A welcome update for Drive and Photos users. Now you can backup more than just your Drive folder, if you are into stuff like that.
Report
@adamdepasqua Yeah, I'm not sure anyone was asking for this product from Google. As a paying Google Drive user, if I wanted something backed up to GD, I'd just put the folder in the Google Drive folder on my computer and let the GD desktop application handle the syncing. This new product lets you point at any folder on my computer (but not NAS folders) for backing up, rather than just the folders in the Google Drive folder. Was it so hard moving what you wanted backed up to the local Google Drive folder?
@chuckkahn I'm not viewing this as a major upgrade, I was happy something new came from the Drive team. I personally don't care to back up my other computer folders to GD. I only continue to back up my GD folder. So, with a nicer uploader and direct buttons from my menu to Drive, and Google Photos, it was a nice little upgrade. It's a bummer you've had so many issues.
Report
@adamdepasqua@chuckkahn I get your point here, but Google Backup and Sync is very handy, in my opinion. I use two laptops and a desktop at work. And, I always want all files to be available everywhere. I hated the idea of pasting files on the Google Drive folder everytime. Backup and Sync changed how I work. It takes some time to understand, but it's worth the efforts.
Report
@arunsathiya I had an opportunity to test what I've earlier described as an unwanted new feature Google Backup & Sync, namely the sharing of paths outside of the Google Drive folder. In this scenario I wanted to share my Narrative Uploader log folder with Narrative Support so I thought that if I added the folder to GB&S then I could send them a link and they would see the most up-to-date log from my computer. But nothing in that folder synced to Google Drive! Perhaps Windows 10 blocks GB&S from accessing paths under Users/../AppData.
Report
@arunsathiya Files you put in the Google Drive folder are available everywhere! So in your setup, everything that you put in the Google Drive folder would be available on your two laptops and your desktop at work.
Report
I'm in chat with Google Support right now trying to figure out why Google Backup and Sync is backing up the contents of a 10 GB folder on my Mac that Google Photos Backup already has backed up. Don't these products talk to each other? I've disabled the computer backup feature of the program and have gone back to Google Photos Backup for photos for the time being.
Report
Also miffed that this won't backup photos from a NAS.
Report
So the conclusion of my chat with Google Support is that Google Backup and Sync does not pick up from where Google Photos Backup left off. Also the default setting in Google Backup and Sync is for a local photo deletion to be mirrored with a deletion on drive.google.com and photos.google.com. I was expecting local deletion to have no effect on photos in the cloud, which is the way Google Photos Backup worked and the way the iOS Google Photos app works -- a photo deletion from my camera roll does not result in a deletion of the photo in the cloud, it just makes space on my phone's camera roll for more photos to be taken.
Report
@chuckkahn I get this point here, Chuck. Backup and Sync is relatively new, and the team's constantly learning from users' experiences. Google Photos team is currently collecting feedback on the new Google Backup and Sync app. If you are up for it, you can add your feedback here: https://productforums.google.com...
Report
@arunsathiya I thought my two hour chat with Google Support would provide plenty of feedback for Google to chew on.
That survey link focuses on speed, which kinda misses the point. What's the old saying? "Computers make very fast, very accurate mistakes."
Replies
To Eat List
To Eat List