Category: Organize

As a cloud storage platform, Google Drive can ostensibly host any file. However, anyone who has tried to use it for out-of-the-usual use cases might know that you can (occasionally) run into problems. Are there file types that aren’t supported or other restrictions worth knowing? Here’s a rundown of what Google Drive does and does…

Google makes the Android operating system and Google Drive, the cloud storage platform. They also have cloud storage associated with Google accounts, which are required to use most features of an Android device. It stands to reason that all these systems would work nicely together. Right? Unfortunately, Google is less of a single company and…

Google Drive is an excellent platform for data storage, sharing, and collaboration, but sometimes you’ll find that particular files have unique issues you don’t see in your other data.  One of the biggest offenders of this is video files, particularly larger or longer videos. When you upload a video to Google Drive, Google has to…

By default, when you create a new Google account, you are given 15 GB of storage space for free.  This storage space is shared across Google services, including Docs, Sheets, Drive, Gmail, Photos, and any other services you use in Google’s ecosystem.   While 15 GB might sound like a lot – and it is, if all you’re…

Google Drive is a fantastic tool for collaboration, both within an organization and with the general public. It’s also an excellent way to distribute a document or file to an audience; it’s essentially free hosting as long as the file doesn’t violate any of Google’s copyright or IP rules, content guidelines, or other policies. Of…

Google Drive is generally a secure way to store data on the cloud, but as with any cloud service provider, you are not necessarily the only person with access to your data. Google owns the servers that host your data, after all, and that means Google can access them. Google’s data security practices are rigorous,…

If you’re a Mac user, you may be familiar with the DS_Store file. Hidden DS_Store files are the number one most common hidden files across Google Drive accounts. It makes sense, as Apple shipped over 17% of all personal computers in the United States last year. That’s a lot of DS_Store files being generated every…

While ostensibly, your files on Google Drive are private and solely your own, Google does pay attention to what is uploaded to their servers. They want to avoid being hosts to malware, and they have a duty to minimize criminal activity. Among other things, they scan files uploaded to their Drive accounts to detect copyright…

One of the most significant benefits of a cloud-based file storage system is the ability to share and collaborate on those files. There’s just one issue: what happens when more than one person wants to edit any given file at any given time? Different apps and platforms have different ways of handling this. For example,…

With Google Drive, you can store files on the cloud, allowing access to them from any device you can use to log into Google’s services. You might use this as a data backup solution to store files online so you can work on them across different devices or as a collaborative tool to share cloud-stored…

Google has been pushing to unify many of its services over the years. This change has been displayed in various moves, such as rolling together photo storage between Google Drive and Google Photos, tying together Google and YouTube accounts, and making Gmail share the storage space of Google Drive. Though this last change has been…

Google Drive is an excellent way of storing files in the cloud, but there are many different ways it can go wrong. In particular, depending on how you use it, you may get different results than expected. One of the most prominent use cases for a cloud storage app like Google Drive is to use…

Google Drive is an incredible piece of convenient engineering, but it can also be highly frustrating, especially when it’s doing something inconvenient that hinders your application usage. One such issue is that Google Drive can duplicate files when you don’t want them to. Google does this for a few different reasons, some of which are…

Google Workspace is an essential tool for thousands of businesses worldwide, ranging from accounts with just a few users to large enterprises with thousands or tens of thousands of sub-accounts. Administration becomes a significant burden with any service as you add more users.  While Google offers unlimited storage to their enterprise customers, that doesn’t mean…

Google Drive is an excellent cloud storage system, and you can use it in many different ways. Some people use it to transfer files in bulk from one location to another. You upload them all to Google Drive on one device, then download them on another. It skips needing to put all that data on…

Google Drive has a ton of utility, but sometimes it has just as many ways for downloads to fail as there are use cases. In some cases, Google is excellent at documenting errors and giving you options for dealing with them. Other times, it feels like your error could be about anything. Unfortunately, the “failed-forbidden”…

Google Drive is an excellent platform for cloud storage and collaboration, but it’s not unlimited.  While Google used to promise unlimited storage, they’ve changed many of those limits over the years.  While getting “unlimited” storage (with caveats) is possible, you may have to jump through some hoops to get it. On top of that, there are other…

Shortcuts are a powerful tool for organization, navigation, and managing the clutter of your Google Drive.  They’re easy to create, but you can use advanced tricks to improve them. There are also some quirks with how Google handles shortcuts to files or folders when those files or folders are located in shared drives or have…

Google gives everyone with a Google account 15 GB of storage by default. You can expand this limitation through various means and take action to reduce your space usage. Still, the fact remains that a cap is always going to be there outside of a few specific, enterprise-level situations. What happens when your Google Drive (or general Google…

Google Drive is a fantastic tool for file storage and collaboration. One of the best features is the ability to upload a file to your Drive and share it with others. Those other people have the file in their Drive, but it doesn’t take up any of their storage quotas; they can access and edit…

Google is notorious for making changes to systems, splitting them and merging them, keeping legacy versions around, and changing their plans to retire some things. They occasionally retire plans while many people still love and use them. Google Drive is no different, with storage available through Google Drive, Google One, Google Workspace, G Suite, Google…

Did you know that before the mid-1980s, when you deleted a file, it was gone for good? There was no way to recover it. The modern version of a trash can or recycle bin, which stores deleted files until a time limit comes up or you empty it yourself, didn’t exist until it was invented…

Google Drive is an excellent application for storing, transferring, and managing files in both a personal and a business setting. However, it’s not always immediately clear how to perform various tasks you believe you should be able to do. Sometimes, the functionality exists but is named strangely or hidden in menus. Other times, something you…

Google Drive and Google Photos are both excellent options to store and sync photos between devices in a central account. But which is better? You might think it’s the app specifically designed for photos, but Google Photos has limitations that are worth considering.  Google did not tie Google Photos to Google Drive initially. In the…