Google Discontinues Drive App for Mac and PC
Google made the announcement in a blog post promoting the new Drive File Stream app, which provides on demand access to files similar to OneDrive On Demand.
Google notes that users of the older drive backup service will begin to receive notifications in October about its discontinuation:
In October, Drive for Mac/PC users may start seeing messages in the product notifying them that Drive for Mac/PC is going away.If a user is running both Drive File Stream and Backup and Sync on the same machine, they’ll be prompted to stop syncing My Drive with Backup and Sync in order to save disk space.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, they’ll need to open them in Drive on the web. Source
There are some limitations between Drive File Stream and Backup & Sync. Most of the differences are enterprise related. Below is a table, which lists these differences:
One of the much-touted benefits of Google Backup and Sync is the ability to back up anything and everything. Over time though, you are likely to use up the free 15 GBs of space offered. Users can always upgrade for additional storage, which starts at $1.99/month for 100 GB. Or you can get 1 TB For $9.99 / month. These past few months have been quite a whirlwind of announcements regarding backup and file hosting services. In late August, CrashPlan announced it was shutting down their home backup service, while Microsoft noted in a support article that a future unknown feature update will remove support for legacy backup tools such as File History and System Image. It’s a lot to take in, but it’s good to see reasonable alternatives available while the industry restructures itself. Let us know what you think and what your current backup plans and strategies are going forward. Comment
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