Backup and Sync for Windows is a Great Solution for Those in the Google Ecosystem

Google’s newly-released Backup and Sync tool combines previous Windows utilities into a single solution that spans your documents and photos. And for many, it could work as centralized cloud backup.

Previously, Google had a sync client for Google Drive that works much like similar clients for OneDrive, Dropbox, and other cloud storage services. Except for testing, I’ve never really used this client, as I don’t use Google Drive regularly.

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But Google also had a separate upload/sync client for Google Photos, allowing you to copy your existing photo collection to the cloud. I use Google Photos extensively, and I wrote about this capability two years ago in Tip: Use Google Photos to Archive Your Photo Collection.

Google Backup and Sync for Windows combines these two clients into a single new client. But it also dramatically changes how the Google Drive (e.g. documents sync) part works: Instead of a single “Google Drive” folder under your user account folder, you can instead choose to continually backup your own folders to Google Drive. So it’s both consolidated and an upgrade.

It’s easy to setup: Just sign-in to your Google account and then choose the folders (if any) you’d like to continually backup. Google chooses Desktop, Documents, and Pictures by default, but you can deselect any of those and add any arbitrary folders to backup too.

While some have described this as a complete PC backup solution, you can’t choose a drive, and there’s no system image capability. But you could choose all of the folders on your PC, for sure, and while that wouldn’t make sense, choosing all of the folders with important documents, images, videos, and other files is certainly possible.

If you’re in the Google ecosystem, this is worth looking at. I don’t really need it, as my photos are all backed up to the cloud already and I don’t need the document sync capabilities. But it looks solid for those who need either.

You can download Google Backup and Sync for Windows from Google Photos or Google Drive; both supply the same client download.

 

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Conversation 25 comments

  • Martin Pelletier

    Premium Member
    13 July, 2017 - 10:38 am

    <p>I wish there was something similar but for OneDrive beside configuring OneDrive to be the main Documents folder.</p>

    • JacobTheDev

      Premium Member
      13 July, 2017 - 10:44 am

      <blockquote><a href="#144348"><em>In reply to MartinusV2:</em></a></blockquote><p>You can symlink any directory to a folder in OneDrive, which is basically the same thing. Not quite as easy, I know, but it works. I do this for Dropbox.</p>

      • jwpear

        Premium Member
        13 July, 2017 - 4:40 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#144353"><em>In reply to Jacob-Bearce:</em></a></blockquote><p>I tried the links a few years ago with a large photo collection and it royally screwed up my photos.&nbsp; It started replicating them and the original files became corrupted empty ghost files that would error any time you attempted to open them.&nbsp; </p><p>I did this because of the stupid requirement OneDrive has of everything residing under one folder.&nbsp; I keep about 300&nbsp;GB's of family photos and videos on a separate drive to avoid filling up the relatively small SSD system drive.&nbsp; It has been a royal pain getting them to OneDrive.&nbsp; I still haven't gotten them all uploaded.&nbsp; Google is looking very attractive with this new offering.</p>

  • JacobTheDev

    Premium Member
    13 July, 2017 - 10:46 am

    <p>My main issue with this is the "automatically add images to Google Photos" feature is busted. It adds literally every image it finds to your Google Photos, even things like scanned documents, desktop backgrounds, screenshots, etc. There needs to be a way to say "only upload photos from these directories." Also, why isn't the Google Music upload tool part of this? Seems like an obvious miss.</p><p><br></p><p>I like the idea of this, but I guess I'll probably just be sticking with Dropbox.</p>

  • DaddyBrownJr

    13 July, 2017 - 10:53 am

    <p>There is a difference between "backup" and "back up", as there is between "setup" and "set up".</p>

  • wunderbar

    Premium Member
    13 July, 2017 - 10:53 am

    <p>Google really needs to lower their cloud storage pricing for this to become viable.</p>

    • Dan1986ist

      Premium Member
      13 July, 2017 - 1:22 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#144357"><em>In reply to wunderbar:</em></a></blockquote><p>Agreed, as Gmail and other Google stuff like Doc, Sheets, and Slides counts against the total storage in one's Google Drive. Someone correct me if wrong about that.</p>

    • Waethorn

      13 July, 2017 - 1:31 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#144357"><em>In reply to wunderbar:</em></a></blockquote><p>I think the thing you have to look at is whether the 1TB of storage space is worth it alone when you can get a G Suite Business account that includes 1TB of storage (if less than 5 users in a subscription, otherwise it's unlimited storage), plus you get ad-free business-class email through Gmail for Business, and a better SLA over consumer Gmail. However, you have to provide your own domain name for the service (it doesn't have to cost much for a .com from a budget registrar).</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

  • Delmont

    13 July, 2017 - 10:56 am

    <p>Where are there 2 still?</p><p>Paul, are you updating to the new client?</p><p>Do you now uninstall the older Google Photos Backup off your pc?</p>

  • jean

    13 July, 2017 - 11:07 am

    <p>one caveat: the folders being backed-up don't show in "My Drive" – you can only find it with search and then using google scripting to extract the folder's object-id in oder to directly address those folders: you can't specify a root folder in "My Drive" in order to force backup to use that location – it's really wierd </p>

    • jean

      13 July, 2017 - 11:11 am

      <blockquote><a href="#144366"><em>In reply to jean:</em></a></blockquote><p>you can rename&nbsp;"My Laptop" to whatever name suits you best and a folder for each computer will be created in google drive – still you can't get to the files and therfore my question: how would you ever restore any of those files :-P</p>

      • jean

        13 July, 2017 - 11:12 am

        <blockquote><a href="#144367"><em>In reply to jean:</em></a></blockquote><blockquote><em>truth to be told: it says "</em>Backup and Sync for Windows" and does not mention "RESTORE" anyhow – SCNR</blockquote><p><br></p>

  • dcdevito

    13 July, 2017 - 12:01 pm

    <p>Or just do what I do…Create a system restore image and upload that to Drive. </p>

  • F4IL

    13 July, 2017 - 12:08 pm

    <p>Wow, it also syncs with more (msft) file systems than (msft) onedrive.</p>

    • Waethorn

      13 July, 2017 - 1:22 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#144396"><em>In reply to F4IL:</em></a></blockquote><p>Does it work with ReFS?</p>

  • the_risner

    13 July, 2017 - 12:54 pm

    <p>I like that Google's solution supports removable media, but is it REALLY backup? Backup implies versioning which would protect users from ransomware. When I read the details, this solution appears to by file synchronization.</p>

    • Waethorn

      13 July, 2017 - 1:24 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#144429"><em>In reply to the_risner:</em></a></blockquote><p>Google Drive supports version tracking.</p><p><br></p><p>Even Microsoft's backup solutions are slated to remove version tracking for backups (File History is supposedly getting nuked in a future Windows 10 build).</p>

      • the_risner

        14 July, 2017 - 7:59 am

        <blockquote><a href="#144469"><em>In reply to Waethorn:</em></a></blockquote><p>So Google does include version tracking. Good to know. Thanks!</p><p><br></p><p>Do you know if Google includes it for all files and file types? Microsoft's OneDrive offers it (for the time being at least) only for Office files.</p>

    • jean

      14 July, 2017 - 10:02 am

      <blockquote><a href="#144429"><em>In reply to the_risner:</em></a></blockquote><p><em>I did post that in the premium section: </em>one caveat: the folders being backed-up don't show in "My Drive" – you can only find it with search and then using google scripting to extract the folder's object-id in oder to directly address those folders: you can't specify a root folder in "My Drive" in order to force backup to use that location – it's really wierd </p><p>you can rename&nbsp;"My Laptop" to whatever name suits you best and a folder for each "distinct" computer will be created in google drive under that name – still you can't easily get to the files and therfore my question: how would you ever restore any of those files :-P</p><blockquote>truth to be told: it says "Backup and Sync for Windows" and does not mention "RESTORE" anyhow – SCNR</blockquote><p><br></p>

  • AnOldAmigaUser

    Premium Member
    13 July, 2017 - 1:09 pm

    <p>Advertisements based on the contents of your computer?</p>

  • jwpear

    Premium Member
    13 July, 2017 - 4:35 pm

    <p>This looks nice.&nbsp; I miss this feature from Mesh.&nbsp; Google&nbsp;just&nbsp;face-palmed&nbsp;Microsoft's engineers.&nbsp; I may have to reconsider Google Drive.</p>

  • Jorge Garcia

    14 July, 2017 - 11:07 pm

    <p>This is going to make a ton of sense for a lot of people…and bail them out of problems for sure. I still like the old way for now, though.</p>

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