I'm not an exception here. I made a mistake with a Google Drive folder on my Windows system. And after resolving the issue I gave it a good title called "Experience". But this so called experience cost me 2+ GB waste of bandwidth and some electricity units. So, it's not always advisable to learn only from our mistakes. Below is the complete case of the Google Drive nightmare I had on my Windows system. Though the solution works also for Mac OS users.
Problem:
Google Drive resyncs everything after reinstalling Windows/Mac OS even if you have backed up your Google Drive folder before reinstalling Operating System. This exact mishap happened with me few months back. I backed up all my hard disk partitions and My Documents stuff in an external hard disk. In my case, I had kept the Google Drive folder in the D drive. So, it was also backed up automatically as I was copying full disk partitions.
I had an impression that Google Drive will be keeping all the syncing logic metadata files in the same folder but with hidden attributes. This was really foolish impression I had, that I realized later. I reinstalled Windows on my machine and installed Google Drive again. During the Google Drive setup process, I chose Advanced Setup option just to re-attach my existing Drive folder which I had backed up before. But to my surprise when I selected the existing folder, I got the following message.
Alas! It clearly tells that I've to empty out my folder before start syncing. I was expecting that it will automagically sync all the existing files and folders within my existing Google Drive folder. But, I had very wrong impression of Google Drive's metadata files location which keeps logs of synced files and folders. I had nothing to blame but my laziness to know that exact location. I had to allow downloading all my 2+ GB data stored in Google Drive cloud to my computer. Imagine, if you have 100+ GBs of data stored in Google Drive and you encounter this issue. Real waste of time, bandwidth and electricity, isn't it?
Checkout some public social media posts who did same mistake, as I did.
Resolution:
This issue made me curious to find the location where Google Drive stores the metadata stuff. I quickly opened AppData (Windows 8 OS) folder which generally stores configuration data for various softwares installed on your system. And, I found there the Google Drive folder having all the metadata and logs of syncing history! If I had backed up that folder also, then I could definitely save myself from facing the issue.
I also Googled the issue to have exact solution and found the similar solution with a caveat that one has to quit Google Drive before backing up contents of the metadata directory and not to start until the reinstalling the operating system completes. Below are the exact steps you should perform before formatting your computer.
- Quit Google Drive service and don't start it again until you complete the installation process.
- Backup Google Drive folder.
- Backup Drive folder that contains metadata and sync logs. The path for this folder may varies based on different operating systems.
Windows XP: %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Drive
Windows Vista and later: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Drive
Mac OS: ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Drive - [Updated 19 Mar, 2014 - From Marc's Suggestion in the Comments] - According to Marc, Backing up "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Drive" Registry Key on Windows is advisable, if you are a Windows user.
To backup the mentioned Registry Key: - Open "Command Prompt" or "Run" box.
- Type "regedit" without quotation marks and hit enter.
- Navigate to the "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Drive" registry key in the left pane.
- Right click on the "Drive" folder and export the key to your backup device/drive.
- Don't start Google Drive after formatting your computer and reinstalling Google Drive. At first, copy the metadata folder named as "Drive" that you backed up at the appropriate location based on your new operating system.
For example, if you format your Windows XP based system to get latest Windows 8 OS then your location for Application Data folder would be "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Drive" instead "%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Drive" - [Updated 19 Mar, 2014 - From Marc's Suggestion in the Comments] - (Windows users only) Double click on exported registry key to restore it.
- Start Google Drive service. Choose Advanced Setup option and point the Google Drive location to your existing folder.
I would request everyone to share this post as much as possible to save internet bandwidth as well as electricity energy which is still considered as scarce energy in many countries including India. Till the date in India, over 30 crore (300 million) people have no access to electricity. Of those who do, almost all find electricity supply intermittent and unreliable.
PS: For more detailed information and stats on Electrical energy in India download Electric Sector in India eBook created from Wikipedia.
Happy hassle free resyncing.
Happy hassle free resyncing.
Hi Manaday, brilliant work done! I only have one doubt now, what about the other machines? Backing up the same metadata from one machine to the other machines will ensure a mirror sync of the google drive folder across all? Obviously, the initial folder contents have already been mirrored on all machines by way of normal copy paste using LAN.
ReplyDeleteSkydrive works much better in this aspect. No complaints yet! Honestly, had higher hopes from the g-drive.
Many thanks
Hi Yash, Thanks a bunch mate. To be honest I never even thought of that. However I don't think that would be possible and the reason is different machines may have different architecture and so the metadata log files. Quite agree with you from the expectations part from G-Drive.
DeleteAbout Skydrive not explored that much. :)
Thanks for stopping by and thoughtful talk.
I do what you said above.
ReplyDeleteNow its giving "google drive folder does not existing" error.
Then I specify the "Google Drive" folder in D:\
That its saying "it is not your original google drive folder"
do you have an advice about this.
Regards
Aybars,
DeleteI'm not getting what exactly you are trying. Do you mean you want to move Google Drive folder from default location (Generally it's C: drive) to some another HD partition? Let me know what exactly you are looking for and the exact steps you did for the same.
Manaday
I created my Google Drive folder (100 GB) into D:\ partition. It was working well.
ReplyDeleteThen I decided to format my computer.
Before format, I've backed up the "Drive" folder (C:\Users\turat\AppData\Local\Google\Drive)
Then I formated C:\ and installed windows 8 in C:\
Now I am trying to use my Google Drive folder. But no success :(
I installed Google Drive program and entered the path D:\Google Drive
But it is saying folder is not empty.
Then, as you said, I deleted the "Drive" folder and put my old "Drive" folder into C:\Users\turat\AppData\Local\Google\Drive
This time it is giving the following error:
"it is not your original google drive folder"
How can I rid of, download all my 100 GB data from the internet to my computer again :(
I've not an internet connection for that speed and quota for 100 GB :(((
My internet folder and D:\Google Drive folder all the same.
If you can help me I will be so appreciated.
Best regards
Aybars,
DeleteThat's awful, really. I wish Google come up with its own solution to get rid of this critical issue.
However, from the steps you mentioned above it seems at step 2 it seems you are doing something wrong. Let me elaborate.
Your step 2:
"Now I am trying to use my Google Drive folder. But no success :(
I installed Google Drive program and entered the path D:\Google Drive
But it is saying folder is not empty."
What is recommended after formatting the OS:
"Don't start Google Drive after formatting your computer and reinstalling Google Drive. At first, copy the metadata folder named as "Drive" that you backed up at the appropriate location based on your new operating system."
It seems that you've started Google Drive by entering your Google credentials right after installing new OS. But, as per solution part you need to:
1. Install Google Drive (Here you can Disconnect your account from the tray icon or reinstall it completely)
2. Don't start or login into the Google drive
3. Copy the metadata folder to AppData folder in your C:
4. Place your existing Google Drive data folder to the exact location where it was before formatting drive.
5. Start Google Drive service. Choose Advanced Setup option and point the Google Drive location to your existing folder.
Please perform these exact steps and let me know if it works or not. As this has been worked for me and many others.
Sorry, I tryed everything, but no success :(
DeleteUninstall Google Drive
Reinstall Google Drive without login
Copy and overwirte "Drive" folder to C:\Users\turat\AppData\Local\Google\Drive (I also tryed delete original Drive folder and put my backed up Drive folder)
Start Google Drive service and login with my account
point my Google Drive location
It says "this folder is not your original Google Drive folder"
I made everything what you said. I did not understand, maybe my files corrupted :(
You made every effort for me. Thank you very much Manaday.
oops... that's really frustrating! Though I would not let you go down Aybars. Let's try one more possible solution. If this doesn't work. I'm helpless for you.
DeleteLet me clear one more time even it seems silly to repeat.
- MAKE SURE YOU'VE BACKED UP YOUR APP DATA FOLDER BEFORE FORMATTING YOUR OS.
- MAKE SURE YOU'VE PLACED YOUR GOOGLE DRIVE FOLDER AT THE SAME LOCATION AFTER FORMATTING.
Steps to do now (Credits for these steps - http://goo.gl/q9Ehgr):
1. Stop Google Drive service
2. From the AppData folder (from your back up copy) copy the snapshot.db and sync_config.db
3. Now paste the 2 files to your current App Data folder
4. Restart the Google Drive
All should be synced within few minutes now.
If luck is still not with you then I would recommend you to re-sync only the required folders that contains your important documents only by selective sync. You can perform selective sync from Preferences > Sync options. That's all.
Finger's crossed for you. :)
Thanks, brilliant and easy to follow.
ReplyDeleteThanks Manaday,
ReplyDeleteEverything you said true and the easy to apply.
I opened another account and try your advices, everything went well.
Than I understood that, something in my Drive folder was corrupted.
Thank you very much for helping all of us.
Best Regards
Hi Palla,
ReplyDeleteThanks for approaching! Apart from the two you mentioned you could try Dropbox. Though dropbox only offers 2GB free storage and can be up to 18 GB (500 MB per referral). Checkout this nice comparison table from Microsoft > http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/skydrive/compare
Hi guys, I can't find that folder on my Mac (running Mountain Lion). Is it definitely there, and not possibly somewhere else?
ReplyDelete@Andrew, I think the confusion may be that you are looking for the files / folder from the root directory and not from your particular "users" directory. If your users name is "Frank" look under "users/frank/library/application support..."
ReplyDeleteHope this helps...
This is NOT a solution to the problem. It is just instructions for how to prevent it from happening. Not much help at all.
ReplyDeleteYep, they're just preventive steps... I also wish that Google Drive fix this issue asap at their end. :)
DeleteThis worked out as a charm ! Thanks a lot.
ReplyDeleteAs i have spent half an hour trying to figure out why it did not work initially, i am going to say something that should have been obvious:
** Please ensure your partition with google drive's data was mapped on the exact same letter as before! **
I recently replaced my Macbook Pro's HDD with a SSD. I backed up everything from the HDD to time machine (all files and folders, including Google Drive's .db files), then restored my system onto the new drive. Upon startup, Google Drive gives me the error that "Google Drive Folder is missing". Then I choose to select the folder and I get the error message "This is not your original Google Drive folder".
ReplyDeleteThis seems to suggest that it's not a simple matter of backing up the database files, as my entire file system has been restored as-was. There must be some checksum or other unique identifier in the Google Drive settings that can tell that I have changed something. Unfortunately, I was not able to open the .db files in SQLite Database Browser. I opened them in textedit; they are mostly illegible as plain text but I can see references to the files in my Google Drive in there.
So, long story short: backing up the database files does not help if the file system has changed significantly. At least for me, on Mac OS X Mavericks.
It's quite possible mate! This post has helped many folks and the same has failed for few others. I strongly believe Google should fix this issue as soon as possible. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experience. :)
DeleteI am sure there will be some kind of checksum (MD5) or something similar to maintain authenticity of the data. That will force lots of conditions (as mentioned before) like partition size, overall HDD/SSD capacity, user name, operating system version (since environment variables are likely to change across version as is with windows) can play havoc and with a database system may be difficult to hack/fix them.
ReplyDeleteFor all the trouble it is worth a fix and should be relatively easy with CRC and other technologies available.
Cheers,
Koushik
Hey Marc,
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by Tech Beats and sharing your idea. I'm not sure but it looks rational to back up Registry Key that you mentioned. I will update this blogpost to share your approach to the other readers. :)
~ Manaday
Marc, can you please confirm have you had to map the Google Drive folder after rebuilding your computer and restoring registry key? As I had to carry out following step to point to my existing Google Drive folder.
ReplyDelete"Choose Advanced Setup option and point the Google Drive location to your existing folder."
Indeed commendable efforts, Marc! I too wish that Google Drive team itself fix this issue rather fixing in such a weird and techie way. Thanks. :)
ReplyDeleteI did the steps you outlined in this post, and everything seems OK, but: Google Drive constantly says "Running upgrade". I left it like that for a whole day, and it just stayed that way. I don't understand what is upgrading, I downloaded the newest Drive app from Google. I wonder if it's because this version of Drive is newer than the version I had installed previously (the files in the AppData folder are for the older version, I suppose).
ReplyDeleteIt stopped prompting me to select an empty folder to sync to, which is good, but now it doesn't seem to sync at all. Considering that my monthly bandwidth cap is 200gb, I can't afford to re-download all 150GB again. WTF, Google. I hope they fix this eventually.
OK first off, great article! I figured I would add some very useful information to this thread too...
ReplyDeleteIn my case doing everything described in your original article did not work for me. I did everything as described but did not have access to the old install and did not back up my registry entries for Google Drive. So doing everything you suggested in you article ended up with Google Drive telling me that the folder I was using was not the original folder. Unfortunately I could not go back in time (to undo a format. Using undelete software ... well... I didn't care to go through that pain.) so that I could backup my registry hive...
But... I did have a plan B! I backed up everything on my old drive with the exception of my Windows folder (do to it being in use at the time). Even though the main windows registry hive is stored in the Windows folder, that was luckily not what I was after anyway. So the following is how I was able to get my Google Drive working smoothly again.
Assumes the following...
** Your old machine was Windows 7
** Your new machine is Windows 7
** Your old windows user is named 'Old User'
** Your new windows user is named 'New User'
** Your old drive (or backup) is located on G:\
1) Close Google Drive.
2) Copy 'G:\Users\Old User\AppData\Local\Google\Drive' to 'C:\Users\New User\AppData\Local\Google\Drive'.
3) Open up Registry Editor (win key+R, regedit, enter).
4) Dig down to 'HKEY_USERS' and simply highlight it.
5) File -> Load Hive and choose the path 'G:\Users\Old User\NTUSER.DAT' giving it a name of 'OLD_USER'.
6) Dig down to 'HKEY_USERS\OLD_USER\Software\Google\Drive' right click it and export it to 'G:\Old User.reg'
7) Select 'OLD_USER', simply highlighting it.
8) File -> Unload Hive. (Yes you are sure)
9) Double click (run) 'G:\Old User.reg'.
10) Run Google Drive and all should be well.
Side Note:
DeleteThere should be some steps after 8 (we will call it 8a, 8b, etc...)
8a) Open 'G:\Old User.reg' with notepad.
8b) Look for the line "[HKEY_USERS\OLD_USER\Software\Google\Drive]" and change it to "[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Drive]"
Its 2018. and google drive works superfine. no need to copy any Appdata before reinstall. Google Drive by itself finds between files that are already synced and not synced without a problem even if you map to the same folder after re-installing OS..
ReplyDeleteYear 2021 and still works. thnaks
ReplyDelete