Rclone sync file to gdrive works only one way

[disconnect5852]

I'm using this command:
rclone sync c:\folder\file.ext google:/folder/ --modify-window=10s --buffer-size=512M --max-transfer 725G --log-level INFO

It uploads the file to my gdrive from my PC, BUT if i edit the file from elsewhere (from phone), and then run this command from my pc, then the file on gdrive gets overwritten with the file on PC while the file online is newer, so the opposite should happen (download and overwrite the file on PC), that's what sync meant for. Isn't it? But now it works like the copy...
Why?

[asdffdsa (jojothehumanmonkey)]

hello,

rclone sync is uni-directional, always from source to dest.
as per the docs
"Sync the source to the destination, changing the destination only. Doesn't transfer unchanged files, testing by size and modification time or MD5SUM"

there are ways to tweak the behavior, this might be helpful to your use-case
https://rclone.org/docs/#u-update

also, this is often used with sync
https://rclone.org/docs/#backup-dir-dir

[disconnect5852]

Wow! Then why does it called as sync, while it's a simple copy?

[asdffdsa (jojothehumanmonkey)]

good question,
sync can and will delete destination files,
kind of a one-way mirror.
if a source file does not exist in dest, it is deleted from dest!
from the docs
" Destination is updated to match source, including deleting files if necessary"

https://rclone.org/commands/rclone_copy/
"Doesn't delete files from the destination."

[Animosity022]

It doesn't do a simple copy as it does a sync...

rclone sync

If you have a source and destination, a copy duplicates A over to B and leaves B alone.
A sync copies A to B and deletes anything that doesn't match A, hence a sync.

It's pretty common terminology.

You are asking/looking for a bidirectional or two way sync, which rclone does not do.