back to article Google to kill its Drive file locker in two confusing ways

Google is killing its “Drive” sync 'n' share file locker in two ways. For users of Google's G Suite customers, death will come in the form of a new desktop application called “Drive File Stream” that does pretty much everything Drive does now, but which Google says “allows you to quickly access all of your Google Drive files …

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        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          "I don't consider a bigger M2 SSD cheap"

          Use a cheaper technology.

          As a professional you should be aware that speed/cost (or speed/capacity which amounts to the same thing for a given level of budget) ratio comes in a series of tiers. SSD introduced another tier, the others, by and large*, still remain.

          * A few have disappeared but but the HDD isn't one of them.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            USB sticks.

            As long as you also have a backup. Why are you not using a massive usb stick? At usb 3.0, is it going to be both cheaper than a new SSD, and quicker than online access? Even if slower loading (say usb 2.0 or a slow chip), it can be accessed offline.

            Backups/online sync can still be done, and could be done direct to the stick.

            I do this with my phone, 32gb sd-card, synced with dropbox, and no worries on space/time uploading/downloading and backups (in theory, I have it synced on all my devices, and I manually backup to archives once in a while).

          2. Naselus

            " A few have disappeared but but the HDD isn't one of them."

            15k rpm spinning rust begs to differ.

            HDD was actually 3 tiers; Flash has firmly killed 2 of them. All 15k rpm use cases were replaced by SSD. All 10k use cases were replaced by hybrid SSHDs with slower rust and a flash cache. Only 7.2k remains, though it's quite likely to be with us for decades yet.

      1. heyrick Silver badge
        Stop

        "Being able to select what to "pin" locally and what to access on demand is useful."

        I wouldn't touch a device that either didn't have an uSD card (preferred) or couldn't talk to one via a reader and the USB OTG.

        Why? I live in the country. 3G coverage in the middle of a muddy field can often outpace my wired broadband, but the data allocation is not unlimited. Plus, there have been enough stories of miscreants buggering around with DNS in recent times, not to mention cloudy services themselves falling over from time to time.

        The cloud, for me, is useful as an easy way to scoot information between machines, especially if they are geographically separated by more than the range of a WiFi signal or Cat5 cable... but as a place to keep my documents and photos? What, are you insane? My private documents/photos are private by virtue of being on my uSD card in my possession, where they can be inserted into the device of choice and ALL immediately available instantly as I need them. Backups are quick and simple device-to-device and don't rely on a ~80K/sec up channel (with a tailwind and the moon waning gibbous). Plus, did I mention it was instant? Better than this, it even works in places where there is NO connectivity whatsoever. Maybe these bloody devs in Silly Valley have no idea what it's like, but trust me. Autumn rain of the European style, and Right Proper Forests of oaks and firs, they are like portable Bermuda Triangles when it comes to connectivity...

        [you know, there is a cynical part of me that wonders if Google's push to keep trying to destroy SD card support in Android [thankfully ignored by Samsung] is in part due to their desire to promote "The Cloud"? Their Cloud, of course...]

        1. phuzz Silver badge

          I assume that anything I have an electronic copy of isn't a private document any more, no matter where I store it.

    1. phuzz Silver badge

      I have some things in Gdrive that i need on my phone (pdfs of tickets etc.), but I don't want all of it on my phone, so being able to pick what's downloaded is useful to me. Equally there's things I need access to at work (like my folder full of useful scripts that I take and repurpose), but I don't need any of the music I have on there.

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Meh

    I dont get it....

    I dont understand. I've read the article, and I know it's Monday, but I cant see Google's angle here. They seem to be taking something inherently simple and complicating it....I'm suspicious.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: I dont get it....

      What's to be suspicious about? This is SOP for all large shitware makers these days. Making it complicated is what ALL the cool kids are doing!

    2. CRConrad
      Facepalm

      Re: I dont get it....

      What's so complicated?

      If they change from syncing just one folder to any folder you nominate, and that's too complex for you... Isn't the obvious soution to just not nominate any other folders, and go on using it as you always have, with that single old folder the only one to be synced? It doesn't MAKE you set up any other folder, does it?

  2. Tigra 07
    Facepalm

    Madness...

    Give it a year and Google will create another storage service to compete directly with these two.

    They do this for everything. Android has how many Google chat apps now? Hangouts, Allo, Messages, Duo, Google+, Hangouts Dialer, Hangouts Meet...

    What was wrong with adding extra features behind a paywall for businesses in the same app?

    1. CRConrad

      Have I missed something?

      Since when is Google+ a chat app?

  3. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    Time to Migrate?

    I guess OneDrive is now looking more attractive. You can't keep jerking users around like this and expect them to stick around for another kick in the face next year. This is Google - this change will "update" in about 3-6 months, hang around for another couple of years and then migrate elsewhere.

    1. fattybacon

      Re: Time to Migrate?

      It needs something to be more attractive. At the moment it looks like Bella Emberg hit with a frying pan. My PC is in a constant tussle to trying to kill the Windows 10-built-in OneDrive to allow the company's One Drive for Business also overcome the different One Drive that comes with Office 2016. Good times.

      1. Adrian 4

        Re: Time to Migrate?

        Or you could go back to the scheme where you provide your own services, change them exactly when and how you like, and get away from vendors (free or paid) who have their own agenda that's based on stretching you as far as they can while still just retaining your custom.

      2. fobobob

        Re: Time to Migrate?

        A pain I know all too well :L

    2. ecofeco Silver badge
      Gimp

      Re: Time to Migrate?

      OneDrive will NEVER be "attractive."

    3. ckm5

      Re: Time to Migrate?

      AWS, Rackspace or Backblaze would be better choices....

  4. Phil A.

    It's really not that complicated

    The article title is more confusing than Google's changes IMO!

    Firstly, Google Drive isn't going anywhere - it's still available and will continue to be available.

    What is being deprecated is old Google Drive **client** and it's being replaced by a new app which combines the functionality of the old drive client and photos upload client and adds additional functionality which allows you to backup any folder on your PC to Google Drive (it appears in drive on the web under a new Computers tab).

    The old "sync folders to a google drive folder" functionality is absolutely still there and works exactly as it always has

    If you're not a G Suite user that's it - same functionality with some additional functionality added on top

    If you're a G Suite user then it's a bit more complicated (but not massively so) - you can either use the new backup and sync client and carry on as you always have or you can use the Drive File Stream client which adds support for Team Drives (the only way you can sync them to your computer is to use the Drive File Stream client) (or, if you really want to, you can use both together)

    Drive File Stream shows your entire drive and any team drives under a new disk (G: by default on windows) and will download files on demand with caching for frequently used files.

    In addition, you can make selected files or folders available offline in which case they're synced to your machine. This is pretty much what OneDrive did in Windows 8 before MS decided it was too useful and canned the functionality!

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: It's really not that complicated

      So bottom line, Drive as it is will remain?

  5. deadlockvictim

    Is this the El Reg that we know and love?

    An article about G-Suites and not one pun, joke or even reference to g-spots?

    There wasn't even any internal rhyming in the headline or subhead for that matter.

    Is this the El Reg that we know and love?

  6. ridley

    Team Drives

    Google Drive File Stream is a far better solution for users of Google Suite For Education now that "Team Drives" are available. It would be impractical to use Google Drive for PC/Mac* as the amount of syncing going on would be very cumbersome and it would be very likely that you would run out of local storage.

    I really cannot see why they are not making File Stream available for everyone, it works very well.

    *Besides Google Drive for PC was a huge bandwidth/CPU/Memory hog when syncing.

  7. iron Silver badge

    English? Simon Sharwood has heard of it

    It's just a shame he wouldn't pass an exam on the subject. Take these examples:

    "Any data you have in Drive is absolutely not going away just because the app of the same name will soon deceased." - Missing the word "be."

    "Backup and Sync is already-available app that does what it says on the can" - An article would be nice.

    "Again, data's not going anywhere." - What belongs to the data? Again an article would be useful and might have prevented the apostrophe disaster.

    I expect better of someone who is supposed to be an editor.

    1. David Nash Silver badge
      Headmaster

      Re: English? Simon Sharwood has heard of it

      "Again, data's not going anywhere." - What belongs to the data? Again an article would be useful and might have prevented the apostrophe disaster."

      Actually this one is fine. It's a contraction of "Data is" in much the same way that "it's" is at the beginning of this sentence.

      1. dajames
        Headmaster

        Re: English? Simon Sharwood has heard of it

        Actually this one is fine. It's a contraction of "Data is" ...

        Fine unless, of course, you believe that "data" is a plural.

        1. David 132 Silver badge

          Re: English? Simon Sharwood has heard of it

          Fine unless, of course, you believe that "data" is a plural.

          Obligatory XKCD

  8. Tigra 07
    Thumb Down

    We've seen this before from Google...

    2017: Google launches Backup & Sync to duplicate Drive functions

    2018: Google launches Google Locker

    2019: Google launches Google File Storage

    2020: Google launches Google+ Drive

    2021: Google launches Google Cloud

    2022: Google launches Google+ Cloud

    2023: Google shuts down all File storage apps due to lack of users

  9. 27escape
    FAIL

    Linux client

    As ever, only useful on the desktop to windows and mac types, lets hope rclone and insync keep working as alternatives

    1. Criminny Rickets

      Re: Linux client

      Dropbox works really well on my Linux Mint box.

  10. Test Man

    Don't know why people are confused (including the author) - Google Drive isn't going anywhere. The APP is - it's been retired for either Backup & Sync (for consumers) or Drive File Sync (for G Suite customers). G Suite customers can't download it willy nilly - their admin will turn it on so that it's either pushed to their machines or it can be installed from the usual Google shortcuts (top-right of most Google pages).

    Most people (ie the general public) don't ever need to worry about the latter.

    1. David Nash Silver badge

      "Don't know why people are confused (including the author) - Google Drive isn't going anywhere. The APP is"

      Is the APP called Google Drive too? In which case that would be where the confusion comes from.

  11. ecofeco Silver badge
    FAIL

    More shitware

    Why did they have to change it? What's the fucking point? And why not a clear and logical update?

    More shitware.

    1. Tigra 07
      Thumb Down

      Re: More shitware

      Google hires multiple departments working in the dark and competing with each other. Judging from the amount of chat apps they must have at least 5 departments duplicating work of others.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: More shitware

        I'm pretty sure that each of these whatevers are all side projects that you work on your own research time. Chat is, truly, a common aspiration so no surprise that there are at least 5 people, or teams, working on that alone.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This is what you get with cloud

    "We're changing the way things work and you just have to lump it. You'll have to throw away all that training you've just done and train people the "new" way".

    Balls to cloud.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Balls to cloud.

      ""We're changing the way things work and you just have to lump it. You'll have to throw away all that training you've just done and train people the "new" way"."

      Hmmm. I can think of another software company that got itself a reputation for doing that. And the products involved weren't cloudy products. Name escapes me at the moment...

  13. davenewman

    Use Insync instead

    Some time ago I switched to using Insync to synchronise selected folders on my PC to Google Drive. It works much better than the rudimentary downloadable client that Google supplies. And Insync works under Windows, OSX and Linux.

  14. x 7

    I use Google Drive / Google Apps as if they're a virtual PC with everything hosted remotely.

    I don't synch anything locally - I access it online from whatever piece of kit I have in front of me, which often isn't mine. I don't want any of the files stored locally - I want / need it all to be 'in the cloud'

    Is this going to affect my ability to do this?

    Or should I switch to Microsoft's alternative?

  15. nickx89

    Didn't understand.

    Didn't quite get it, I use OneDrive for all my needs.

  16. Pete 39
    WTF?

    Error 500

    500. That’s an error.

    There was an error. Please try again later. That’s all we know.

    =========================

    Above is all I see when trying to access my Google Drive folders, via the web interface, this evening. Co-incidence or...

  17. hellwig

    Just Cache the whole damn thing

    If I tell backup and synch to download everything, I have a "Drive" (application) replacement, right? So I guess this doesn't affect me, good.

    The issue is this statement in the article: “allows you to quickly access all of your Google Drive files on demand, directly from your computer, meaning you use almost none of your hard drive space and spend less time waiting for files to sync.”

    How can it not use hard drive space but also spend less time synching? I assume it only means "synching" as in "I uploaded 5GB of files to Drive via PC A, now I have to wait for those to download to PC B".

    Because I can guarantee you that if you're normally used to all files being locally available, having to try to pull-down a previously unloaded presentation in front of management or customers, you WILL notice the wait time.

    And how will it save disk space in the long run? Won't I eventually cache most things if I choose to use them? Will it eventually decide it's smarter than me and deletecleanup my local offline cache? How could it possibly know what I'll need the next time I'm offline (for that matter, can I even know that)?

    Seems if I wanted to think about managing my Drive files 10x more than I already do, this is a great update. Otherwise, this is Google Drive trying to be something it's not.

  18. fobobob

    Precisely the kind of stuff why i've never become heavily invested in any of Google's (often potentially very useful, for shame...) offerings... it seems like if it's not ads, search or e-mail, it's basically ephemeral; those last two might as well exist to support the former, so I guess we'll see how it plays out when those start to be outmoded.

  19. David Gillies

    It doesn't work on Linux without a lot of grunting and squealing so it's de facto broken. Dropbox works like a charm.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    SSHFS

    I've been meaning to try out OwnCloud and FreeNAS as well, but SSHFS is reasonably secure and easy. If you have a reasonably fast connection at home, punch a hole in your router to allow remotely mounting a filesystem via SSHFS. Works fine for streaming music, and allows full access to stuff I don't want to pollute a work machine with.

    For a GDrive/Dropbox/etc replacement, try Sync.com. 5GB initial account, but easy to get rewards. Encryption-heavy (key-based, fully held by user), privacy-minded, servers hosted in Canada (though I'd be surprised if the NSA hasn't tapped that - NSA data fetish > 4th amendment or international law).

  21. Shane McCarrick

    I have a 200Gb drive- which I paid handsomely for- I take it I'm going to get a polite e-mail in due course advising me to backup locally............

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