Peter Moriarty: If right now you are using Google Drive File
Stream, or backup and sync, there are some important changes
happening that have been announced in 2021. I'm going to
take you through what those changes are, and why you need to
take action if you're currently using Google backup and sync,
and where you go with all that data stored and synchronized on
your desktop to make sure that it's safely secured in the
cloud.
My name is Peter Moriarty and I founded a company called
itGenius. And we help business owners all over the world with
their technology needs. Now, whether you are a small business
owner just getting started out or if you're growing and scaling
up your business, then we are here to help. And we take
businesses through the growth roadmap of the different
technology strategies that are suitable for businesses at
different sizes. If you're interested in learning more
about that, you can check out our playlist on our YouTube
channel on the link below. And our team will show you how you
can learn no matter what stage of business you're at, to get
more out of your tech. Now in this video, I'm covering what
are the changes in the Google Drive sync solution world and
why you need to take action if you're still using backup and
sync. Now, if you don't already know what's kind of happening in
the Google world. Well, a couple years ago, Google created from
one Google Drive app, multiple Google Drive apps for desktop.
And it got a little bit confusing, but they eventually
kind of clarified that one was best suited for personal use,
and another was best suited for business use. Now, the Google
backup and sync was basically useful for synchronizing in the
old way that Google used to work. So a little bit like
Dropbox, you will be able to choose folders, and have them
synchronized right down to your desktop. It also had some other
cool features like being able to synchronize your Google Photos.
And what that meant was you could backup photos stored in
folders on your computer, automatically into Google
Photos. Now Google File Stream came along and it changed one
important thing. And that was that with Google File Stream,
you could see every folder online, but you didn't have to
download the contents of every single folder down to your
desktop to access them. And so File Stream was more useful for
business users who maybe had a lot of data sitting in Google
Drive, but you still wanted to access it from the local
desktop. So if you were working on a Microsoft Word document and
hit the Save button, you could save it straight into your
Google Drive without having to save it to the desktop and kind
of like upload it to the web, or without having to juggle which
folders you synchronize, and which folders you don't
synchronize by using the selective sync folder in the
backup and sync app. Now, Google has said that they have decided
to bring both of those technology tools together. Now,
what that means is I are going to be discontinuing the backup
and sync tool, and just moving to a new consolidated tool
called drive for desktop. Now, you'll still have the ability
and the option to connect to all of your files in your Google
Drive online, you'll still have the ability to connect to Shared
Folders online. And so if you're using a business workspace
account, and in there, you've got shared folders, which is the
best way to share for businesses, you'll be able to
access those two. But Google will also allow you to
synchronize whole folders and keep them available offline,
using the offline files feature the ability to automatically
synchronize your documents and your photos in your local
desktop automatically into Google Photos online. But they
have some other solutions for synchronizing Google Photos.
Now, what does this mean for you, if you're a business it
later and you need to roll this out for your team members? Well,
if they're already using Google File Stream, that's fine, that's
going to automatically transition to the new drive for
desktop. And so there's no reinstallation or changes that
you need to make happen. But if right now you're using Google
backup and sync, eventually, you'll start receiving messages
that that's going to be discontinued. And there's a new
version called drive for desktop that you will need to actually
download. Now, it's pretty straightforward. You download
it, you sign in, you install your right username and
password. From there, it's going to start synchronizing and
connecting to your computer. And just remembering if you want to
access any of those files offline to right click on a
folder, click available offline, and then you'll be able to get
access to them. Now, if you're interested in any support with
migrating with Google Drive, if you've still got files in
folders on your desktop, or maybe you've still got stuffs
hanging around in a Dropbox somewhere and you want to
migrate them into the latest Google Drive with all of the
amazing features that are available, get in touch with our
team, jump on a consultation on the link below and see if our
team are a good fit to work with you. No matter where you are in
the world. We have solutions for business owners of all sizes.
And if you're not already working with us, but you are
using Google workspace, well, you might be interested in
taking advantage of our free transfer in offer. Now, when you
transfer your billing into it genius, you don't pay any extra
but you get a bunch of amazing support from our team.
Now not only do you get basic support for free from our
professional services team, you also get access to our genius
Academy, which is a classroom of professional videos helping you
and your team get the most out of Google workspace. Now we want
to take you from wherever you are now to genius level on your
Google workspace, including your staff as well so that everyone
in your team can be more productive. And to do that, we
take you through our classes in Google Cloud. And we even have
quizzes and certifications to make sure that your team are up
to speed. Now we imagine this is the best way for you to have
your team automatically on boarded into the Google
ecosystem when they first start working for you. But all of your
existing team could probably retro actively learn a few
things in the Google ecosystem and getting the most out of the
platform. And so we highly recommend putting them through
that training. Not only that, but just having your billing
through us means that if there's ever an emergency with your
account, if you're hacked or you're locked out, or you have
something go wrong, we are just one phone call away. So if
you're interested in that offer, jump on the link below, and I
look forward to seeing you on the other side. Cheers.