It is increasingly common to use cloud storage services to save our data as a backup. Among these services, Google Drive is one of the best known and most popular, which is now in the process of being restructured. Since the beginning of the year, they have opted for the idea of merging Drive customers both individuals and companies. To do this, it will combine its Backup and Sync services (home users) and Drive File Stream (for companies) in a single desktop client.
In this way, the new Drive for Desktop will be the client in charge of synchronizing the files on the cloud storage server with our computer, whether we are private users or companies, which means that Backup and Sync will stop working, taking with it two important functions such as backup and synchronization, which we will not be able to use from October, unless we update to its new desktop version.
Backup and Sync comes to an end on October 1
In this way, Backup and Sync will be discontinued. To continue using the service it will be necessary for us to transfer all of our stored data to the new Drive desktop application. For this, Google will enable a transition period during which we can carry out the entire process. Once the backup and sync functions are finished, they will be removed from Backup and Sync. This period is divided into three stages:
- From July 19, 2021 : users who use Backup and Sync will be able to see how it will begin to offer a guided flow that will help us change all our content and make the transition to Drive for Desktop.
- As of August 18, 2021 : you can continue to perform backups and synchronization, but we will begin to receive notifications informing the end of the service, requesting that you make the transition to the Google desktop application.
- As of October 1, 2021 : from now on Backup and Sync will not allow backups and synchronization , requiring the transition to Drive for Desktop to continue synchronizing with Drive or Google Photos.
As we can see from the dates provided by Google, Backup and Sync will not disappear immediately. We can continue using it until next October 1. From that date it will be necessary to use the Drive desktop application in order to continue using the software, so we can uninstall Backup and Sync from our PC.
Advantages of the new Drive for Desktop
So far, Backup and Sync, is an offline sync client. This means that it is in charge of synchronizing the data between our computer and the server, downloading the content locally to our storage system. With the new desktop application, the files that we have stored on our desktop will have a backup copy of the content in the cloud.
Drive for Desktop for Windows includes the ability to upload images directly to Photos or Drive. Until now, we had to first upload a certain file to Drive before we could create a copy in Photos. From now on, we save the step with the consequent reduction of time and effort required. In addition, it will offer support for backup copies in external storage such as hard drives and flash drives, as well as the possibility of duplicating Drive files on our desktop.
