How to Auto Sync Local Folder to Google Drive: 2 Easy Ways

 

Quick Guide

• Can I Automatically Sync Folder to Google Drive?

• Why Sync Folder to Google Drive?

• How to Automatically Sync Computer Folder to Google Drive

• Tips about Access and Protect Folders in Google Drive

Can I Automatically Sync Folder to Google Drive?

“I want to automatically sync specific folders to Google Drive, and it must be able to update in Google Drive if I delete them from the original folder, just maintain an exact copy in Google Drive. Do you know how to sync folder to Google Drive? If an application is needed, do you have any recommendations?”

Why Sync Folder to Google Drive?

There must be many important folders containing a large number of files like photos, documents, videos, etc. on our computer that you may want to make a copy of your data for security. As we all know, Google Drive is an advanced online storage service that can keep your data safely and far away from your location. What’s more, it offers a generous 15 GB free storage space that is enough for storing your important folders.

Therefore, you may want to sync your important folders to Google Drive for safekeeping. Given this is a long-term project, you must want to sync them to Google Drive automatically to save both time and effort. If you don’t know how to sync a folder to Google Drive, please read on.

How to Automatically Sync Computer Folder to Google Drive

To automatically sync the folder to Google Drive, you need to rely on some effective tools. Google releases a desktop sync tool called Drive for desktop to help you sync folder with Google Drive efficiently. Besides Google Drive's official tool, you can also try some free third-party tools to let Google Drive sync folder automatically and easily. Learn how to use these tools in the following content.

Way 1. Sync via Google Drive Official Desktop App

Drive for desktop is Google Drive’s official desktop app for Windows and Mac, which offers two functionalities — sync and stream files and has a lot of advantages. You can easily take an online backup of selected folders or files on your computer without your intervention. Let's see how to sync folder with Google Drive:

Step 1. On your computer, download and install Google Drive for desktop.

Step 2. Open Drive for desktop, click Sign in with browser to connect your Google Account that you use for Google Drive.

Step 3. Under the My Computer tab, click Add folder to select any folders you want to back up.

Step 4. You will be asked to choose if you Sync with Google Drive or Back up to Google Photos. You can choose to sync entire drive with your computer or sync specific folders on Google Drive with this computer. After selection. Click Done.

Step 5. Then in the next screen, click Save to make sure the current folder is automatically synced to Google Drive.

After setting up Drive for desktop on your computer, it will create a Google Drive disk on your computer to store the contents from Drive. You can see Google Drive disk in Windows Explorer and add files or folders into this disk to let Google Drive auto sync the folder to the cloud. If you have multiple computers, you can also sync multiple computers with Drive for desktop.

Way 2. Sync Folder to Google Drive automatically via a Third-Party Tool

Another way to achieve Google Drive folder sync automatically is by using a third-party tool. You can choose a free cloud backup service like CBackup, which is a professional cloud backup platform for Windows PC and laptops. With CBackup, you can sync files or folders to Google Drive automatically and easily.

It supports many mainstream cloud drives including Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc. As long as you add these cloud drives to your CBackup service, CBackup can recognize it as a backup destination. And besides PC cloud backup, it also supports other useful features, like cloud to cloud backup, cloud to cloud sync, etc, it also supports useful backup settings, like schedule backup, email notification, and file filter to improve your backup efficency.

Step 1. Please download CBackup, install, and launch it. Then sign up for a free CBackup account and sign in to CBackup desktop app.

Step 2. Click the My Storage tab on the left, then select Add Cloud, then choose Google Drive and click Add, then follow the steps to grant access to CBackup.

Step 3. Click Backup Tasks > New Task > Local Files, then click Add Source to select the folders that you want to sync to Google Drive, click Add Destination > Single Cloud to select Google Drive as the destination.

Step 4. Press Settings > Scheduler > check the option "Set a backup schedule for automated backup", then choose One time only, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly, click OK, Then press Start Backup to auto sync folder to Google Drive.

Note: There are two other features you could configure in Settings at the bottom left corner:
✍ Email Notification: it will notify you of the backup result after the backup task is finished if you are not in front of the computer.
✍ File Filter: it allows you to exclude the file types you don't want to backup to cloud drive.

Tips about Access and Protect Folders in Google Drive

Tip 1. How to Access PC Files and Folders on Google Drive

You can access the folders that you backed up to through the Google Drive website. To make it easier for you to identify the PC folder and the local Google Drive folder, they are stored in a separate section of Google Drive. You can find them under the "Computer" section.

Step 1. Go to the website of Google Drive and sign in to your Google account.

Step 2. Find the Computer option in the menu on the left.  You can find the local folder you have uploaded under this section.

Tip 2. How to Protect Files and Folders on Google Drive

Actually, the files in Google Drive are not absolutely safe, so, to avoid losing files both on local and Google Drive, you’d better make one more Google Drive backups. You can sync Google Drive files to another cloud storage directly with CBackup.

Let’s see how to protect your Google Drive files with CBackup:

Step 1. Please sign in to CBackup webpage or desktop app with your CBackup account.

Step 2. Click “Add Cloud” under “My Storage” tab, select your clouds (here is Google Drive and OneDrive), and click “Add”. Then follow the steps to authorize CBackup to access and manage your files on the cloud.

Step 3. Click on “Sync Tasks” tab on the left, then, click “New Task” button. Name your sync task, click the “Add Source” button to add Google Drive and click “Add Destination” to add another cloud (e.g. OneDrive).

Step 4. Click “Start Backup” in the lower right corner to sync files from Google Drive to OneDrive.

As mentioned above, CBackup also offers a secure CBackup Cloud, which provides 10GB free cloud stroage, and offers 1000GB of CBackup Cloud at a reasonable price. CBackup allows you to get more Google Drive free cloud stroage space by combining multiple google drive accounts if your Google Drive storage full. And it can combines different cloud drives as well.

Conclusion

According to the contents above, you can use Google Drive for desktop tool to automatically sync folder to Google Drive. But sometimes, Drive for desktop may stop working for unknown reasons. If you meet this situation, you can use a Google Drive for desktop alternative like CBackup to sync files from local to Google Drive. Or, you can just take advantage of the CBackup to protect your files in Google Drive.