Google Drive is a decent service on its own, but one aspect of it is absolutely awful: the desktop sync client for Mac and Windows. ‘Backup and Sync’, as it has been called since 2017, is so buggy and slow that it makes Cyberpunk 2077 look like a flawless creation. Finally, Google is phasing out the customer in favor of the synchronization software developed for G Suite customers.
Google wrote in a blog post: ‘We have two synchronization solutions available – Drive File Stream, built for business users, and Backup and Sync, built for consumer users. Some of our Google Workspace customers have both deployed synchronization solutions, which can be confusing for end users and challenging for IT departments to manage. To address this, we plan to unite these sync clients later in 2021, bringing the most widely used features of Drive File Stream and Backup and Sync to all our users. “
Google Drive File Stream on Mac
Google plans to eventually replace the current Backup and Sync application with File Stream, which G Suite customers have been using for several years now. Unlike Backup and Sync, which downloads and keeps all your selected folders in sync, File Stream displays your files as empty aliases that are only downloaded when an application wants to open them (similar to how OneDrive and Dropbox work by default). You can still mark files or folders for offline access, and last year Google began giving regular Gmail accounts access to File Stream.
For now, Google File Stream is renaming to ‘Google Drive for Desktop’, and the company is starting work on an upgraded version with some features transferred from Backup and Sync. Some of the planned changes are set out in the beta test application:
We bring Backup and Sync features to Google Drive for desktops to create a simpler user experience. New features on Google Drive for computers include syncing folders like Documents or Desktop or Drive storage, uploading from USB devices, uploading photos and videos to Google Photos or Google Drive, and support for multiple accounts.
It will be interesting to see if Google can provide a good sync client for both personal and G Suite accounts, or if the ultimate replacement will be just as bad as Backup and Sync. Personally, I also hold out hope for a Linux client.