Adding backup completes the picture for them while only potentially adding recurring storage costs if they bump up a tier or more.įor those who install few apps or entirely from the Mac App Store and are primarily concerned about backing up documents and media in a few easy to identify locations, like the home folder’s Documents and Photos folders, Google Backup and Sync might be enough. The software is consistent and not confusing, and it’s an enhancement for people already tied into Google ecosystem. It’s better to have a single, flexible piece of software running on your Mac instead of the previous two different sync apps for Google Drive and Google Photos, while also adding this backup feature.

Is Backup and Sync neither fish nor fowl in trying to be too many things? Not quite. The software is smart enough to warn you when you delete something in a backup set whether you want to delete it from cloud storage, including in both Google Drive and Google Photos when media is involved. You can opt with Backup and Sync to sync Google Drive to your computer, but you don’t have to you can use it entirely for backup and access Google Drive via the web. When you visit via a web browser or a smartphone app, you’ll see My Drive for files synced via Google Drive and Computers for a list of folders and their contents that have been backed up. However, you can opt for Original Quality, which simply copies the file and counts the file’s size against your quota.īecause Backup and Sync effectively incorporates Google Photos sync, there’s a preference that lets you add all uploaded media to Google Photos as well. For video, it says that it might increase compression slightly on 1080p and coarser video, and it downsamples video above 1080p to that resolution. If you choose High Quality, your image and movie storage isn’t counted at all, but Google may compress files below 16 megapixels (16MP), and it downsamples larger images to 16MP. The system recognizes photos and videos and lets you set a preference you may be familiar with if you were already using Google Photos’ uploader. The sync menu shows progress, including previews.

Google drive backup and sync iphone