How to Mount Google Drive on Ubuntu and Sync Data Using Rsync: A Step-by-Step Guide

How to Mount Google Drive on Ubuntu and Sync Data Using Rsync: A Step-by-Step Guide

To mount Google Drive on Ubuntu Linux and sync local data to a Google Drive folder using rsync, you can use tools like rclone to create the mount. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Install rclone

First, install rclone if it’s not already installed. rclone is a popular tool for managing cloud storage on Linux.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install rclone -y

Step 2: Configure rclone for Google Drive

  1. Run the rclone config command to set up Google Drive: rclone config
  2. Follow the prompts to create a new remote for Google Drive:
    • Type n to create a new remote.
    • Name the remote (e.g., gdrive).
    • Select drive as the storage type.
    • Follow the prompts to authenticate with your Google account. rclone will guide you through obtaining an authentication token from Google.
  3. Once configured, you can verify your setup by listing Google Drive contents: rclone ls gdrive: (Replace gdrive with whatever name you used for the remote.)

Step 3: Mount Google Drive

To mount Google Drive to a directory, use rclone mount. For this example, we’ll mount it to /mnt/gdrive.

  1. Create the mount point: sudo mkdir /mnt/gdrive
  2. Mount Google Drive using rclone: rclone mount gdrive: /mnt/gdrive --daemon
    • The --daemon option allows the mount to run in the background.
    • Replace gdrive with your remote name if different.
    Note: If you’re running into permission issues, try running the mount command with sudo.
  3. Confirm that Google Drive is mounted by listing the contents of the directory: ls /mnt/gdrive

Step 4: Use rsync to Sync Data to Google Drive

Now that Google Drive is mounted, you can use rsync to copy or synchronize data to it.

For example, to sync a local directory (e.g., /path/to/local/data) to a Google Drive folder (e.g., /mnt/gdrive/backup), use:

rsync -avh /path/to/local/data/ /mnt/gdrive/backup
  • Options Explained:
    • -a: Archive mode, which preserves permissions, timestamps, and symlinks.
    • -v: Verbose, so you can see what’s being transferred.
    • -h: Human-readable output.

Step 5: Unmount Google Drive

When you’re finished, you can unmount Google Drive with:

fusermount -u /mnt/gdrive

or

sudo umount /mnt/gdrive

Automating the Process (Optional)

To automate the syncing process, you can add this setup to a cron job.

For example, to sync every night at midnight, you could add this line to your crontab:

crontab -e

Then add:

0 0 * * * /usr/bin/rclone mount gdrive: /mnt/gdrive --daemon && /usr/bin/rsync -avh /path/to/local/data/ /mnt/gdrive/backup && /usr/bin/fusermount -u /mnt/gdrive

This approach mounts Google Drive, syncs your data, and then unmounts it.

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