computer.

@@frankwestphal8532 My bad. I was using windows 11. Turns out the google drive link sharing is on "show more options" windows 10 shows all items immediately in right clicking but windows 11 put it in "show more options". It's sad. But I like google drive now. This is what us designers typically use as well that's why we have to sync it on desktop coz we create project files in desktop. And we want to easily share it to other people if needed. but year in general it was my bad. Google drive is as good as one drive it's just that one drive have the upperhand in utilizing windows since it's on the same ecosystem.

I know exactly how it works, and I don't recommend doing that because most people want the SAME data set on all devices. If you separate your data sets based on computer, you don't see the SAME data on all computers . The whole point of using data sync is to see the SAME data across multiple devices. The way you're using it, is just backup to cloud storage of a single device.... each device has it's own data set. That is not multi way synchronization across multiple devices. And, not everyone wants a bunch of different folders synced. What's easier? Syncing 30 folders, or creating a dedicated folder and syncing that 1 folder? Syncing 1 folder is, and it's also very easy to know what is synced and what is not. Anything that's in the synced folder is synced. Anything that is not in it, is not synced. Very easy. Very reliable. I did professional IT for 10 years. I do not recommend doing it the way you are doing it.