Google Drive File Stream

Hope this the right category - I’m wondering if anyone else has had any issues saving their Sketchup files into Google’s new Drive File Stream? Specifically, we’re forced to save-as every time we want to save, requiring us to find the file location in the drive each time. Not so much a problem, more of a persistent annoyance. Hoping there’s an easy fix someone has found!

Thanks!

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The general consensus is that saving directly to cloud services may lead to trouble sooner or later, and it is better to save your files locally and to copy them over to cloud storage when you have closed them.

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Thanks for responding. I have this issue too. I want to save to my computer and have Google File Stream back it up regularly. It shouldn’t be like working off a network drive. Also, the drive folder I can’t save to is where my Layout files reference to, so now my workflow is totally thrown off.

I know I may be griping about how it should be and you are telling me how it is, but it’s Google and/or Sketch that is causing problems for my desire to work and be backed up.

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Yes, agreed – it’s a very hokey setup to require us to move our entire
working folder out of File Stream when we want to work on it. It’s slow and
painful when going in and out of a dozen different LARGE file sets each
day, which need to be collaborated on through a couple different users on
different computers.

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I think it’s a Google Drive problem rather than SketchUp on how the files are saved back into the cloud. I had a similar problem and I came to the conclusion that my drive folder was so large (100GB) it just takes a while to match up folders.

I created a new Gdrive account specifically for using with files that I need to actively work on between MAC/PC, this is much lighter and seems to update quickly and without issue.

However as Anssi mentioned, unless it’s critical the best thing to do is a manual forced update at the end of the day/week (or use a real network server).

Liam, what do you use for syncing? Backup and Sync? Do you know if you can
you use that while also using File Stream? We make heavy use of the Team
Drives (which is also where our sketchup files are located), so we do need
to use File Stream one way or another.

We actually moved away from a ‘real’ network server to Google Drive to
avoid the additional expense of maintenance, support from external IT, etc.
Not to mention that setup was not ideal for our remote workers.

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I use Google Drive + Google File Stream

I have one of my emails setup with the local Google Drive File Stream. This account has less than 3-5GB worth of files inside, I use it specifically for the projects I am working on that day, usually that means moving files between my Laptop and PC and whoever the client of the day/week is.

I then have another email setup with an alternate Google Drive account, this has the main bulk of my work in (100GB+). I manually back this up each day or week depending on use.

I have found that keeping the account lean improves the speed tremendously, I have good internet here too so that helps, almost 1000MB/s.

I don’t use it for SketchUp really, mostly for Photoshop and INDD where individual files can me many GB’s.

Not sure if that’s of any use to you, I reliase working on my own or in a small group allows me to be very agile and flexible as well as it not being a problem for me to manage two accounts at the same time. I expect for a larger company such as yours it is not the most efficient practice.

Edit: I also have my own file server I built that in turn backs up my Google Drive account. I use an old Mac pro tower for that. But I only use it for archival purposes, not sure how reliable it would be on a day to day.

Hi All,
I’ve recently migrated my google “My Drive” to google Team Drive. This required me to also change from google backup&sync to google drive file stream, as apparently backup&sync does not work with team drive.

So there the problems started.

My main issue is that DFS wants to immediately upload files as new versions are saved. As my skp files are quite big and my bandwidth quite small, I regularly get file save errors when backups are attempted over top of uploads.

The result is I close sketchup thinking my work is saved only to discover my latest version is completely missing from the folder! Never nice to lose hard work.

Has anyone else experienced this issue?

I’ve actually had ongoing issues with File Stream deleting files. Typically it happens in programs that, like sketchup, create lock files to prevent users from going in. So Excel, Word, InDesign, Sketchup. Google’s support declines any responsibility or support. It’s impressive how quickly Google has made me lose faith in their product.

Same problem here… Working in a local folder then moving it to Google File Stream is not an option.

An update on the behavior I’ve been experiencing with some additional detail.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) 10.12.6

While working with the software program Sketchup and Sketchup’s Layout, I get an error message stating, “The document “filename.skp” could not be saved.” when I try to Save a previously saved file to an Available Offline Google File Stream folder.

I also receive the error message, “The location of the document “filename.skp” cannot be determined. You can specify where to save it.” In this case the file has been deleted leaving only the “filename~.skp” file behind. The file is also not in the Trash bin.

I get the same behavior with folders that are Online Only.

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