It’s official: the rollout of the new Google Backup and Sync app has deprecated the Google Drive syncing app for PC and Mac.The app, which let users keep their files, photos and other media.
Drive File Stream is a new way to access all of your Google Drive files directly from your Mac or PC, without using up all your disk space. Unlike traditional file sync tools, Drive File Stream doesn’t require you to download your files first in order to access them from your computer. Instead, when you need to view or edit a file, it automatically streams from the cloud, on-demand. With Drive File Stream, your team will spend less time waiting for files to sync, no time worrying about disk space, and more time being productive.
I have recently updated to the new Backup and Sync tool, and I am now having problems with Drive/Photos Storage Size. For background, I upload my photos in ORIGINAL size, and have a huge library, thus my photos come to around 878GB.
To allow for this I therefore have a PAID 1TB subscription. But since updating to the new Backup and Sync, my Storage capacity was suddenly exceeded, and I had to PAY more again to upgrade to the 2TB plan. I have managed to identify my issue however. Since migrating from Google Photos Uploader, to the new 'Backup and Sync' tool, my camera photos are being counted by Google TWICE - it shows 878GB used in 'Google Photos', AND now also shows 900GB used in 'Drive' (878GB of which are the same images already previously backed up/uploaded historically using Google Photos Desktop Uploader).
I have posted three messages in here his last week asking if anyone has any idea how I contact Google Support about this, but with zero success, sadly, hence this new, different post. So can any USERS instead suggest if I am doing something wrong, if they are knowledgeable on the new Backup and Sync tool? To that end my situation, as simple as I can explain it, is as follows. I have 878GB of images already in Google Photos, which I got there by way of the previous Desktop Uploader tool over the years. This tool has now been/is being replaced with the combined 'Backup and Sync Tool'. So using this new replacement tool, I have told it to 'look' to my Camera Photos Folder on my PC as the only folder to monitor in the new 'My Computer' section. This, as best I can tell, is the only/new way to do things now, to upload my ongoing camera photos I shoot, as like I say, the Desktop Uploader tool has been/is being replaced by the new Backup and Sync tool, and this is how it seems you set it up to monitor ongoing new photos for upload.
But, as outlined at the start, having done this, which I believe is the appropriate way to now achieve this aim, Google is instead counting the storage space TWICE, running in now at therefore just under 2TB of storage used. Google should NOT be uploading the images to both Google Photos, AND separately to Drive. Especially as not only is it supposed to detect duplicates anyway (though that's not the real point), but there is only ONE set of images on my actual computer itself in any event! So how are we meant to use the new Backup and Sync tool as the new replacement for the 'desktop photos uploader' tool, if it is going to count your image storage space TWICE, and fail to detect that your image library is ALREADY backed up in Google Photos, and instead re-upload the entire 1TB library all over again, and count the same space then used in Drive as well. Am I doing this wrong (user thoughts is what I am asking for here), or is there a Google problem, in which case despite me not only having paid for a 1TB plan, I have since wrongly paid to upgrade to 2TB because of this, yet I still have zero way of reaching out to Google for help it would seem!!! Emma - Community Specialist 24/7/2017, 2:38 น.
That is my problem. Backup and Sync has DUPLICATED my entire 900GB of images that were already uploaded in Google Photos, since I've moved over to the new Backup and Sync Tool from the older Desktop Photos Uploaded tool. So I have near 2 TERRABYTES of storage used up as a consequence. But I cannot see any way to avoid this User-end wise, because as far as I can tell, I'm adhering to the new process for monitoring and uploading photos going forward. My guess would be that Google is failing here, on not detecting that all 900GB are already in Google Photos, and therefore ignoring them and not syncing them twice. Meanwhile I have to pay for 2TB of storage until I find a way of speaking to Google about it for real.
Victoria - Google Adviser 25/7/2017, 12:14 น. Hi Victoria, Thanks for your help. Could I please ask you to explain in a bit more detail what it is I could try, as I'm not clear on your instructions. Firstly, how does one manually delete 1TB of files from Drive, as I've read many scare stories that say even a few GB take hours and hours to select, due to no proper batch selection process, so a 1TB manual deletion would likely take me weeks and weeks maybe, given how many (few) spare hours in each day I could devote to this task around work. But even then, what do I do next to resolve my issue, as moving forward, our very AIM is to have Drive monitor and Sync my Photos folder moving forward, and you say NOT to turn on Sync again. So I'm unclear what I need to do.
Can you give a bit more detail and I'll give it a go. But again, as our very aim, and indeed the purpose of the new Backup and Sync Tool, is to replace Desktop Folder Uploader, then by design and by definition, we NEED to enable Sync again at some point. So it sounds to me that there is still a huge flaw in the process itself, not my actions, as this is what Google now require me to do to upload/ sync/ monitor my photos folder in the future. Sounds to me that with the move to the new tool, Google forgot that they would need to identify those photos ALREADY uploaded the old fashioned way, and NOT re-upload these ones, or count them towards storage again. So can anyone tell me the correct Work-flow / process, to move from using the older Desktop uploader tool, to the new Backup and Sync Tool instead, WITHOUT Google uploadings your entire 1TB photo library all over again and counting it twice.? Surely someone else must have switched from the older Desktop Upload Tool to the new Backup and Sync tool.? Victoria - Google Adviser 4/8/2017, 13:16 น.
First of all, I need you to specify what 'Desktop Folder Uploader' is, or if you are referring to the Drive Sync Client. Then, when you used the Back up and Sync tool for the first time, it asked you for what folders you wanted to sync from your computer to your drive and the other way around. As it seems like you selected your folder where your photos were stored in your computer, when you already had them in Google Photos, this folder with all the pictures should have been added to Drive as a folder, and not as you have them in Google Photos. What I'm suggesting you to do is to look for this specific folder in your Drive account and delete it (not the photos in your Google Photos account, as this might take weeks and weeks). And when you start using Back up and Sync again, don't sync the folder with your photos in your computer, as these photos are already in the cloud under your Google Photos account. Feel free to take a look at these Help Center articles with more information about how Back up and Sync works: Regards, Victoria. I then set it up in the manner I am led to believe I was supposed to, telling it which folders on my Computer I needed it to continuously monitor, so that my document files continued to be in sync (the Drive element if you will), and also pointed it towards my Photos folder (and all it's sub-folders), where my Photos live on my PC, so that it can monitor this for any new additions, in the same way the old 'Desktop Photos Uploader' from Google used to (so the Google Photos element to this, if you will).
I therefore had to purchase a further 1TB plan to allow functionality, and when I did, and it continued to sync, I was left with the situation where I now have 878GB accounted for as using up 'Google Photos' Storage (as it did, and should), but now also have a problem where it tells me that I am using 923GB of storage in the Drive element of things. And clearly this is the real amount of space used by my documents, together with 878GB of newly added storage used up, which will be my Photos folders, duplicated, as they are already in the cloud in Google Photos. While investigating your case, I've found this information:, as you can see in the article, the Back up and Sync tool will sync your data from your computer to your Drive account. This tool won't replace the tool you use to sync your device with your Google Photos account, as this is a completely separated process. What seems to be your issue, as previously explained, you synced your folder that contained your photos with your Drive account, when these photos were already in your Google Photos account. To resolve it, you need to look for the specific folder in Google Drive, make sure that the location is only under Drive and delete it. To keep on syncing your photos, you'll need to do it through your previous method: Hope this clarifies your doubts.
Greetings, Victoria. I have attached some screenshots to show you what I mean, but just so I am 1000% clear, and I am eternally grateful for your help rest assured, but ' Backup and Sync' is now the one single new application that has been devised by Google to take care of two distinct matters which are namely Drive synchronisation, and Google Photos upload, and indeed every single Google article and every single Google website, whether it be from a drive perspective or whether you visit the Google Photos website first, will only offer this single new combined tool for download. The link I've sent you with the tool to back up your photos mentions 'Back up and Sync' to sync your photos with your Google Drive account (that is what happened to you) but this tool won't sync your photos only with your Google Photos account but also with your Google Drive account too. You need to keep using Google Photos in your mobile devices to sync your photos with your Google Photos account: Have you looked for the specific folder with the photos in your Google Drive account? If so, have you confirmed the if location of it only shows Google Drive? As you can see through this Help Center article, if you delete a folder with photos from your Google Drive account, this won't affect the photos under your Google Photos account: Greetings, Victoria:). If however, you meant finding the actual real folder containing my photos, as a normal folder within Drive, it is not - it isn't there.
There is no such folder in Google Drive I could actually delete anyway. Hence why I feel there is an issue Google's end - it tells me I have 923GB of storage used in DRIVE, and when i click the special option to show what is taking up all that space, it then lists all those photos and videos that way. But there is no way to actually.see. these photos and videos any other way - there is not actual folder containing them listed in Drive (nor do they reside in the root either). Because this flaw has caused 873GB or so of hidden images to appear in my Drive, and therefore the only way to see them is to use the 'Show Storage Quota Used' button (they don't appear anywhere else or any other way, as clearly this is a major Google Bug), then in turn the only way to delete them, is using the Drive Web interface. And it is well documented how even a single 1GB or so can take days to delete that way, if at all - I have nearly ONE TERRABYTE of these bugged hidden files to delete.
That will take years. And can we move this whole thread back to the Google Drive support forum please, as it's clear my issue is with my Drive Storage, not my GSuite Account And as such, it's also more likely that if any other user has also experienced this, they will be in the Drive Support area, not the GSuite one (my issue is absolutely not a GSuite issue itself - it is merely my email address and account type, that put me in the GSuite identification Box.
The problem itself, is a Drive one, as we can now clearly see). Patrick Rice FCMI CIHM MICS 10/8/2017, 11:46 น.