--drive-export-formats url

lonelyroads · November 15, 2025, 12:32am

What is the problem you are having with rclone?

I’m hoping to use bisync to keep all of the files and folders in a Google Shared Drive in sync with a local mirror on an external SSD on a Mac. I’d like for gdocs to appear in Finder as .url or .webloc files so that they’ll open in a browser as gdocs when double-clicked from Finder. However, when I use the flag “--drive-export-formats webloc” I get errors about rsync not being able to update link files.

Run the command 'rclone version' and share the full output of the command.

rclone v1.71.2

os/version: darwin 14.6.1 (64 bit)
os/kernel: 23.6.0 (arm64)
os/type: darwin
os/arch: arm64 (ARMv8 compatible)
go/version: go1.25.3
go/linking: dynamic
go/tags: cmount

Which cloud storage system are you using? (eg Google Drive)

Google Drive

The command you were trying to run (eg `rclone copy /tmp remote:tmp`)

```rclone bisync drewtest: /Volumes/Test/ --filters-file ~/Documents/rclone/filters.txt --create-empty-src-dirs --compare size,modtime,checksum --slow-hash-sync-only --resilient -MvP --drive-export-formats webloc --fix-case ```

Please run 'rclone config redacted' and share the full output. If you get command not found, please make sure to update rclone.

type = google cloud storage
client_id = XXX
client_secret = XXX
project_number = XXX
bucket_policy_only = true
token = XXX
storage_class = REGIONAL
[drewtest]
type = drive
client_id = XXX
client_secret = XXX
scope = drive
token = XXX
team_drive = XXX
root_folder_id = 
[ibmbox]
type = box
token = XXX
### Double check the config for sensitive info before posting publicly```

#### A log from the command that you were trying to run with the `-vv` flag

<!-- You should use 3 backticks to begin and end your paste to make it readable.  Or use a service such as https://pastebin.com or https://gist.github.com/   -->

https://pastebin.com/K3ngbqWL

lonelyroads · November 15, 2025, 12:34am

something went wrong with that post lol

Here’s the pastebin link for the output

https://pastebin.com/K3ngbqWL

asdffdsa · November 15, 2025, 12:52am

welcome to to the forum,

maybe you could test a much simpler command, on a single file. something like:

rclone copy drewtest:path/to/file.ext /Volumes/Test/ --drive-export-formats=webloc --dump=headers --retries=1 -vv

lonelyroads · November 17, 2025, 8:39pm

Yes, it does seem to work in this scenario - and when you do the first bisync (with –resync) it does work. The problem seems to occur with subsequent syncs using bisync

ncw · November 17, 2025, 10:46pm

That error comes from here

github.com/rclone/rclone

backend/drive/drive.go

ecea0cd6f


      
          	case *documentObject:
          		*o = *newO
          	default:
          		return errors.New("object type changed by update")
          	}
          
          	return nil
          }
          
          func (o *linkObject) Update(ctx context.Context, in io.Reader, src fs.ObjectInfo, options ...fs.OpenOption) error {
          	return errors.New("cannot update link files")
          }
          
          // Remove an object
          func (o *baseObject) Remove(ctx context.Context) error {
          	if len(o.parents) > 1 {
          		return errors.New("can't delete safely - has multiple parents")
          	}
          	return o.fs.delete(ctx, shortcutID(o.id), o.fs.opt.UseTrash)
          }

It looks like bisync is trying to overwrite the link file on drive. This is likely because the timestamp is wrong or something like that.

Can you see in the log why it is overwriting it? (Log is too big to search on my phone!)

lonelyroads · November 18, 2025, 9:07pm

I’m not quite sure how do do that! What would I be looking for in the log?

ncw · November 21, 2025, 10:20am

Identify one troublesome file. Post all lines in the log which mention that file. That would be a good start.