Is it possible to restore the oldest version of a file in Google Drive

[imthenachoman]

Google Drive supports native file versioning. I assume when uploading, rclone will just create a new version.

Is it possible to restore/copy back only the first version of a file?

[ncw (Nick Craig-Wood)]

@imthenachoman

Google Drive supports native file versioning. I assume when uploading, rclone will just create a new version.

It will, yes

@imthenachoman

Is it possible to restore/copy back only the first version of a file?

You'll have to do that via the web interface.

[imthenachoman]

Darn it! I've got TBs worth of files where, at some point in my daily sync, the source files got corrupt. So I was looking to just download the very first version of each file. I'll see if I can write a Google Drive API script to restore all files to their first version.

Thanks!

[thestigma]

Good luck.

be advised that if you want to be better prepared against things like this in the future, rclone has a --backup-dir option you can use.
https://rclone.org/docs/#backup-dir-dir

With this it is not hard to basically create a full versioning system in rclone itself. It may technically be redundant for a cloud-host that has versioning, but it can make for a system that is a lot easier to manage and restore from in the case of accidents like this.

A bit down in this thread is a script I made a while back for another forum user if you are interested to see a relatively simple (but effective and functional) way of scripting this. Perhaps you will find it useful:

I need help creating versioning with crypt to dated folders

EDIT: Script updated to 1.3 to correct the 4 issues mentioned by asdfdsa later down. Now 1.3 for more fixes and improvements... Well, since you knew the magic word (BOTH of them in fact!!) then I must oblige... Here you go, all done! (now where do I send the bill? ) Script has been tested, but of course I recommend you also test it thoroughly yourself and see that everything works as you expect before putting it into a live environment. Also check that you feel …

[ncw (Nick Craig-Wood)]

@imthenachoman

Darn it! I've got TBs worth of files where, at some point in my daily sync, the source files got corrupt.

I had a quick look at the google drive revisions API... It looks like rclone would have to list the files then call the revisions API for each file which looks quite inefficient. I couldn't see a way to get revisions to turn up in the listings which would be ideal.

[dr.mcgillicuddy]

@thestigma

be advised that if you want to be better prepared against things like this in the future, rclone has a --backup-dir option you can use.
https://rclone.org/docs/#backup-dir-dir

This is a runtime only option, correct?

[thestigma]

If you mean if it's only available as a flag then the answer is yes - at least currently. I hope I did not misunderstand the question?

As with all other non-remote-spesific options this only exists as a flag and can't be put into the config.
This is a limitation of the configuration structure as I understand, and I believe NCW has commented on this saying that he is aware that it isn't ideal because a lot of people want to put various options in the config to use as a default. Apparently this will require a fairly large restructuring though, which is probably why it hasn't been a high priority yet. It will come in time I am sure

Until then, it's easy enough to just put the flag in your commands in a script though.

[imthenachoman]

Yeah. I have a script I wrote that uses rclone to backup to GD. But, I neglected to add logic to make backups of anything it overwrites. I've added that logic now and it will also email me a list of files that were "updated". Most of the time my files wont change so if files are being updated that means something got messed up. Thanks!

And I saw your script. Very nice. I'm on Linux so I can't use it but my script does mostly similar things.

[imthenachoman]

Yeah. I was looking at the Drive API. It's not worth it -- for me or anyone. I was able to find other ways to recover my data. Well most of it, whats gone is not worth the energy to recover.