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Situations about Google Drive Does Not Sync All Files

1. Google Drive Doesn’t Sync All Folders

“I have Google Drive for PC on multiple computers as a free cloud backup solution. Within my Google Drive, there are about 30 folders containing 10,000 files. On one computer it will sync up 15 folders and 6,000 files, on another, it will sync up 29 folders and all files and on a third, it will sync up 29 folders and 9,000 files. All Google Drives for PC on each computer are set up the same way. This has become very frustrating and any help would be greatly appreciated.”

Google Drive Does Not Sync All Files
Google Drive Does Not Sync All Files

2. Google Drive Not All Files Sync - Deep Level Files

“Hi there, just installed Google sync, busy testing, the app does not sync to a 6th level of the folder structure. I looked for settings but could not find anything. Seems like technology not working well. I will re-consider Google as a solution. Bummer!!!”

3. Google Drive Says Sync Complete But It Not

“Google Drive said ‘Sync complete’, but 15 or so files weren’t synced”.

4. Google Drive Sync Complete But Files Missing

“But now, when I put new files or folder, or when save any files, the sync disappear... No red, green, or blue icons, all disappear and the sync dead...”

Here in the following parts, you will find 20 ways to help you resolve Google backup and sync, not working problems, and a new method to help you transfer one cloud to other clouds without downloading and uploading. Since this article is a bit long, you can choose the method you are interested in from the following guides.

20 Fixes to Google Drive Does Not Sync All Files and Folders

Solution 1 - Pause and Resume Google Drive

You can try to temporarily pause its sync task especially when Google backup is stuck. Then, resume its work. Then, it should rescan the source files and find out what it has missed out.

Pause Backup and Sync

Pause Backup and Sync

Solution 2 - Restart Google Sync

Exit Google Drive from its system tray icon on the bottom right taskbar then goes to programs/applications in the Start menu and open Google Drive again. It will normally look for unsynced files and will sync missing files then.

Solution 3 - Run Google Backup App as Administrator

Manually click on Google backup software on the computer and choose to run it as Administrator could help with Google Drive does not sync all files.

Solution 4 - Resign in

Sometimes, when you had signed in to everything else Google on your computer, you don't even think about having to check to see if you are still signing in specifically to Drive on PC. Usually, there should be some kind of notification to tell you that you are not signing in. Thus, just sign in to your account to fix Google Drive doesn’t sync all files and folders problem.

Or, maybe you have multiple user accounts on a PC that has Google Drive installed (syncing for different Google Drive users). If you switch users (as opposed to logging out of the first account), Google Drive refuses to sync when you switch back to the first user's account. Therefore, logging off and on of each user account with GoogleDrive installed seems to keep the GoogleDrive syncing operational.

Besides, make sure that the account you use on the sync app is the same one you use online to view files.

Solution 5 - Reboot Machine

If you are sure there is nothing wrong with the Google app, you can try restarting your computer and phone, or other mobile devices.

Solution 6 - Reinstall Backup and Sync

Uninstall it and clear the folder, then reinstall with startup options, etc. Maybe you should re-download its installation file from the official webpage.

Solution 7 - Change Firewall Settings

Change firewall/antivirus settings to make sure Google Drive is allowed to sync. Or, maybe you should choose another antivirus program.

Some computer optimizing software like AVG PC Tuneup will disable some applications to boost computer running speed. Thus, Google Drive might be disabled when it senses it is "not in use". This keeps your files from loading and downloading. So, make sure Google Drive is always enabled.

Solution 8 - Change Windows Permission

The way Google Drive handles files may cause some issues with the crash plan that necessitated some messing around with security permissions. There may be Windows permissions conflicts when sharing the same files with different computers. To solve this problem, you may have to manually add your user to lower-level directories.

If you get error messages like “You do not have permission to sync this file” or “You only have permission to view this file, so your changes cannot be synced”, you can contact the owner of the file and request the ability to edit.

Solution 9 – Switch Proxy Settings

Switch proxy settings from "Auto-detect" to "Direct connection" and move the local Google Drive folder to "C:\Google Drive" should solve Google Drive doesn’t sync all files problem.

Backup and Sync Proxy Settings
Backup and Sync Proxy Settings

Solution 10 - Mark the Un-synced Files

Select all folders (checking the checkbox in the list header) and set "More/Mark as viewed". It will start to sync them. If this doesn’t work, try to mark them as unread or add stars to them.

Solution 11 - Make Sure All Folders are Checked to Sync

If Google Drive sync is complete but not from online to local, you can go to "Preferences" and make sure that you have chosen “Mirror files” instead of "Stream files". This makes all of your folders available for desktop access as well.

Mirror Files in Google Drive
Mirror Files in Google Drive

If Google Drive does not sync all files from local to cloud, go to "Preferences" and make sure all folders you want to sync are checked in the “My Computer” tab.

Solution 12 - Resync All Files

1. On your computer, click the Google Drive taskbar icon.
2. Click “View # unsyncable files”.
3. Click “Retry all”.
4. If this doesn't work, restart the Google Drive app.

Or, close Google Drive on your computer, move the entire of your Google Drive contents out then reopen Google Drive. Go into Google Drive's "Preferences" and uncheck all of the folders. Then, Google Drive online will remove all the files it has synced from your computer. After it finishes, drag all contents back in. Finally, it will sync or save all the files to the cloud again.

Solution 13 - View Un-synced Files Online

Go to the web drive and use Drive viewer to view the missed files, then they will be synced to the PC. This is not a good solution when there are hundreds of files missed. Also, to find them out of thousands of files is time-consuming.

Maybe, you can just right-click Google Drive in your system tray, then clicked on "Visit Google Drive on the web" to see if this gets all missed files synced to the cloud at one time or not.

Visit Google Drive on the Web
Visit Google Drive on the Web

Solution 14 - Auto Refresh Source Folders

You can re-refresh the files on your computer or Google Drive to keep them up-to-date.

Solution 15 - Rename Google Drive

Go to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Drive\" and rename the "googledrivesync.exe" file to any other name like "googledrivesync123.exe". Then, rename the shortcut. Run it again and it may work.

Solution 16 - Delete Desktop.ini

For whatever reason, whenever a file fails to sync in a folder, all future additions/changes made to any files in that folder will fail to sync, until the error is cleared (which often requires deleting the file). Or, delete the desktop.ini file in the root folder and also in the cloud folder and restart the Google Drive again. Since desktop.ini is a hidden file, to delete it, you may need to show hidden files first.

Note: To show hidden files, open "Windows Explorer", click on Options under the View tab and click on Change folder and search options.

Solution 17 - Insufficient Cloud Storage

You do not have enough Google storage for this file. Please buy more storage…” If Google Drive sync not complete when syncing from local to cloud, it may due to there are not enough storage space in your plan to save all the source files. Thus, just upgrading your storage plan can get all files synced.

Solution 18 - Shorten File and Folder Name Length

There exists a possibility that many of the files in your Google Drive have a filename length that is too long to be used by a Microsoft OS. All Windows computers have a maximum filename length of 255 characters, meaning that if you have many layers of folders in your Google Drive it will not be able to properly sync files within deeply-layered folders. The solution to this would be to shorten file and folder names and try again.

If this is the problem, then there is not much that Google would be able to change. At this time, it would require a new OS version of Windows.

Solution 19 - For Sync between Two Computers

If you are syncing files between two local devices and use Google Drive as transit, you need to make a home group to connect the two computers. Then, you get a password on computer 1, you enter it on computer 2, and they will sync with each other.

Solution 20 - Manually Upload/Download

If all solutions above don’t work for you, I’m afraid you have to manually drag and drop local files to Google Drive on the webpage. And, you should download directly from the cloud to local.

What Can MultCloud Do with Google Drive Sync Not Complete?

Have you tired of fixing the "Google Drive does not sync all files and folders" problem but with no success? Do you want to switch to other cloud services like Dropbox or OneDrive? If so, how to switch to them? Download all you have now on Google Drive to local storage and upload these files manually to another cloud, like Dropbox?

No, this is not what you want for it is doomed to be a time-consuming and boring task that can make you crazy. Then, is there an easier way? Yes, you can rely on MultCloud - a free web-based cloud to cloud migration software that enables you to directly transfer Google Drive files to Dropbox, OneDrive, MEGA, or other different cloud drives.

 

It can also help you sync files among different accounts of the same cloud brand and manage multiple cloud storage accounts together. To learn how MultCloud works, you could learn detailed info from the product page.

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