"Google Drive" as an app is gone and replaced by "Backup and Sync" but Insync is unprepared to follow the paradigm shift

Bugs and issues
#1

“Google Drive” as an app has been discontinued. On Windows, I use Google’s new app “Backup and Sync.” On a second, Linux, machine I am attempting to use Insync to synchronize files between the two machines. Discontinued “Google Drive” (and Insync) work at the root of Drive. “Backup and Sync” does NOT work at the root of Drive, but is now moving files to “Computers-My Computer-Drive.” Insync silently ignores this new paradigm and continues to look only at the root of Drive. Thus Google’s “Backup and Sync” and Insynch are wholly out of sync. I have no way to point to the folder in “Computers-My Computer-Drive” that holds the files of interest.

Am I right that there is no way for Insync to synchronize files in Google’s new paradigm?

#2

Insync should be able to resync your Backup and Sync folder. Upon set up, were you able to select your backup and sync folder to be your main Insync folder?

1 Like
#3

You have the source and sink relationships backwards. As this is a very fundamental concept to syncing, please re-read my original statement in its entirety.

#4

Well, this is going at a break-neck pace. Are you having difficulty with the concept of having a source and a sink?

Source is (I presume) at the root level of GoogleDrive. Sink is what ever folder I designate through installation or the control panel from Insync.

Note that the first (source) is hardwired, I must presume, because you offer no alternatives. And this is where the paradigm shift of Google enters the picture. That is, because Google is no longer supporting Drive, it is replaced by their new app “Backup and Sync.” I would expect this comes as no surprise to a network file syncing company, but I may be wrong given the nature of your lack of response.

This paradigm shift means that using Google’s “Backup and Sync” puts files deeper into a file structure as I note above. This means that the hardwired source Insync uses is orphaned. Insync offers no way to select a source, only a destination folder. Insync doesn’t work.

Of course, I could be wrong about the fundamentals, but of the dozens who have read this thread, no contrary information has been offered.

#5

I think you’re getting confused. backup and sync has 2 functions: Sync (which works as it always has) and backup, which doesn’t. It sounds to me like you’re backing up your computer (which puts the files exactly where you are seeing them - outside of the root folder) rather than syncing your files.
When you setup Backup and sync, the folders you select on the first step (choose folders to continuously backup to google drive) are backed up but don’t become part of the sync process - the second step (Sync files from my drive to a folder on this computer) selects which google drive files / folders are synced to the computer, which is exactly as it has always worked.
In short, there’s no paradigm shift with backup and sync but rather additional functionality to backup any folder on your computer to google drive, but these backed up folders aren’t available to sync to another machine even with Google’s native client

4 Likes