Prevent Insync from propogating deletes to Google Drive

Feature requests
1

I have a university Google Drive account, which means I get unlimited storage. This also means that I don’t need to delete files on Google Drive, so if I delete file in a synced folder on my computer, I do not want Insync to delete the corresponding file on Google Drive.

How to I prevent Insync from doing this? I also do not want to have to manually specify it for every file, it should just never do it.

1 Like
2

Thanks for the feature request :slight_smile:

We’ll add it to the list but first time I’m hearing of such a request. Do you have friends that treat their Drive account similarly?

Honestly don’t know how prevalent this behavior is for those with unlimited storage.

3

That sounds like one-way sync which I really hope is coming with 2.0.

I like to have a full offline backup of my Google Drive (incl. Google Docs converted to MS Office) in one of my VMs which doesn’t sync back any changes. That way even if something goes wrong (e.g., ransomware encrypting backup files, Insync bug messing up files or creating duplicates) the files on Google Drive are safe.

The difference to OP’s request is probably that with one-way sync, locally deleted folders should be restored immediately with the online version.

1 Like
4

I think @wsander3 wants changes to be also synced so still 2-way. Just doesn’t want the deletes synced.

One-way sync is on the todo list but most likely won’t appear on 2.0 but 2.x.

5

I’m not familiar with one-way sync. Basically, I want it so that when I delete something on my local drive, it doesn’t get deleted on Google Drive. Deletes on Google Drive nor changes on the Google Drive need to be synced back to local machine. Is that one way sync?

The major use case being, if my hard drive fills up I want to be able to clear up not frequently used files, but still have access to them in Google Drive. Basically what GoodSync does, where you check the “Don’t propagate deletes” feature.

I’m surprised to hear that this is the first time this is requested. I made this feature request to the support line back in May, and Gio from Insync responded with “Thanks for the feedback. I’ll let the team know about this feature request :)”

6

I would also like this feature. Using Gdrive with unlimited storage as well, and need to move a drive off my main machine but dont want insync to consider that a remove and delete everything in Gdrive. +1 for one-way sync please

1 Like
7

I use Gdrive for a variety of functions:

It provides a backup and archiving function.
It provides a way of accessing the data remotely.

So, if it were up to me, I would have a bunch of independent settings.

  • Sync new files on my host to google drive
  • Sync new files on google drive to my host
  • When files are deleted from google drive, delete them from my host
  • When files are deleted from my host, delete them from google drive
  • When a file changes on my host, write a new file to google drive with a specified extension (such as .VER.nnn where nnn is the next consecutive three digit number for that file) – or overwrite the old file
  • When a file changes on google drive, write a new file on my drive with a specified extension – or overwrite the old file
  • Specify the number of versions of a file to keep

Of course, all of this should be specified at the directory and subdirectory level.

Ken

8

Right now, you can use the “selectively unsync” context-menu (right-click) option in order to delete the file locally but not remotely.

1 Like
9

I know, but it’s inconvenient to have to do that every time I want to delete something. I just want to trust insync to never delete my stuff.

1 Like
10

I am in a similar situation. If I selectively unsync a folder (or all the folders in a machine) Later I can either delete those or keep them without affecting the synced in the cloud, right?