You can set up rclone with Google Drive in an unattended mode, i.e. not tied to a specific end-user Google account. This is useful when you want to synchronise files onto machines that don’t have actively logged-in users, for example build machines.
I do want to sync some forum backup files from a remote host to a Google Drive belonging to a specially created Google user, so Service Accounts seems like the right option, but I'm having all sorts of issues, chief being that I can't see where the files end up.
If I were to obtain my own client ID, what exactly are the limitations for unattended syncs vs. Service Accounts? Do I need to log in with that user every X days?
Without seeing your rclone.conf (passwords / keys removed) and the commands you used to move the files, it would be a guess. If you can share that info, we can figure out where you are sending them to.
Right, those are the steps I tried to follow (filed a GitHub issue because they seemed partially outdated).
I've added my rclone.conf to the post about files synced through the service account not showing up in the Drive UI (still not there, ~2 hours later).
PS: I think you meant to reply to that post? Here I was wondering about the exact differences between supplying my own clientId, and using Service Accounts, for unattended rclone sync jobs.
Your own API key/client ID is yours so you aren't using the shared default rclone one which is over subscribed.
I don't see a need to use a service account as it doesn't add much for me. You can use either so it's really up to you to decide what you'd like to use.