This week we have seen studies from a rising variety of Google Drive customers that the cloud storage service has misplaced months of their information – and now Google has confirmed it is trying into the problem.
Since we reported the Drive challenge yesterday, Google posted a short message in a group help thread to say that it’s “investigating studies of a difficulty affecting a restricted subset of Drive for desktop customers and can comply with up with extra updates.”
We do not but know precisely how small this group is, however on the time of writing, 229 folks have clicked on the message to say “I’ve the identical query,” and the unique help type put up remains to be receiving posts from Drive customers with the identical drawback.
Proper now, Google says it is a sync challenge with the Drive desktop app and has really helpful doing just a few issues whereas it really works on a repair. One is to keep away from clicking ‘Disconnect Account’ within the Drive to desktop app.
One other tip is to keep away from shifting or deleting the app’s information folder in your onerous drive. On Home windows this folder is contained in the person profile (which yow will discover at: %USERPROFILEpercentAppDataLocalGoogleDriveFS), whereas on Mac you discover it within the library folder (~/Library/Software Help/Google /DriveFS). Google’s final non-compulsory tip is to make a replica of this app information folder.
Some Google Drive customers have taken issues into their very own arms with some success. Group discussion board member ‘MatthewSt’ studies fixing the issue utilizing the reasonably convoluted course of that entails rolling Drive again to a earlier model, disabling updates and shifting the ‘backups’ folder within the app information folder to its principal folder.
Whereas this appears to have labored for others, it is clever to attend for Google’s official steering on what to do subsequent. No matter occurs, it is prone to be a critical hit to the fame of one of many greatest cloud storage suppliers on the market – and an excellent reminder of the significance of getting a number of backups.
Evaluation: a well timed reminder about backups
This Google Drive challenge seems to be brought on by the desktop app failing to sync information to the cloud after which shedding (or a minimum of shifting) these native information earlier than they have been uploaded.
Some customers have reported discovering the lacking information in a ‘backup’ folder contained in the app’s native information folder (which Google has instructed making a replica of). However we’ll replace this text when Google points further steering on what to do subsequent.
Regardless of the final resolution is, it is one other reminder that even one of the best cloud storage suppliers aren’t proof against issues—and will by no means be your solely backup plan. As a substitute, a 3-2-1 backup technique is the best way to go. In brief, it means three copies of your information, saved on two several types of media, the place one in all them is saved in a unique bodily location than the opposite two.
This often means combining two native onerous drives with an off-site cloud backup. You can too again up your cloud storage information. For instance, with Google Drive, you possibly can go to Google Takeout, choose the gadgets you wish to again up, and choose ‘create archive’ to get a zipper folder of your information.
Whereas it is slightly late for these affected by the Drive sync challenge to make backups, it is a helpful reminder for all Drive customers to fine-tune their backup plans. In case your information entails pictures and movies, you also needs to try our in-depth information on easy methods to construct the last word picture backup for Adobe Lightroom or Google Photographs.