Use rclone as google drive client

[SidMan (Siddharth Manthan)]

Can rclone replace google drive client ?

The features l am looking for :

• Mount google drive with drive letter (Windows)
• Some files can be stored offline for quicker access
• Files copied to google drive folder first gets copied to temporary folder and then uploaded. In case of no internet or computer shutdown the file will be uploaded at the next possible moment. File is not lost if google drive is abruptly unmounted.

[asdffdsa (jojothehumanmonkey)]

hello and welcome to the forum,

i have not used google drive client so i cannot make a direct comparison.

but take a read of this topic

[ncw (Nick Craig-Wood)]

@SidMan

The features l am looking for :

• Mount google drive with drive letter (Windows)
• Some files can be stored offline for quicker access
• Files copied to google drive folder first gets copied to temporary folder and then uploaded. In case of no internet or computer shutdown the file will be uploaded at the next possible moment. File is not lost if google drive is abruptly unmounted.

If you use rclone mount with the flag --vfs-cache-mode full then it will do all of this!

[asdffdsa (jojothehumanmonkey)]

@SidMan

Some files can be stored offline for quicker access

• once the vfs dir cache expires, cannot navigate the mount

• if the computer was shutdown, now rebooted but the computer is offline,
  then cannot run rclone mount.
  when back online, and run rclone mount, since the vfs dir cache is stored in volatile ram, need to run rclone vfs/refresh

partial workaround,
--- set a large value for --dir-cache-time
--- pre-cache the the vfs dir cache using rclone vfs/refresh

permanent solution rclone mount gdrive: /path/to/mount --offline

• start the mount, even if no network/internet. continue to check if/when network is online.
• for each file in the vfs dir cache, do not expire its corresponding vfs file cache entry and the full path of up level directories.
  or do not expire any entry in the vfs dir cache.
• set --vfs-cache-max-age to forever.

remaining problem.
--- for remotes that support polling, rclone will not get those messages from provider.
so when the internet is running again, might have an option to run rclone vfs/refresh

[ncw (Nick Craig-Wood)]

Hmm, yes I missed the "offline" implications. I read that as "stored locally so they don't need to be downloaded again" which is a bit different from truly "offline".

@asdffdsa

permanent solution rclone mount gdrive: /path/to/mount --offline

• start the mount, even if no network/internet. continue to check if/when network is online.
• for each file in the vfs dir cache, do not expire its corresponding vfs file cache entry and the full path of up level directories.
  or do not expire any entry in the vfs dir cache.
• set --vfs-cache-max-age to forever.

This would require the VFS directory cache to be stored on disk.

I want to do that anyway at some point, so maybe --offline will become a reality then!

[jwink3101 (Justin Winokur)]

Just to add to many of the answers, I think you can get close to what you want depending on how you structure it.

If you are okay with it being something like only certain (preferably top level) directory offline, you can combine mount with bisync (or another 3rd party sync tool like syncrclone, which, full disclosure, I wrote).

I do this roughly with OneDrive. I have my "offline" files I really need to always have which sync both ways. But then I mount the rest.

You may also be able to do something like a union of the local and remote but there are some limits on how that may work.