Coming Soon! Google Drive File Stream

September 13, 2017

Google Drive File Stream is an upcoming desktop application that allows you to access your Google Drive directly from your computer and uses almost none of your hard disk space. With this launch, the Google Drive for Mac/PC app is officially deprecated. It will no longer be supported starting on December 11, 2017, and it will shut down completely on March 12, 2018. Accessing Drive with a web browser is not affected.

With Google Drive File Stream, you stream your Google Drive files directly from the cloud to your Mac or PC, freeing up disk space and network bandwidth. Because the Drive files are stored in the cloud, any changes you or your collaborators make are automatically updated everywhere. You’ll always have the latest version.

You can also make Drive files available for offline access. These cached files sync back to the cloud when you're online, so the latest version is available on all your devices.

  • With Drive File Stream, you can:
  • See your Google Drive files in Mac OS Finder/Windows Explorer (including Team Drives).
  • Browse and organize Google Drive files without downloading them to your computer.
  • Choose which files or folders you'd like to make available offline.
  • Open files in common apps like Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop.

After testing and evaluation by the ITS Collaboration team, Google Drive File Stream will be available in the settings drop-down menu and will gradually roll out to campus in early October.

A couple of important things to note:

  • In October, you may start seeing messages notifying you that the Drive for Mac/PC app is going away.
  • Team Drive editors won’t be able to edit their Team Drive files when they’re opened in Drive File Stream; they’ll only be able to view them. To edit these files, you will need to open them in Drive on the web.