What’s changing
Earlier this year, we announced that we were working towards unifying our two existing Google Drive sync clients – Backup and Sync and Drive File Stream – into a single sync client called Drive for desktop. By doing this, we’re creating a powerful and unified sync client with the best and most used features from both Backup and Sync and Drive File Stream.
We also mentioned in this announcement that Google Workspace customers with Backup and Sync users would need to transition these users to Drive for desktop. Now, we want to provide a more detailed timeline for this transition:
- Starting July 19, 2021: Backup and Sync will support a guided flow to help users transition onto Drive for desktop.
- Starting August 18, 2021: Any users still on Backup and Sync will start to receive in-product notifications prompting them to transition to Drive for desktop.
- Starting October 1, 2021: Any users still on Backup and Sync after that point will no longer be able to sign in to Backup and Sync. To continue syncing with Drive and/or Google Photos, users will need to transition to Drive for desktop.
Use our Help Center to learn more about this timeline and to access resources to help manage the transition for your organization.
Users can easily see which files and folders are synced using Drive for desktop
Who’s impacted
Admins and end users
Why it’s important
Drive for desktop is a unified sync client that provides a consistent experience for anyone who uses Drive, whether for business, education or personal purposes. It enables you to quickly sync and access content directly from Mac or PC, which can save you time by helping you access files and folders in a familiar location. Drive for desktop also automatically syncs local files to the cloud in the background, which minimizes the time you need to spend waiting for files to sync while also freeing up your disk space and saving network bandwidth.
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