Google drive: Shortcuts replacing files and folders stored in multiple locations

#21

Hi @mia, any news from your engineers?
This is getting quite frustrating, one of the directories I use a lot has been converted to a link, so I cannot access the contents anymore unless I do it from the web browser.

Cris

#22

Hi @Cris70,

We are still investigating our approach on this because the changes that Google is deploying is out of our control at the moment.:persevere: In the meantime, are you able to see those files (that were converted into links) in its original location (ie Shared with me)?

#23

Thank you @mia for your reply.
You’re correct, I can see them in “Shared with me”, thank you!

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#24

That’s great @Cris70! You may sync those files from Shared with me in the meantime. :slight_smile: I appreciate you!

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#25

This just happened to me as well. I have to re-download and upload about 10 Terabytes -such a mess and who knows what i may have lost and what nightmares it’s going to be to revive old video projects that reference hundreds of different files from different places on my (previously sync’ed) drive. Unbelievable.

#26

If there is a class action suit against Google for this, someone please let me know. This has greatly affected my business. :rage:

#27

Google seem to specialise in giving away free tech and then removing it after a few years. I used to follow blogs with Reader but Google took it over and closed it down and said use Google+. The took over Blogger and made it automatically advertise my posts on Google+ and let people comment there instead of on my blog. Then they got rid of Google+, so all those comments are gone.

I used to edit photos with Picasa but they withdrew that. I used to use Backup and Sync but they got rid of that, which is why I use Insync but I expect they will eventually stop that from working.

#28

Here is the location of where I think you can disable this. Unfortunately there’s no way to undo changes that have already been implemented though.

Shortcut-toggle-location
Shortcut-toggle-location1892×602 70.2 KB

Go to https://admin.google.com/ac/accountchooser, then open sidebar on the left (click the 3 line menu icon), click on Apps --> Google Workspace --> Settings for Drive and Docs --> Upcoming changes to My Drive. This is what Google Workspace support told me to switch to ‘don’t create shortcuts’. If I’m misunderstanding this though, please let me know. It’s very confusing to me as to what exactly this setting does and I wonder if I was misguided by their support.

#29

I don’t think I have an admin account for a private Google Drive, do I?

#30

Oh, maybe I have access to this because I have a Gsuite account?

#31

Yes I think that must be the case.

#32

My Experience has been rather more traumatic. The shared document in question was a folder. The new folder was converted into a shortcut and when my macbook started up after the conversion, all the document in the folder were moved to the bin both on the mac book and in google drive.

Important advice - when restoring from the google drive bin - do this in small batches. The first few small batches worked fine and were recovered but when I selected the full list and chose to restore all I was left with significant omissions in google drive.

The result is I have had to restore from local file backups which mean I’ve currently lost all the editing history for all the documents and they have all been converted to office format permanently. I have raised a support ticket but I don’t think Mara from Insync realises the scale of the loss of data I feel has occurred.

#33

@Bruce_Heather Hi! Could you please send the following to the existing thread you have with Mara:

  • logs.db
  • out.txt
  • live folder
  • data folder
  • an example of a file or folder name that got affected

Follow this guide to locate your logs: https://help.insynchq.com/en/articles/1834816-locating-the-log-files

Thank you!

#34

Inability to sync shared Google Drive folders renders Insync relatively useless. Any update on this issue?

#35

Hi @miking,

Thank you for reaching out! This forums thread mainly discusses Insync not syncing Google Drive shortcuts (not a supported feature). It still very much supports syncing shared Google Drive files/folders from its original location (i.e., Shared with me and Shared Drives). Happy to answer any other questions or concerns you may have!

#36

Hi @mia - thanks for pointing me in the direction of Shared Drives - that will probably suffice.

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