Can You Download Google Drive On Mac

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Best data sync app for Mac

Go to the Google Fonts website and click on the font that you want to install. Open the drawer at the bottom of the screen. Click the 'Download' icon on the upper right corner of the selection drawer. The file will be saved as a zip drive.

Your data synced and secure with ChronoSync Express.

Google's G Suite has become an incredibly popular collection of productivity apps, similar to Microsoft Office. For a free text processor, it's hard to beat Google Docs for Mac and other G Suite products. You can use even use Google Drive offline to store documents, change numbers with Google Sheets offline, or add an image to your presentation with Google Slides offline. When you make edits without internet connectivity, the changes you made will automatically update the next time your device is able to sync with the web.

You should always sign into your Google Docs when you don't have a stable internet connection if you need to make any changes to your files, but how do you do this? If you're wondering how to edit Google Docs offline, there is indeed a way to launch your files without any WiFi.

Get the toolkit for offline productive

Google Drive quietly creates a place for it on the left sidebar of Finder and all the files and folders can be accessed from this location. Files carry the familiar icons from the web app with a tiny mark indicating whether the file is up to date or if sync is underway. To answer your question, yes, you can backup your mac to Google Drive using Backup and Sync:-Mac. To download and install Backup and Sync, click Download Backup. Migrating videos from Google Drive to iMovie on Mac is easy. To do so, you need to first download videos from your Google Drive account to Mac and then import videos into iMovie. Once you imported videos into iMovie, you can edit, create trailers and beautiful movies at a stunning 4K resolution. You can even start editing on iPhone or iPad.

Setapp is 170+ different ways to stay productive on Mac. From offline text editors to backup tools, keep everything in one spot

Learn To Offline Sync Google Docs, Sheets, And Slides

As Safari is the default browser on Macs, before you can use Google Docs offline, you need to make Google Chrome the default one instead. Without making this change, an offline attempt to open a document, edit Google Sheets offline, or a Google Slides offline file will lead to an error page. Changing your default browser is easy (make sure you have Google Chrome installed first):

  1. In the Apple Menu, choose System Preferences

  2. Select the General icon

  3. In the 'Default web browser' section, select Google Chrome

By switching your default browser, Chrome will launch each time you open a URL on your Mac. More importantly, once you've made Chrome the default browser, you can set up your Google Drive to offline sync Google Docs and enable offline editing of Google Docs too.

Manage Google Docs Offline extension

Once Google Chrome is your default, you'll be able to sync your Google Drive files to your Mac using Google Docs Offline extension. You can then use Google Docs without internet and access your most relevant documents for offline viewing and editing. If you've been asking yourself how to enable offline editing of Google Docs, installing the Chrome extension is the right first step: Install git mac osx.

  1. In Chrome, download and install the Google Docs Offline extension

  2. Follow the directions and sign into your Google account

  3. In your My Drive page, select the gear icon in the upper-right corner

  4. Choose Settings

  5. Select General from the list

  6. Check the box beside Sync Google Docs, Sheets, Slides & Drawings

  7. Click Done

How to turn on offline sync on Google Docs

Now all the files within Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides should be available within your Chrome browser without the need for a WiFi connection. But you also need them on your Mac. To access G Suite files from your computer, download the personal version of Backup and Sync for Google Drive.

  1. Open Backup and Sync in the Applications folder

  2. Sign into your Google account

  3. Select the option to save files directly to Google Drive

  4. Check the box beside Sync My Drive to this computer and click Start

Your online files will be downloaded to a Google Drive folder on your Mac. Even better, any future files you add to your Google Drive will automatically download to your computer as well. But before you complete a Google Docs offline sync, don't forget to make sure you have enough available space on your hard drive (or other device) to save your files!

How to work on Google Docs offline from your Finder

To easily access your Google Docs offline, you can launch files directly from your Mac's Finder. But first download Google Drive for Mac onto your machine. Once done:

  1. Launch Google Drive from Applications

  2. Sign in with your Google account information. By default, Google Drive will add its folder under your home directory.

  3. Select which folders within Google Drive will sync automatically

  4. Choose whether to have Google Drive launch every time your Mac starts up

Now, a Google Drive folder will be available in your Finder sidebar, so you can effortlessly share documents and files between your Mac and your cloud-enabled Google Drive. When you download Google Drive for Mac, anything you add into your Google Drive folder will be available online as well.

How to make a Google Doc available offline

Once you've completed Google Docs offline sync and your Google Drive files are available on your Mac, you can access them directly through Finder. For some users, it may still be easier to access files from drive.google.com though. No problem. With a new Google feature, you can see which of your files are available in Google Drive offline mode. To turn this on, enable a setting that shows file's offline capability:

  1. Access your Google Drive via drive.google.com

  2. Select Settings and click General

  3. Select Sync Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawing files

Once the setting is enabled, you'll see an offline icon that tells you which files have been saved on your local drive. You can also switch the toggle to 'Offline preview' to display the documents that are available for viewing and editing without the internet connection. Documents and files not accessible offline will turn gray.

To help you, Google Drive makes all the files you've recently accessed automatically available offline. In addition, you're also able to right-click and change the toggle on the 'Available offline' setting for each file.

Faster backup and sync for all your files on Mac

Now that you know how to use Google Docs offline on your Mac, you need to make sure you have a safe backup of all the files on your computer. The easy way to do this is with ChronoSync Express.

Keep data safe with ChronoSync Express

Get ChronoSync Express to sync data across devices and schedule backups. Every file you need, securely protected on Mac.

ChronoSync Express gives you peace of mind with regards to keeping files and personal data safe no matter where you are. If you need to remotely synchronize data from your iPhone or iPad, you can schedule backup and synchronization tasks to run during a specific timeframe with no fuss.

More (and better) cloud storage software alternatives

If Google Drive isn't enough and you need additional cloud storage for your documents, photos, or files, there are lots of alternatives, starting with iCloud and Dropbox. Even when your Mac's hard drive is packed, you can use increase cloud space to boost your storage capacity.

CloudMounter is a genius app that lets you turn additional space on Google Drive and other cloud storage solutions like Amazon S3 and even OneDrive into a usable place for all your tasks on Mac. It's as simple as accessing your cloud files with drag and drop.

Both ChronoSync Express and CloudMounter are available on Setapp, a collection of more than 150 Mac apps and utilities you can use daily to make your Mac life easier and more productive. Sign up for a free 7-day trial of Setapp to these apps and many more a go.

Now that you know how to use Google Docs offline, you can update your resume, write articles, or work on that paper right from your web browser or Mac. Make as many edits on the fly without the need for any internet at all!

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· 5 min read

It's not well documented, so I run a few tests to understand how exactly Google Drive works with external disks. I now have more data in Google Drive than can fit into my Mac's 500 GB of built-in storage. As much I trust Google, I still want to keep a local copy of all of my files and I want it to seamlessly sync with the cloud.

Google Drive allows you to sync a folder outside the main Google Drive folder. The folder can be on an external drive too but the challenge is that I normally don't keep the disk connected at all times. I wanted to be 100% sure how exactly it will play out because I'm not taking chances with my photos and videos. Unfortunately, there isn't good documentation on how exactly syncing an external drive behaves and answers on Google Product Forums aren't always complete and comprehensive. Instal office on mac.

So I ran a few tests to verify the behavior. It mostly behaves as expected but I did find one weird bug.

Experiment setup

Mac os notepad. That's what I did to get started:

  • I have a clean external hard disk connected to my Mac running the latest MacOS High Sierra.
  • I created a folder on an external disk and placed some files in the folder.
  • I added the folder to the Google Backup and Sync app.

Note: I am using the external disk as an extension to my main Google Drive folder. I still have my main Google Drive folder synced to the built-in disk.

How does an external disk sync with Google Drive?

Once the folder on an external disk is added to the Backup and Sync app, it syncs just like a folder inside the main Google Drive folder would. Google Backup and Sync will automatically detect changes and sync them.

Where can I find my hard disk in Google Drive's web UI?

Once the folder is synced, it will appear in Google Drive > Computers > Your computer's name. It will be accessible from the web UI and from the mobile phone just like the main Google Drive folder.

What happens when I unplug the disk synced with Google Drive?

I unplugged the disk and the Backup and Sync app showed the following message.

The Google Drive folder on your computer's main disk will continue to sync even if the external disk is unplugged. Once the disk is plugged back in, Backup and Sync will restart the sync engine and start syncing.

In other words, it's safe to unplug the disk.

What happens when I un-sync an external hard disk from Google Drive?

If you stop syncing the folder in the Backup and Sync app, the files will remain both on your hard disk and in the cloud under the Computers section.

If I sync it back, what happens?

If you add the folder back in the Backup and Sync app, it will attempt to merge the contents of the folders. It will however warn you that there may be duplicates.

After you've confirmed everything, it will start comparing and syncing files. This process may take a while for large folders.

If there are files with the same name but different contents, Google Drive will create a duplicate with (1) appended at the end of the file name.

Does the disk have to stay connected at all times?

No. When the disk is disconnected, the main Google Drive folder will still sync locally.

The external disk obviously won't sync. Once you plug the disk back in, Backup and Sync app will detect it and start to sync.

Can You Download Google Drive On Mac Catalina

Note: when the disk is plugged back in, the sync engine restarts, which may take a long time if you have lots of files. It takes over 5 minutes for my 100k+ files.

Can I have a folder in both Computers and the Google Drive folder?

No. When you drag folders from Google Drive to your computer's folder, it will get moved.

If you move the entire external disk's folder using the web UI, the folder will still remain on the disk but will stop syncing. It will however, sync to your local Google Drive folder.

If you move it back from Google Drive to Computers section using the web UI, the folder will be moved in the cloud but it won't sync to your hard disk until you add it again to Backup and Sync.

If I delete a file using the Google Drive web UI, will it be deleted from the disk?

Yes, after a confirmation.

I find this warning useful just in case my account is compromised. If someone deletes all my files, I can stop them from being deleted from the disk.

If I delete a file on the disk, will it be deleted from Google Drive's Computers tab?

Yes, after a confirmation.

Will photos from an external disk be added to Google Photos?

Yes! Once a photo/video is synced with the cloud, it will appear in Google Photos. In fact, I moved my entire photo collection to an external disk and it didn't affect Google Photos at all.

Bug: moving files from Google Drive to external disk via web UI or mobile app causes an unknown sync error

If you move a file from the Google Drive folder that's synced locally to a folder in the Computers section using the web UI, the Backup and Sync app engine will throw an error and won't move the file. Clicking Retry All won't help.

Download Google Drive For Macbook

To resolve this issue, you need to either move the files locally (not via UI) or unsync the folder containing the file from the local disk, wait for it to be removed locally, and then move it via the UI.





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