Google Drive and Photos on PC Archives

Google has been doing its part to make sure everyone has a backup of important data, and it recently released a new tool for Windows and Mac users to take that redundancy to the next level. Appropriately named Backup and Sync, it’s a quick and effective tool to store your important files in the cloud.

Backup & Sync Replaces Google Drive and Google Photos Uploader

RELATED:How to Search Google Drive Directly from Chrome's Address Bar

Before we get into it, let’s first talk a little bit about what Backup and Sync actually is. If you’re a heavy Google user, you’re probably already aware of Google’s other sync tools: Google Drive and Google Photos Uploader. Those have both now been rolled into Backup and Sync, so you can control all of your files, videos, images, and more from one app. This is where you’ll control which folders from your Drive are synced to and from your PC or Mac, as well as specifying which image folders should get backed up to your Photos library.

Google Drive is really the core of the Backup and Sync tool, so if you never used the Drive app then a bit of explanation may be in order. Essentially, this new tool will allow you to sync your Google Drive cloud storage with your computer—be that the entire Drive or just specific files and folders. These are then treated as local files on the computer, so your important stuff is always up to date on every computer you own (and in the cloud).

The only exception here are Google Docs files (Sheets, Docs, Slides)—those are still online-only, as Backup and Sync will not download them for offline access. It will, however, put icons in the Google Drive folder so you can double-click them as if they were normal documents (you’ll just need an internet connection to view and edit them.)

Backup and Sync also adds one more tool to the equation: the option to back up specific folders from your PC or Mac to your Google Drive. For example, I use Google Drive to store almost everything, so it’s accessible from all of my other device. But the screenshots folder on my Windows machine isn’t in my Drive folder—it’s in my PC’s Pictures folder. With Backup and Sync, I can then access folder on any of my other devices, any time.

Sound awesome? It is. Here’s how to set it up and get everything synced.

Step One: Download and Install Backup and Sync

Naturally, the first thing you’ll need to do is actually download the Backup and Sync tool. Make sure to grab the appropriate download for your device (Mac or PC). If you already have Google Drive installed, don’t worry—this tool will automatically replace it, no uninstallation necessary.

It should download pretty quickly, and you’ll just need to launch the installer when it’s finished. If you’re using Google Chrome (as you should be), just click the download button at the bottom of the page.

A few seconds later, Backup and Sync will be installed. When it was finished, mine told me to restart my computer for reasons unknown to me—I didn’t do it, and everything still worked fine. Take that, Google.

If you previously had the Google Drive app installed, Backup and Sync should automatically log in to your Google Account. If not, you’ll need to log in. After that, a quick splash screen will let you know what the app is all about: backing up your stuff. Click “Got it” to move into the app.

Step Two: Choose Which Folders Will Get Synced from Google Drive

The Backup and Sync tool is split up into two main sections:

• Google Drive: This performs the same function as the original Google Drive app. You choose what folders to sync from your Google Drive cloud storage, and they’ll appear in a Google Drive folder on your PC. Anything you put into that folder will also sync to Google Drive.
• My Computer: This part is new, and allows you to sync files between your computer and Drive without putting them in the dedicated Google Drive folder. Just pick the folders from your computer you want to sync, and they’ll sync to your cloud storage (though they’ll appear in a separate section of the Google Drive interface, rather than with all your other Drive files.)

Let’s start with the Google Drive section first—it’s second in the list, but it’s much simpler and will be familiar to anyone who’s used Google Drive in the past.

You have a few specific options in this menu. You can:

• Sync My Drive to this Computer: Use this option to enable/disable syncing your Google Drive to your computer.
• Sync Everything in my Drive: Literally syncs the entire contents of your Google Drive to your computer.
• Sync Only These Folders: Allows you to specify which folders to sync from Drive to your computer.

These are really straightforward—just choose what you’d like to sync and be done with it.

Step Three: Choose Other Folders On You PC to Sync

Next, let’s look at the My Computer section, where you can select other folders on your PC to sync. There are a few options already available here: Desktop, Documents, and Pictures. You can simply tick the box next to the option to completely back up everything from that location to your Google Drive. Simple.

But if you’d like to get a little more granular and only back up a certain folder, you can do this by clicking the “Choose Folder” option. Just navigate to the folder you’d like to back up, and click “Select Folder.” That’s all there is to it.

NOTE: Files you sync from outsdie your Drive folder won’t show up in Drive alongside all your other files. To access those files, head to Google Drive on the web and click on “My Computers” in the left menu. This option is also available in the Drive mobile apps.

If you want a file or folder to show up under “My Drive”, you’ll need to sync it the old-fashioned way: by putting it inside the Google Drive folder on your PC.

Step Four: Tweak Your Photo Uploading Settings

RELATED:18 Things You May Not Have Known Google Photos Can Do

Below the folder options in the “My Computer” section, you can also specify how you’d like to back up images (if you choose to back up images from your PC, of course): Original Quality, which will take up space in your Drive, or High Quality, which won’t take up any space in your Drive. The latter uses intelligent compression algorithms to shrink the size of the image without reducing quality, the same as it does in the Google Photos app on Android and iOS devices.

You can also specify how you’d like to control delete options: Remove Items Everywhere, Don’t Remove Items Everywhere, or Ask Me Before Removing Items Everywhere. The last option is set as the default, which really makes the most sense anyway. Feel free to change this according to your specific needs.

Lastly, you can tick the box in the Google Photos section to automatically scan your computer for new pictures and upload them to Google Photos. There’s also a small option at the bottom labeled “USB Devices & SD Cards,” which you can use to automatically upload files from your digital camera or USB drives if you’d like. Just plug in the drive or card and specify what you’d like to do with it.

A Few Additional Notes about Backup and Sync

That’s really all there is to Backup and Sync, but there are a couple of other things worth mentioning:

• You can rename your computer by clicking on the “My Computer” (or similar) text at the top of the “My Computer” page and giving it a specific name.
• You can easily upgrade your Drive storage or disconnect your account from the “Settings” tab.
• System startup rules, file sync icon, and right click settings can also be modified on the Settings tab.
• Backup and Sync’s network activity can be restricted in the “Network Settings” section of the Settings tab. Proxies can be specific, and download/upload rates capped if need be.
• The Backup and Sync tool will live in your computer’s system tray as long as it’s running. To access its settings, just click its icon in the tray, click the three-dot menu in the upper right corner, and choose “Preferences.”

That’s pretty much it, really. It’s a simple tool.

Looking for a quick and easy way to download all your pictures and videos from Google Photos? Maybe you want to create a backup locally or want to create a personal movie and need all the content locally stored for editing purposes?

Whatever the case, there’s a simple way to get all your content downloaded from Google Photos. Note that I previously talked about how you can download photos and videos from Facebook too.

It’s worth noting that if you simply need to download a couple of albums, it’s easier to just do that manually. Click on an album and then click on the three vertical dots at the top right. You’ll see an option called Download All.

This will download all the photos and videos in that album in ZIP format. The only problem with this method is that you can’t use it to download any photos and videos you upload from the Google Photos app on your phone or tablet.

To download all of those pictures and videos, you have to use the method I’m going to talk about below, which is Google Takeout.

Export Google Photos Data

There are two ways you can go about getting to Google Takeout. The easiest way is to follow the link below:

The more long-winded method is to go to Google.com and then click on your profile picture at the top right.

Click on My Account and this will bring you to a kind of dashboard for all settings related to your Google account.

Under the Personal info & privacy heading, click on Control your content.

You’ll see a Download your data box and a Create Archive link.

The next screen is going to be the same as if you had followed the link mentioned above. Here you can choose what data to include in your archive. By default, everything is selected. Go ahead and click on the Select none button and then click on the toggle button next to Google Photos.

You can click on the down arrow and choose Select photo albums if you want to select individual albums. Note that if you have uploaded a lot of pictures and videos from your phone, Google Photos automatically creates albums that are named by the date.

In my case, I had only created about 450 albums myself, but I have well over 2500 albums in Google Photos because of the camera upload feature on my smartphone. Leave it at Include all photos albums if you want to download everything. Scroll down to the bottom and click Next.

On the next screen, you have to choose the format you want to use for the archive. If you use ZIP, anything over 2 GB will be split into multiple ZIP files. This is kind of annoying if you have hundreds of GBs of data stored in the cloud. In my case, I have 550 GB of photos and videos, so I certainly don’t want to have to click on 225 download links. I’ve tried it once and it’s a pain.

Luckily, you can choose other formats like TGZ and TBZ. You won’t be able to open this using Windows, but you can download a free program like 7-Zip to open the archives. It should be noted that using the ZIP method will be a lot faster because it only has to create 2 GB files, which it can do quickly.

If you choose any of the other formats, the limit for a single files goes up to 50 GB. In my case, that’s only 11 links rather than 225, which is way more convenient. It does take a while longer for a TGZ or TBZ archive to complete, but you’re only talking about a few hours here and there.

By default, you’ll get an email with a link to download the files once the archive has been created. If you want, you can also directly save the archive to Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive, which is kind of nice.

Click the Create archive button and the process will begin. You can close the web browser and the process will continue in the background. You can always go back to Google Takeout and then click on Manage Archives to view the progress.

Overall, Google has made it really easy to download any data that you have stored in any of their services, a feature which is not available with a lot of other companies. If you have any questions, post a comment. Enjoy!

Clean Sweep: Keep Your Old Data Out of the Wrong Hands
After you move your files, you should keep your old computer for at least a couple of weeks in case you overlooked any files. However, if you sell, discard, or give away your old computer, make sure all your data, and personal information are removed. Simply transferring the files doesn't do that. Even deleting the files or reformatting the disk can still allow experts to retrieve information you don't want them to have, such as your bank information or old emails. Fortunately, free data destruction programs, like Darik's Boot And Nuke (DBAN), can erase everything on your old computer, ensuring you leave no (data) trace behind.

Stay Protected: Back Up the New Stuff
Now that you've gotten used to moving files off your old PC, it's a good time to make sure you have an ongoing backup system in place in case you have to restore those files again. Windows* 8 and above provides a handy feature called File History that allows you to automatically and routinely back up files to an external hard drive. This feature ensures your data won’t be history if the worst happens.

If you own a Mac, you have a variety of choices and platforms for backing up your data, from the iCloud to programs like Time Machine, depending on what version of OS X you’re running.

Remember: While there are plenty of easy ways to move and share data, you can only move the data you can access, so make sure your documents, photos, and other precious data remain protected even if your computer becomes lost or damaged. It’s easy to do automatically, and it ensures your next (computer) moving day will go more smoothly.