phot0n0ob

I keep my LR catalog and library in Google Drive; for those of you who may be doing the same, I'd like to share my initial experience with "Google Drive Desktop" the Windows/macOS application that is now replacing "Google Backup and Sync" to keep data in sync between your Google Drive in the cloud and a local copy on your computer.

Unlike Backup & Sync, which only shows you whichever folders you decided to actually sync to your computer, Drive Desktop shows you the entire content of your Google Drive and simply downloads on demand whatever file you want to open. In addition, you can tag files and folders as "offline access" which downloads them to your local disk and keeps them in sync w/cloud storage.

Drive Desktop also completely changes the way it presents itself to the user. With Backup and Sync you designated a folder as your local Google Drive folder and the application synced data into that folder. With Drive Desktop that local copy is stuffed away deep in the bowls of ~/Library/Application Support (macOS) or ~\AppData\Local (Windows).
On macOS Google Drive then launches a server process and maps that local "cache" as a network volume into /Volumes/Google Drive. As you may be aware, LR does not allow a catalog file on a network drive; if you try to open that catalog from within your local Google Drive copy, LR will terminate with an error message. The actual pictures in the library can stay in Google Drive, but the catalog file cannot.
On Windows, the local cache is mapped to a drive letter (G:\ by default) and since this is seen as a local disk, LR can open a catalog from it without issues.

goldstar46 Loc: Tampa, Fl

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phot0n0ob...

I do the same thing when I travel with my laptop w/ a 1TB M.2 SSD, and Sync.com

The wife and I are currently planning a 1 or2 month road trip up north and the above is our current consideration. I have been 'testing' it for about a month now... and anxious to see how it work out. So far, my preliminary test are showing some very nice upload speeds and timing...

My Lightroom will Live on the Laptop C: Drive, along with a "Sync" folder, which will be 'auto-up-loaded' to their (Sync.com) server during the time when we have access to the internet which should be on a frequent basis.

The above cloud (images & LR Catalogs) data then will be 'synchronized' with my home computer which has a "Sync" folder on it... and will be "on 24/7" w/ UPS support.

All images, along with Lightroom Catalogs will be maintained in the "Sync" folder and are replicated at home, on a continuous basis, as we continue to travel...

My one big advantage, I believe to the above, is that Sync.com offers a price plan for 1TB of storage at $5/month, and then if I need more ~~ which I don't think I will ~~ 2TB of storage can be had for $8/month. Not bad.

A second advantage is that I think Sync is going to be just a little bit 'faster' on the transfer speeds... BUT, we shall see during this trial session...

It is truly a shame that Adobe is so darn expensive on their cloud storage, but... YES, they are in the business to make money... Just wish they were a little more competitive... LOL

I wish you the best with your venture into the clouds... LOL... and we both with be looking forward to seeing how it all turns out...

Cheers
George Veazey
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