Google Fast Fixes

6 fast fixes for common Google Bulldoze issues

Eliminate annoyances and say sayonara to storage struggles with these easy-to-implement, good-canonical solutions.

Table of Contents
  • Google Bulldoze problem No. one: Hard downloads
  • Google Bulldoze problem No. 2: Role awfulness
  • Google Drive problem No. 3: Conversion challenges
  • Google Bulldoze problem No. iv: Mobile syncing
  • Google Bulldoze problem No. 5: Quick Access irritation
  • Google Drive problem No. 6: The buried file dejection

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Ah, the cloud. Information technology sounds and so lite, so fluffy, and so worry-free — doesn't information technology?

Here in the real earth, though, deject services aren't always so uncomplicated. With Google Drive, specifically, whether you're storing and managing multimedia assets or dealing with documents and spreadsheets, at that place'southward a decent chance you'll see some manner of murkiness along the style.

Drive does lots of things well, but it certainly has its share of, shall we say, quirks. I've heard it all over the years — and at present, I've put together a drove of some of the well-nigh mutual Drive challenges I've encountered along with some fast 'n' simple solutions to overcome 'em.

Read through these fixes, hang onto whatsoever that seem relevant for future reference, and get ready to watch your cloud-related worries float away.

Google Drive problem No. one: Difficult downloads

For something that's primarily a storage service, you'd think the basic human activity of, y'know, transferring files with Drive would be effortless. Unfortunately, though, Drive is somewhat notorious for making downloads a massive pain in the patootie — at least, when more than one file is involved.

When you lot select multiple files on the Drive website and so try to download 'em all simultaneously, the site begins to parcel the files into a compressed goose egg annal — and then, all as well frequently, takes an eternity to finish that process and start your actual download. It'due south a frequently frustrating experience and the final thing you want to deal with when you lot're just trying to save some stuff and move on.

There's not much y'all tin can do about the process itself, but you can avoid the website entirely and transfer files in a simpler, faster, and more reliable style. Yous've got a few different options, all of which put the Bulldoze website method to shame.

First, if y'all're using Chrome OS, the role you lot need is built correct into your Chromebook: Just open up the system Files app, observe the Google Drive section in the left-hand menu, and elevate and driblet whatever folders or files between there and your local storage.

01a google drive fixes chrome os files app JR Raphael/IDG

The Chrome Os Files app has native Bulldoze integration for easy file transfers. (Click image to enlarge it.)

On a Windows or Mac computer, take hold of Google's official Backup and Sync plan or the team-based File Stream alternative for managed enterprise environments. You can so set the programme up to keep any folders from your Bulldoze storage synced to your computer'due south storage — so a folder on your reckoner basically becomes a mirror for the equivalent binder in Drive. Annihilation you lot save to it or drag to it will automatically get uploaded to Bulldoze, and the local folder and the Drive folder will e'er be identical.

01b google drive fixes backup and sync JR Raphael/IDG

Google'due south official Backup and Sync program makes it super-uncomplicated to move files back and forth betwixt Drive and a Windows or Mac figurer. (Click image to enlarge it.)

And finally, if you want to get actually geeky, yous can actually utilise an FTP program to sign into your Bulldoze account and then drag and drop things straight between it and your computer without any annoying interfaces or unnecessary time-wasters. If that sounds too complicated or confusing for you, then information technology's probably not something you demand. But if you lot utilize FTP in other parts of your life and observe the possibility alluring, the specific program yous'll want to catch to brand it happen is a free and open-source FTP client called Cyberduck. Information technology's bachelor for both Windows and Mac (and in that location'due south really no need for information technology on Chrome Os, since the same basic capability is congenital directly into the organization file director on that platform).

Once y'all've installed the program, click the Open up Connection push, select "Google Bulldoze" from the dropdown carte at the top of the connection box, then click Connect. A page will pop up in your browser prompting you to allow the app access to your Bulldoze storage, afterwards which you'll be given a special code that you'll need to copy and paste dorsum into a prompt that'll exist waiting for you in the app.

Afterward y'all've done that, you'll have a file-system-similar view of your Drive storage right in forepart of you — and you can drag and drop anything from your estimator into it or anything from it into a local estimator binder.

Every bit an extra-geeky bonus, Cyberduck can do the same affair with both Dropbox and OneDrive also, in example you have any need to connect to either of those services.

Google Drive problem No. 2: Function awfulness

I don't know about you, but I tend to get a whole lot of Word files sent my mode. And since I long ago sent Microsoft's Office apps a-packin' and switched over to Google Docs for all of my own writing, I commonly cease up dragging those files into the Drive website to open 'em and do any's needed within my preferred environment.

For years, Drive relied on a Chrome-continued arrangement called Office Compatibility Manner to make that possible. It's a stripped-downward interface where you can view and perform basic edits on Part files but where most advanced word processing features — including commenting — are missing in action. And quite honestly, it's kind of irritating to utilize.

In that location's actually a much improve option, though — one you'd probably never know existed if you've been using Drive for long enough to have that Compatibility Mode system in place. And then here it is: Since mid-2019, Bulldoze has supported native Microsoft Part file editing within the standard, fully featured Google Docs interface and without any conversions or stripped-down setups required.

If you're however seeing that old Compatibility Mode when dragging Function files into the Drive website, all y'all've gotta practice is remove the Office Editing extension from your browser — by opening its Chrome Web Store page and clicking the Remove from Chrome button (which will be nowadays if the extension is installed) — and so refresh the Bulldoze website, if y'all already had it open. The next time yous drag an Office file into the site, Bulldoze will automatically open information technology in an editor that looks and works exactly like the regular Docs editor, only with a blue ".DOCX" chip next to the file's name to let you know you're using the Word format. (But notation that somewhat confusingly, you demand to drag the file into the Bulldoze website, non upload to the Docs website, for this to work.)

02 google drive fixes docx editing JR Raphael/IDG

Working with Function files in Drive is a delight — once you go everything fix up correctly. (Click image to overstate it.)

The file will remain in its original format throughout any edits you lot brand. If you need to export it to send it dorsum to someone after editing, you lot tin e'er download or share it from Drive or directly from the Docs editing interface. (And while we're been talking about documents specifically hither, by the mode, all of this same stuff applies to Excel and PowerPoint files as well.)

Only one last thing to check: Bulldoze has an option inside its settings (which you can find by clicking the gear-shaped icon in the Drive site's upper-right corner and then selecting — aye, you lot guessed it — "Settings") that'll automatically convert all uploaded documents into the Docs editing format. That typically isn't enabled by default, merely if you lot desire to make sure any Word files remain in the Word format, as described above, you might want to take a quick peek and confirm that that option is indeed deactivated on your account.

Google Bulldoze problem No. 3: Conversion challenges

Speaking of file formats, have you e'er found yourself staring at a file in your Bulldoze and wishing you had a way to turn information technology into some other blazon of file? Whether it'due south a document yous need to transform into a PDF, a PNG yous need to morph into a JPG, or a WAV you desire saved as an MP3, moving from one way of file to another is a delicate and often difficult dance.

It doesn't have to be, though. Beginning of all, if the conversion you need revolves around any manner of standard text file — PDF, RTF, DOCX, TXT, or fifty-fifty HTML or EPUB — you can actually handle your transformation direct within Docs. Just open the file into Docs (either past double-clicking it within Drive, if it already has the Docs icon next to information technology and is gear up to open there past default, or by right-clicking it and so selecting "Open up with" followed past "Google Docs" if not).

From at that place, if the file is a PDF, it'll automatically get converted into a plain-text certificate on the spot. If information technology'south any other type of file, you lot can click "File" followed by "Download" to find options for saving information technology into an alternate format.

03 google drive fixes file types JR Raphael/IDG

You can catechumen documents into lots of other file types straight inside the Google Docs editor.

But what if you're dealing with something beyond a basic text file? The answer there lies within an ultra-handy Google Drive add together-on called CloudConvert. Open up the add-on's folio within the Google Workspace Marketplace, click the button to install it, and follow the steps to add it into your business relationship.

You'll come across some warnings about the level of access you'll be granting the service, simply don't fret: First of all, CloudConvert will have admission merely to the Drive files that yous explicitly send to information technology or create with it, non to your entire Bulldoze storage — and 2nd, the company's privacy policy makes it clear that it never reads or collects information from uploaded files or does annihilation shady with your info. (The company makes its money by selling subscriptions, but unless you anticipate doing more than 25 file conversions a day, y'all won't have to pay to apply it.)

After y'all've got that added, you lot tin can right-click on any file inside Bulldoze and then select "Open with" followed by "CloudConvert" to select a new format and begin a conversion. The resulting file will be saved dorsum into your Drive storage as soon as it's finished.

Google Drive trouble No. 4: Mobile syncing

The Drive syncing systems we talked about a infinitesimal ago are dandy on the desktop front end — but when you're using Drive from your phone, y'all're much more than express in options.

Certain, you can utilise the Bulldoze app'south built-in "Make bachelor offline" function — which you can find by tapping the three-dot carte icon aslope whatever individual file — if y'all need to continue specific Drive files accessible on your device fifty-fifty when you aren't online. If you want to actually sync entire folders in either management, though, or have any files available for use exterior of Bulldoze itself, the official app won't be of any aid.

On Android, an app called Autosync for Google Drive will fill that void. It's among my picks for the best Android file management apps effectually, in fact, and for practiced reason: The app makes it as easy every bit can be to create pairs of folders that are continuously synced betwixt your Drive storage and your phone — in both directions, in merely ane management, or even in an upload-and-then-delete sort of arrangement. You just selection out the local folder and the Drive folder y'all want to use, select the appropriate parameters, then sit down back and permit the app do its work silently in the groundwork over time.

04 google drive fixes autosync JR Raphael/IDG

Autosync lets you continue folders synced betwixt Bulldoze and your Android device.

Autosync is costless to use for a single folder pairing and with files that are 10MB or smaller. You can remove those restrictions and unlock other advanced features with a sometime $5 in-app payment.

Google Bulldoze problem No. 5: Quick Access irritation

Drive's Quick Access console — that big strip o' suggested files at the top of the website's main folio — is meant to make it faster for you to pull upwardly items you lot've accessed recently or that Google for some reason thinks you're probable to exist looking for before long. If it seems more similar wasted space than a helpful resource for yous, though, have notation: Y'all can disable it.

It'll take you all of 10 seconds to practice: Click the gear-shaped icon in the upper-right corner of the Drive website, select "Settings," then whorl down inside the first section until you come across "Suggestions." Uncheck the box adjacent to it, and bam: Just similar that, Drive'southward Quick Settings will be out of your life forever.

Google Bulldoze trouble No. 6: The buried file dejection

Nosotros all have those perpetually of import files — documents, images, and other resources-like items nosotros pull upwardly all the time. And always having to search for said VIP files to discover 'em isn't exactly fun or productive.

Drive doesn't accept any way to pin files to the elevation of a listing, simply information technology does have some helpful tools for treating certain files every bit loftier priority and making them peculiarly like shooting fish in a barrel to find and access. Showtime, you tin can star any file (or even an entire folder) by right-clicking information technology and selecting "Add to Starred" on the Drive website or by borer the three-dot menu icon alongside it and and so selecting that same option within the Bulldoze mobile app. Doing so will cause the item to appear in a special starred section that you lot can then get to by clicking the "Starred" pick in the main left-of-screen menu or by bookmarking this direct link for the desktop — or by borer the star-shaped icon within the master bottom-of-screen menu in the mobile app.

You tin can too create your own custom shortcuts for files or folders so that they effectively appear in multiple places — if, say, you take an important detail that'due south buried a few folders deep in your Bulldoze. By creating a shortcut for it, y'all could make it available from the primary "My Drive" listing while technically still leaving information technology in its properly organized home. Just right-click on any file or folder and select "Add shortcut to Drive" to go started with that from a reckoner; tap that three-dot bill of fare icon next to any item to find the same selection on mobile.

If you're using Android, you can also add a direct shortcut to any file or folder correct onto your phone'due south home screen for one-impact admission without fifty-fifty having to open the app. Tap the three-dot menu icon alongside the item you want, then curl down and expect for the "Add to Dwelling house screen" pick to give it a whirl.

Whew — that pesky ol' cloud is sure starting to experience a heck of lot lighter, isn't it? For fifty-fifty more on-the-spot tech troubleshooting, click over to some of my other recent "fast fixes" guides:

  • 12 fast fixes for common Android bug
  • 8 fast fixes for common Chrome OS problems

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