Sync to Google Drive with Linux using rclone

Introduction Since Google still has not published an official client for Drive, this how-to will show you an alternative to sync to y...

Introduction

Since Google still has not published an official client for Drive, this how-to will show you an alternative to sync to your drive to a Linux desktop using the Rclone tool. Rclone will also allow you to sync to other remote filesystems.

Steps (4 total)

1

Get the Rclone binary

Press ctrl+alt+t on the keyboard to open up an instant command line.
At the command line type:

wget http://downloads.rclone.org/rclone-v1.17-linux<your_architecture>.zip

Replacing <your architecture> with either:
386
amd64
arm

Depending on your processor's architecture.

2

Configure Rclone

At the command line still, type:
rclone config

This will take you through a interactive session to setup Rclone.

Type 'n' to create a new remote at the first prompt.

At the next prompt, name the remote 'remote' for easy access.

At the following prompt, type '4' or choose the option labeled 'drive' to select drive as the source you wish to sync.

The next two prompts you will press enter to use the defaults provided by Rclone.

3

Authenticating with Drive

Rclone will then provide you with a lengthy URL, which you will copy and paste into your browser.

Log into Drive, giving Rclone permission to access your Drive.

The browser will then provide you with a token, which you will enter into the Rclone configuration.

If the above steps worked, then type 'y' at the next prompt to finish the configuration.

4

Rclone usage.

Drive file paths are specified as: drive:path
Navigating through a drive is possible: drive:directory/subdirectory

To see the top level directory of your Drive, type:

rclone lsd remote:

To list all of the files in your Drive, type:

rclone ls remote:

To copy a local directory called /home/local1 to a folder in your Drive called folder1, type:

rclone copy /home/local1 remote:folder1

To copy files or directories from your Drive to your local system, simply reverse the arguments of copy.

Drive is fairly rate limited, so large syncs with lots of files are not recommended.