Is it possible to use Google Drive reliably?

maxprime@lemmy.ml to Linux@lemmy.ml – 56 points –

I've been using Google Drive in Windows for about a decade and have a good workflow. I recently transitioned to Linux but cannot seem to reliably connect my drive to the filesystem. My work provides unlimited Drive space and since it's for work I have shared directories with coworkers that I need access to every day. Hence, I'm kind of tied to GDrive.

Is there a reliable method of doing this? Rclone seems to be what I want but it seems to disconnect regularly, and often doesn't upload the changes I make which defeats the purpose.

Do Linux users just not use Drive?

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And you just know that the tools to access Google Drives natively in Linux must already exist and have been in use internally at Google for a decade, but Alphabet can't figure out how to profit so we'll never see it.

If you use GNOME DE you go to the online accounts dialog, click Google and setup with your credentials, it adds GDrive to Nautilus, integrates gmail and calendar into evolution client.

Came here to say the same. Works pretty damn well too. I also have mine connected to a Nextcloud sever because I'm trying to ditch the big G

yeah, I am hoping thry add Proton Drive account to that list of online services

Seafile would be sick too, but very unlikely. They have a SeaDrive client, but it's not quite as nicely integrated as the Gnome stuff.

Yeah I have the seadrive setup also. But GNOME accounts is very well done

Not gonna happen since Proton is all encrypted.

That is why you give your credentials in the online accounts section. proton made an email bridge, no reason they can't bridge an encypted drive

No but they won't

Do you work for them; To know?They have slowly matched googles offerings and offer linux integration. User suggestions/pressure can direct their efforts. Many of us have dumped Google for Proton. They announced desktop app for Windows and MacOS

https://proton.me/blog/proton-drive-windows

And there is a feature request started for Linux

No, I've just been a customer for several years. Development is slow and things like this are simply not a priority. They're not even a little close to matching Google.

Dev is slow because they release a good User experience, rather than buggy junk. Linux seems to be 3rd on their list but it comes eventually. Per the link you can use Windows or Mac sync now. Don't forget google had a long head start and almost unlimited devs.

Dev is slow because they release a good User experience, rather than buggy junk

The reason is irrelevant. It wasn't a criticism, just an observation.

Linux seems to be 3rd on their list but it comes eventually.

No, they have almost no Linux support. Most things have to be done in the browser. When there is Linux support, it is extremely basic.

Per the link you can use Windows or Mac sync now.

Cool. Doesn't help Linux users.

Don't forget google had a long head start and almost unlimited devs.

See point 1.

There was a long podcast interview with the CEO where he basically said Linux is and will continue to be looked over due to increased development costs and very low adoption.

Actually their pages say it is hard to find Linux devs for desktop, and that is why it is slow. And there is already a proton drive API you can use with rclone on linux.

And as far as critisim you said specifically not as good as google, so I provide a reason why. you can't then change you tact and say it wasn't critism whenvyou do a compare. It will come, things take time. You seem to keep moving goal posts here so have a good rest of your week.

I am using rclone with Linux, and works just fine. Just long term backups, but it runs the same speed (slow) as windows-to-proton.

Anyway, point being rclone works!

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Actually their pages say it is hard to find Linux devs for desktop, and that is why it is slow.

Again, the reason is irrelevant. The point is, it ain't happening.

And as far as critisim you said specifically not as good as google, so I provide a reason why. you can't then change you tact and say it wasn't critism

That's not "changing tact". It's not as good as Google from a user perspective. That doesn't mean it doesn't have it's own merits. I pay for a Proton subscription rather than use a free, much more fully-featured Google one, so I obviously understand the value proposition. I also understand it's shortcomings.

You seem to keep moving goal posts here so have a good rest of your week.

I don't suppose you want to elaborate on what goal posts I've supposedly moved?

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Are applications able to write directly to the directory this mounts to? Could Codium add this folder?

It shows in the Mounts section of nautilus, for apps that don't recognize that you may have to go to /run/media/username/mount if it doesn't show up in the Other section of file pickers

I use KDE and I don't think there's something similar, or am I mistaken?

Thru the networks tab on dolphin. Maybe youll need to install some plugin too. But it works fine.

I'm not aware of what is available for KDE. i didn't see it when I tried KDE, but maybe somebody has successfully used the packages to setup something similar

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Not free, but I have been using Insync for years and it works well. $30 one time cost, but worth it.

This is what I use. Though I got my email wrong and had to buy it twice...

I got a free key from a friend and insync has always worked well for me

My google drive is just a special folder on my file explorer. My account is configured with the system account manager. It shows me all my Drive files and when I want to open one it automatically downloads and opens the file seamlessly as if it were in my PC. If I create, move or change folders, add new files, etc. It automatically syncs it with my Drive.

This is on Linux Mint with Cinnamon DE.

I use Gnome but Cinnamon and Gnome are not that different in that topic IIRC. I have to mount the remote folder via file manager (Nautilus) then I can access the files in Code.

Can you open Drive files in Codium?

My guess is no, since the folder is a magical protocol address that I assume VScode/codium wouldn't understand for they insist on handling the directory hierarchy directly. Haven't really troubleshoot that workflow though. I use exclusively Git with GitHub/GitLab. So there's no need for GDrive with an IDE for me. My Drive is exclusively for personal files which most other Linux-as-a-first-class-citizen applications (LibreOffice, PDF readers, photo viewers and editors) just use as the OS gives it to them without issue.

ADD: I would imagine there's an additional complication depending on whether Codium is running from repository or Flatplak.

Yeah

Hmm. It’s not working in Manjaro for me. Is it as easy as just opening any other folder? I have Drive added in KDE and can see my files but I cannot add a folder from drive in Codium.

I'm not sure about kde sorry-- I'm using it in fedora w/gnome

I've used it in the past with rclone, just mounting it with a systemd service on boot, and treating it like another folder on the system. Does it give you any logs as to why its not connecting right?

That seems strange regarding rclone. I've used that with success with G drive, backblaze B2, and I drive e2. Any errors or logs you can see?

Is gcs-fuse not suitable? I haven't used this but I would guess that it works fairly well.

It appears that this only supports Google Cloud storage buckets, not Google Drive

My bad, you are correct. For some reason I misread.

There is google-drive-ocamlfuse. Personally, even though the article recommends rclone, I would have started with ocamlfuse; something about the whole interaction with rclone seems flaky-sounding to me (the fact that it's not just fuse commands, but this whole other tool you have to interact with for doing stuff like 'ls' just seems weird). But like I say I have no real experience to be sharing; this is just me searching + sending to you.