How to Set Up Google Drive One-Way Sync in Windows PC

Quick Guide

• One-way sync vs two-way sync

• Can I set up Google Drive one-way sync?

• Part 1. Set up Google Drive one-way sync from local to cloud

• Part 2. Set up Google Drive one-way sync between clouds

• Bonus tips: what if Google Drive storage space is insufficient?

• Final words

One-way sync vs two-way sync

As you may know, file synchronization is the process of making sure that two or more locations contain the same, current files. Actually, file synchronization also has different types. The most common types are one-way sync and two-way sync.

To put it simply, one-way sync means that files are copied only from source to a target in one direction, but no files are ever copied back to the primary location. In a two-way type of sync, files get copied in both directions. Both locations get synchronized with each other. This way, in the event of a failure, you can still access your documents via another machine.

Can I set up Google Drive one-way sync?

As one of the most popular cloud storage around the world, most users should all be familiar with Google Drive. To help users back up files to its cloud, Google Drive offers many uploading tools such as web app, desktop app, mobile app and so on.

Generally, the web app only allows users to select and upload files manually. If you want to sync files to OneDrive automatically, you should set up Google Drive desktop app – Google Backup and Sync (replaced by Drive for desktop)on your computer to sync your local files or folders.

As the name suggests, Google Drive for desktop is an automatic file sync and backup tool for Google Drive. The sync mode of it is two-way sync. After setting, Drive for desktop will sync the folders that you selected to Google Drive cloud automatically, and the files in Google Drive folder also will be synced to local.

If you want Google Drive sync files just in one-way mode, you can learn how to set up Google Drive one-way sync from local to cloud with different sync tools in the following contents. Please read on to learn the detailed information.

Part 1. Set up Google Drive one-way sync from local to cloud

As mentioned above, you can rely on an automatic file sync tool to set up Google Drive sync in one-way mode. Here, we will take the official sync tool of Google Drive - Drive for desktop (the original Backup and Sync) and a free third-party tool – AOMEI Backupper Standard as an example to show you how to set up Google Drive one-way sync from local to the cloud.

Way 1. Set up one-way sync via Google Drive desktop app

1. Download and install Google Drive for desktop from Microsoft's official website to your computer and install it.

2. Sign in to your Google Account. Then, you will be given a general introduction to this application.

3. On the My computer screen, click the Add folder button and the app will prompt you to choose which folders you want to sync to Google Drive. And select the folders or files in the pop-up window.

4. Make your selection and hit Save and let Google Drive sync one-way only (local to cloud).

5. On the Google Drive screen, if you check the Stream files, you would enable the cloud to local files one-way sync.

Way 2. Set up one-way sync via AOMEI Backupper Standard

AOMEI Backupper Standard is a professional backup freeware for Windows PC and laptops. With its File Sync feature, you can set up one-way sync to Google Drive automatically and easily as long as you install the desktop app of the cloud drives on your computer. Besides Google Drive, it also supports many other mainstream cloud drives including Amazon Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc.

1. Download and install Google Drive desktop app on your computer.

2. Download AOMEI Backupper Standard, install and launch it.

3. Open AOMEI Backupper Standard and click “Backup” and “File Sync” subsequently.

4. Edit the task name if necessary. Click "Add Folder" to select the folders you’d like to sync to Google Drive.

5. Click the drop-down menu, tap on “Select a cloud drive” and choose Google Drive in the next windows and click OK to exit this window. Then, click “Start Sync”.

Part 2. Set up Google Drive one-way sync between clouds

Google Drive only syncing one way is not only for local to cloud, but also cloud to cloud. You can also set up one-way sync to sync files from other cloud storage to Google Drive. Since Google doesn't offer such a tool to help your sync files between Google Drive accounts or different cloud storage directly, you can rely on a third-party tool like CBackup to achieve that easily. Let’s see how to do it with the reliable cloud to cloud sync tool - CBackup.

1. Create a CBackup account for free and sign in.

2. Navigate to the "My Storage" tab, click "My Storage +" at the bottom of My Clouds, select "OneDrive" and click "Add" to add this drive. You can add OneDrive accounts as many as you have.

3. After adding, click "Sync Tasks" and then click the "New Task" button in the middle of the page.

4. Name your backup task, click the "Add Source" button to add one OneDrive account as the sync source. You can choose individual folders on OneDrive as the backup source.

5. Click "Add Destination" to add another OneDrive account and then click "Start Sync" to execute your sync task.

Bonus tips: what if Google Drive storage space is insufficient?

If users sync their files to Google Drive for safekeeping with the free Google Drive account, the 15 GB of free storage space would be run out of quickly. If you are not interested in the benefits provided by Google one but need more storage for Drive, you can turn to another cloud backup service like CBackup with large space and more reasonable plans.

The PC cloud backup service of CBackup allows you to backup PC files to its CBackup Cloud and supports you restore the backups from CBackup Cloud at any time. Meanwhile, it offers huge backup space at a reasonable price. If you need to do PC cloud backup or plan to move data between PCs, it is a great choice.

Let's see how to backup PC files to CBackup Cloud with CBackup:

1. Download and install it on your computer. Run it and sign up.

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2. After logging in, click on the "Backup Tasks" tab and click on the "New Task" button.

3. Click on "Add Source" to select the PC files that you want to backup to CBackup Cloud. After selecting, click "Start Backup".

Final words

You can follow the steps to set up Google Drive one-way sync with different tools. No matter you need to sync files from local to Google Drive in one-way sync mode or from another cloud to Google Drive in one-way sync mode, you can find useful tools in the contents above.