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We've use Google Apps for Business, more specifically Google Drive extensively at work.

So much so if it went down / our data went missing, we would be stuck.

We've already turned on 2 set authentication on all accounts, but to be doubly sure we want to take regular backups. We're looking at Backupify and a couple of others who offer automated backups.

But I was looking at my "Google Drive" folder (bellow) on my machine (Mac); it seems as if these files are sitting on my machine, but looking at the file sizes, plus opening them when not connected to the internet they seem to just be hyperlinks to the files online.

Is there a way to get Google Drive to actually sync a full copy of each document back to your local machine? As this would be an alternative to backing up the docs account.

google drive files

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4 Answers

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The gdoc and gsheet files are, as you've discovered, simply pointers to the online version(s) of the file(s). (This only happens if you have the Google Docs app on your PC, of course.)

The only way to make local backups of the files so that they contain your actual data would be to convert them to a different format. Converting a gdoc to a Word file and keeping it in the same directory would give you what you want, but converting files certainly isn't automatic.

Is it necessary, though? Google Drive/Docs is already keeping revision information, plus anything you delete goes to the "Trash" and doesn't get really deleted for 30 days (at least).

Of course, things might be a bit different for Google Apps. Certainly part of your agreement with Google is the ability to get to backups of your data in cases of vandalism/hacking/etc., no?

You might also look into the Data Liberation Front to see what data you can extract, although I don't know if that would be useful in your case.

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thanks eddie, ive looked into it further and although you can make a backup of you whole drive account and download it locally, you have to do this manually, i think im going to go with a 3rd party backup service to make a daily backup of the entire account – sam Jan 18 at 17:05
this is not entirely true. Google Drive supports offline mode for gdoc and gsheet in Chrome. support.google.com/drive/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1628467 – neo Jan 18 at 17:26
@neo: Yes, but that data is still stored elsewhere. The files in the Google Drive folder are still just pointers. – Al Everett Jan 20 at 15:47
After a couple of months living with it, ive found a service called CloudHQ that does a great job of backing up from google drive, what it lets you do is link your google drive to a dropbox account and makes a copy of all your google drive docs (in a microsoft office format) and places them as a backup in your dropbox account – sam May 7 at 12:59
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I don't know where are the files stored locally, but despite of being a link the only reference, if you can open that link and still have your info available, and you can edit and download it as if you were online, I think you should have no trouble with it. I've tried those operations with my ethernet disconnected and it goes on gracefully, so I think the answer is 'Google does sync locally the files, although you don't see the content directly in your explorer view.

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Were you using chrome for this ? as i think chrome has a view offline feature for google docs, also were the files google docs, or just normal files, ie word, jpeg, pdf (non google) ect as these are stored localy unlike the native google docs files – sam Apr 15 at 14:13
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Yes, you can store your Google files on your own computer by using Google Drive offline. See here: https://support.google.com/drive/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=1628465&parent=2811739&ctx=topic. Only caveat is that you have to use the Chrome browser or Chrome OS. Enabling offline use will download all the files to your computer so you can have them available to use whenever you are not connected to the Internet. "Disabling offline will also remove the offline copies of documents, spreadsheets, and presentations stored on this computer."

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The answer is YES. Install the google drive app on each machine and it will install a local copy of your google docs on your hard drive. Any changes you make to that local copy will be synced to the cloud AND every other machine connected to the drive account.

Here is the link: Google Drive Downloads

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How does this answer the actual question? – Al Everett Jan 25 at 13:49
He said "But I was looking at my "Google Drive" folder (bellow) on my machine (Mac); it seems as if these files are sitting on my machine, but looking at the file sizes, plus opening them when not connected to the internet they seem to just be hyperlinks to the files online." If he installs the Google Drive App on his machine there will be a folder called “Google Drive” and it will have all the files from Drive in it NOT links. – William Jan 25 at 16:32
No, it won't. The local Google Drive folder only contains placeholder files for Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Yes, other types of files will be there, but the others are just links. He's already obviously got the Google Drive app installed on his machine. – Al Everett Jan 25 at 16:40
I stand corrected, Thank you Eddie. I was only looking at other types of files. – William Jan 25 at 16:44

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