Google Drive - Syncing Single Folders

blankguitarist

I've been using Google Drive for a few months now, and what I've been doing is regularly copying folders from My Documents into my Google Drive folder manually, and then allowing them to sync online.

I'm just wondering is there a way of selecting a folder, for example C:/users/username/mydocuments/college and having it sync automatically, rather than the click and drag approach? It would be easier and it would mean I don't have to have duplicates of existing files on my hard drive.

I know this is possible by changing the location of My Documents to the Google Drive folder, but I don't want to do this as it will take up more of my free space on Google Drive than I want to, seeing as I only want to back up my very important files online.

28064212

Not possible with Google Drive. Two possible options, depending on what suits:

1. Create a task to run on a schedule (say once a day) to copy everything you need to Google Drive
2. Use SugarSync. Like Google Drive, it has a folder you can copy to that is automatically kept in sync. However, it also allows you to select any folder on your computer to be automatically uploaded. Starts with 5GB of storage, and if you use the link above to sign up, you get an extra 500MB (full disclosure - so do I). It's also pretty easy to earn an extra 750MB by completing a few tasks (like installing it on your mobile, pretty handy too)

darren2368

blankguitarist wrote: »

I've been using Google Drive for a few months now, and what I've been doing is regularly copying folders from My Documents into my Google Drive folder manually, and then allowing them to sync online.

I'm just wondering is there a way of selecting a folder, for example C:/users/username/mydocuments/college and having it sync automatically, rather than the click and drag approach? It would be easier and it would mean I don't have to have duplicates of existing files on my hard drive.

I know this is possible by changing the location of My Documents to the Google Drive folder, but I don't want to do this as it will take up more of my free space on Google Drive than I want to, seeing as I only want to back up my very important files online.

Well technically there is. You can work from your Google drive folder, which is what I do. Move your college folder to Google drive and then stay working in that folder, don't work of the one on your C drive. That way your work is automatically being synced constantly and you won't have to drag and drop a thing

blankguitarist

darren2368 wrote: »

Well technically there is. You can work from your Google drive folder, which is what I do. Move your college folder to Google drive and then stay working in that folder, don't work of the one on your C drive. That way your work is automatically being synced constantly and you won't have to drag and drop a thing

I had considered that, but it'll mean I can't access the college folder through My Documents as easy as I can at the moment. I know that sounds stupid, but I'm a total creature of habit when it comes to my computer, might be an option if the task thing doesn't work out though :P

What does setting up a task involve? I've never come across it before, but it sounds like it could be a good option. I don't want to move from Google Drive because I like having it linked in with my Gmail account.

Thanks for the quick replies lads.

28064212

blankguitarist wrote: »

What does setting up a task involve? I've never come across it before, but it sounds like it could be a good option

Assuming your using Windows Vista or later, you would need to write a batch file (.bat). An example would be:

robocopy "C:\users\username\Documents\College" "C:\Users\username\Documents\Google Drive" /MIR

Then use Windows' "Task Scheduler" to set it up to run every so often. That robocopy command is pretty versatile in that it "mirrors" the first directory to the second. So if you run it, delete a file from College, and run it again, robocopy will delete the file from Google Drive as well.

The downside of this approach is that it's not real-time. You could technically schedule the task to run every minute, but that would be fairly resource intensive

blankguitarist wrote: »

I don't want to move from Google Drive because I like having it linked in with my Gmail account..

Why limit yourself? Between Google Drive, SugarSync, and DropBox, I have 21.88GB of free online space

darren2368

blankguitarist wrote: »

I had considered that, but it'll mean I can't access the college folder through My Documents as easy as I can at the moment. I know that sounds stupid, but I'm a total creature of habit when it comes to my computer, might be an option if the task thing doesn't work out though :P

What does setting up a task involve? I've never come across it before, but it sounds like it could be a good option. I don't want to move from Google Drive because I like having it linked in with my Gmail account.

Thanks for the quick replies lads.

If you've downloaded the Google drive application you can. Do you upload them through your web browser?