Here are common questions for admins who manage Google Drive for an organization, about streaming or syncing Drive files to users' devices.
Questions
Expand section | Collapse all & go to top
How does Google Drive sync files?To learn more about how Google Drive for desktop syncs files, go to Use Google Drive for desktop.
With Drive for desktop, your Drive files are moved to the cloud, freeing up disk space and eliminating the network bandwidth needed to keep all your files synced from your computer to the cloud. You can stream Drive files on demand, or make them available for offline access.
With Drive for desktop, files are stored in the cloud and don’t need to sync with online versions, saving network bandwidth. Files that are cached for offline access will sync back to the cloud when you’re online.
Files deleted from Drive for desktop will be purged from the system trash after 30 days.
The Drive for desktop content cache supports connected APFS (macOS), HFS+ (macOS), or NTFS (Windows) file systems. Drive for desktop currently doesn’t support network volumes (for example, SMB or NFS).
Drive for desktop creates a virtual Drive, which appears as a FAT file system.
Note: FAT has some file size limitations. For example, the largest possible file for a FAT32 drive is 4GB (minus 2 bytes).
- You can’t upload a folder larger than the available storage in the partition where the cache folder is located.
- Drive for desktop will show a limited Drive quota (even for unlimited accounts), according to the available space in the local drive where the cache is located.
Furthermore, if you try to drag a .gdoc or .gsheet file from your desktop into a shared drive in your browser, you will see the error message "Can’t duplicate filename.gdoc.” Instead, to add a file to a shared drive, use a web browser and follow these instructions.
