---

title: "Google drive" description: "Rclone docs for Google drive"

{{< icon "fab fa-google" >}} Google Drive

Paths are specified as drive:path

Drive paths may be as deep as required, eg drive:directory/subdirectory.

The initial setup for drive involves getting a token from Google drive which you need to do in your browser. rclone config walks you through it.

Here is an example of how to make a remote called remote. First run:

 rclone config

This will guide you through an interactive setup process:

No remotes found - make a new one
n) New remote
r) Rename remote
c) Copy remote
s) Set configuration password
q) Quit config
n/r/c/s/q> n
name> remote
Type of storage to configure.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
[snip]
XX / Google Drive
   \ "drive"
[snip]
Storage> drive
Google Application Client Id - leave blank normally.
client_id>
Google Application Client Secret - leave blank normally.
client_secret>
Scope that rclone should use when requesting access from drive.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
 1 / Full access all files, excluding Application Data Folder.
   \ "drive"
 2 / Read-only access to file metadata and file contents.
   \ "drive.readonly"
   / Access to files created by rclone only.
 3 | These are visible in the drive website.
   | File authorization is revoked when the user deauthorizes the app.
   \ "drive.file"
   / Allows read and write access to the Application Data folder.
 4 | This is not visible in the drive website.
   \ "drive.appfolder"
   / Allows read-only access to file metadata but
 5 | does not allow any access to read or download file content.
   \ "drive.metadata.readonly"
scope> 1
ID of the root folder - leave blank normally.  Fill in to access "Computers" folders. (see docs).
root_folder_id> 
Service Account Credentials JSON file path - needed only if you want use SA instead of interactive login.
service_account_file>
Remote config
Use auto config?
 * Say Y if not sure
 * Say N if you are working on a remote or headless machine or Y didn't work
y) Yes
n) No
y/n> y
If your browser doesn't open automatically go to the following link: http://127.0.0.1:53682/auth
Log in and authorize rclone for access
Waiting for code...
Got code
Configure this as a team drive?
y) Yes
n) No
y/n> n
--------------------
[remote]
client_id = 
client_secret = 
scope = drive
root_folder_id = 
service_account_file =
token = {"access_token":"XXX","token_type":"Bearer","refresh_token":"XXX","expiry":"2014-03-16T13:57:58.955387075Z"}
--------------------
y) Yes this is OK
e) Edit this remote
d) Delete this remote
y/e/d> y

Note that rclone runs a webserver on your local machine to collect the token as returned from Google if you use auto config mode. This only runs from the moment it opens your browser to the moment you get back the verification code. This is on http://127.0.0.1:53682/ and this it may require you to unblock it temporarily if you are running a host firewall, or use manual mode.

You can then use it like this,

List directories in top level of your drive

rclone lsd remote:

List all the files in your drive

rclone ls remote:

To copy a local directory to a drive directory called backup

rclone copy /home/source remote:backup

Scopes

Rclone allows you to select which scope you would like for rclone to use. This changes what type of token is granted to rclone. The scopes are defined here.

The scope are

drive

This is the default scope and allows full access to all files, except for the Application Data Folder (see below).

Choose this one if you aren't sure.

drive.readonly

This allows read only access to all files. Files may be listed and downloaded but not uploaded, renamed or deleted.

drive.file

With this scope rclone can read/view/modify only those files and folders it creates.

So if you uploaded files to drive via the web interface (or any other means) they will not be visible to rclone.

This can be useful if you are using rclone to backup data and you want to be sure confidential data on your drive is not visible to rclone.

Files created with this scope are visible in the web interface.

drive.appfolder

This gives rclone its own private area to store files. Rclone will not be able to see any other files on your drive and you won't be able to see rclone's files from the web interface either.

drive.metadata.readonly

This allows read only access to file names only. It does not allow rclone to download or upload data, or rename or delete files or directories.

Root folder ID

You can set the root_folder_id for rclone. This is the directory (identified by its Folder ID) that rclone considers to be the root of your drive.

Normally you will leave this blank and rclone will determine the correct root to use itself.

However you can set this to restrict rclone to a specific folder hierarchy or to access data within the "Computers" tab on the drive web interface (where files from Google's Backup and Sync desktop program go).

In order to do this you will have to find the Folder ID of the directory you wish rclone to display. This will be the last segment of the URL when you open the relevant folder in the drive web interface.

So if the folder you want rclone to use has a URL which looks like https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XyfxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxKHCh in the browser, then you use 1XyfxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxKHCh as the root_folder_id in the config.

NB folders under the "Computers" tab seem to be read only (drive gives a 500 error) when using rclone.

There doesn't appear to be an API to discover the folder IDs of the "Computers" tab - please contact us if you know otherwise!

Note also that rclone can't access any data under the "Backups" tab on the google drive web interface yet.

Service Account support

You can set up rclone with Google Drive in an unattended mode, i.e. not tied to a specific end-user Google account. This is useful when you want to synchronise files onto machines that don't have actively logged-in users, for example build machines.

To use a Service Account instead of OAuth2 token flow, enter the path to your Service Account credentials at the service_account_file prompt during rclone config and rclone won't use the browser based authentication flow. If you'd rather stuff the contents of the credentials file into the rclone config file, you can set service_account_credentials with the actual contents of the file instead, or set the equivalent environment variable.

Use case - Google Apps/G-suite account and individual Drive

Let's say that you are the administrator of a Google Apps (old) or G-suite account. The goal is to store data on an individual's Drive account, who IS a member of the domain. We'll call the domain example.com, and the user foo@example.com.

There's a few steps we need to go through to accomplish this:

1. Create a service account for example.com

• To create a service account and obtain its credentials, go to the Google Developer Console.
• You must have a project - create one if you don't.
• Then go to "IAM & admin" -> "Service Accounts".
• Use the "Create Credentials" button. Fill in "Service account name" with something that identifies your client. "Role" can be empty.
• Tick "Furnish a new private key" - select "Key type JSON".
• Tick "Enable G Suite Domain-wide Delegation". This option makes "impersonation" possible, as documented here: Delegating domain-wide authority to the service account
• These credentials are what rclone will use for authentication. If you ever need to remove access, press the "Delete service account key" button.

2. Allowing API access to example.com Google Drive

• Go to example.com's admin console
• Go into "Security" (or use the search bar)
• Select "Show more" and then "Advanced settings"
• Select "Manage API client access" in the "Authentication" section
• In the "Client Name" field enter the service account's "Client ID" - this can be found in the Developer Console under "IAM & Admin" -> "Service Accounts", then "View Client ID" for the newly created service account. It is a ~21 character numerical string.
• In the next field, "One or More API Scopes", enter https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive to grant access to Google Drive specifically.

3. Configure rclone, assuming a new install

rclone config

n/s/q> n         # New
name>gdrive      # Gdrive is an example name
Storage>         # Select the number shown for Google Drive
client_id>       # Can be left blank
client_secret>   # Can be left blank
scope>           # Select your scope, 1 for example
root_folder_id>  # Can be left blank
service_account_file> /home/foo/myJSONfile.json # This is where the JSON file goes!
y/n>             # Auto config, y

4. Verify that it's working

• rclone -v --drive-impersonate foo@example.com lsf gdrive:backup
• The arguments do:
  • -v - verbose logging
  • --drive-impersonate foo@example.com - this is what does the magic, pretending to be user foo.
  • lsf - list files in a parsing friendly way
  • gdrive:backup - use the remote called gdrive, work in the folder named backup.

Team drives

If you want to configure the remote to point to a Google Team Drive then answer y to the question Configure this as a team drive?.

This will fetch the list of Team Drives from google and allow you to configure which one you want to use. You can also type in a team drive ID if you prefer.

For example:

Configure this as a team drive?
y) Yes
n) No
y/n> y
Fetching team drive list...
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
 1 / Rclone Test
   \ "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
 2 / Rclone Test 2
   \ "yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy"
 3 / Rclone Test 3
   \ "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"
Enter a Team Drive ID> 1
--------------------
[remote]
client_id =
client_secret =
token = {"AccessToken":"xxxx.x.xxxxx_xxxxxxxxxxx_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx","RefreshToken":"1/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx","Expiry":"2014-03-16T13:57:58.955387075Z","Extra":null}
team_drive = xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
--------------------
y) Yes this is OK
e) Edit this remote
d) Delete this remote
y/e/d> y

--fast-list

This remote supports --fast-list which allows you to use fewer transactions in exchange for more memory. See the rclone docs for more details.

It does this by combining multiple list calls into a single API request.

This works by combining many '%s' in parents filters into one expression. To list the contents of directories a, b and c, the following requests will be send by the regular List function:

trashed=false and 'a' in parents
trashed=false and 'b' in parents
trashed=false and 'c' in parents

These can now be combined into a single request:

trashed=false and ('a' in parents or 'b' in parents or 'c' in parents)

The implementation of ListR will put up to 50 parents filters into one request. It will use the --checkers value to specify the number of requests to run in parallel.

In tests, these batch requests were up to 20x faster than the regular method. Running the following command against different sized folders gives:

rclone lsjson -vv -R --checkers=6 gdrive:folder

small folder (220 directories, 700 files):

• without --fast-list: 38s
• with --fast-list: 10s

large folder (10600 directories, 39000 files):

• without --fast-list: 22:05 min
• with --fast-list: 58s

Modified time

Google drive stores modification times accurate to 1 ms.

Restricted filename characters

Only Invalid UTF-8 bytes will be replaced, as they can't be used in JSON strings.

In contrast to other backends, / can also be used in names and . or .. are valid names.

Revisions

Google drive stores revisions of files. When you upload a change to an existing file to google drive using rclone it will create a new revision of that file.

Revisions follow the standard google policy which at time of writing was

• They are deleted after 30 days or 100 revisions (whatever comes first).
• They do not count towards a user storage quota.

Deleting files

By default rclone will send all files to the trash when deleting files. If deleting them permanently is required then use the --drive-use-trash=false flag, or set the equivalent environment variable.

Shortcuts

In March 2020 Google introduced a new feature in Google Drive called drive shortcuts (API). These will (by September 2020) replace the ability for files or folders to be in multiple folders at once.

Shortcuts are files that link to other files on Google Drive somewhat like a symlink in unix, except they point to the underlying file data (eg the inode in unix terms) so they don't break if the source is renamed or moved about.

Be default rclone treats these as follows.

For shortcuts pointing to files:

• When listing a file shortcut appears as the destination file.
• When downloading the contents of the destination file is downloaded.
• When updating shortcut file with a non shortcut file, the shortcut is removed then a new file is uploaded in place of the shortcut.
• When server side moving (renaming) the shortcut is renamed, not the destination file.
• When server side copying the shortcut is copied, not the contents of the shortcut.
• When deleting the shortcut is deleted not the linked file.
• When setting the modification time, the modification time of the linked file will be set.

For shortcuts pointing to folders:

• When listing the shortcut appears as a folder and that folder will contain the contents of the linked folder appear (including any sub folders)
• When downloading the contents of the linked folder and sub contents are downloaded
• When uploading to a shortcut folder the file will be placed in the linked folder
• When server side moving (renaming) the shortcut is renamed, not the destination folder
• When server side copying the contents of the linked folder is copied, not the shortcut.
• When deleting with rclone rmdir or rclone purge the shortcut is deleted not the linked folder.
• NB When deleting with rclone remove or rclone mount the contents of the linked folder will be deleted.

The rclone backend command can be used to create shortcuts.

Shortcuts can be completely ignored with the --drive-skip-shortcuts flag or the corresponding skip_shortcuts configuration setting.

Emptying trash

If you wish to empty your trash you can use the rclone cleanup remote: command which will permanently delete all your trashed files. This command does not take any path arguments.

Note that Google Drive takes some time (minutes to days) to empty the trash even though the command returns within a few seconds. No output is echoed, so there will be no confirmation even using -v or -vv.

Quota information

To view your current quota you can use the rclone about remote: command which will display your usage limit (quota), the usage in Google Drive, the size of all files in the Trash and the space used by other Google services such as Gmail. This command does not take any path arguments.

Import/Export of google documents

Google documents can be exported from and uploaded to Google Drive.

When rclone downloads a Google doc it chooses a format to download depending upon the --drive-export-formats setting. By default the export formats are docx,xlsx,pptx,svg which are a sensible default for an editable document.

When choosing a format, rclone runs down the list provided in order and chooses the first file format the doc can be exported as from the list. If the file can't be exported to a format on the formats list, then rclone will choose a format from the default list.

If you prefer an archive copy then you might use --drive-export-formats pdf, or if you prefer openoffice/libreoffice formats you might use --drive-export-formats ods,odt,odp.

Note that rclone adds the extension to the google doc, so if it is called My Spreadsheet on google docs, it will be exported as My Spreadsheet.xlsx or My Spreadsheet.pdf etc.

When importing files into Google Drive, rclone will convert all files with an extension in --drive-import-formats to their associated document type. rclone will not convert any files by default, since the conversion is lossy process.

The conversion must result in a file with the same extension when the --drive-export-formats rules are applied to the uploaded document.

Here are some examples for allowed and prohibited conversions.

This limitation can be disabled by specifying --drive-allow-import-name-change. When using this flag, rclone can convert multiple files types resulting in the same document type at once, eg with --drive-import-formats docx,odt,txt, all files having these extension would result in a document represented as a docx file. This brings the additional risk of overwriting a document, if multiple files have the same stem. Many rclone operations will not handle this name change in any way. They assume an equal name when copying files and might copy the file again or delete them when the name changes.

Here are the possible export extensions with their corresponding mime types. Most of these can also be used for importing, but there more that are not listed here. Some of these additional ones might only be available when the operating system provides the correct MIME type entries.

This list can be changed by Google Drive at any time and might not represent the currently available conversions.