If you use Google Drive and/or Photos on PC and Mac, beware that both of those apps are being eliminated starting December 11th, 2017 and shut off completely in March of next year. Don’t mourn their loss too much, though. Both have already been replaced by a single app called Google Backup and Sync, which handles both photos and data at once. Business and enterprise users, meanwhile, are being shuffled to Drive File Stream, which is now in wide release after a limited launch in March. Backup and Sync lets you, well, backup and sync photos and going files from PC folders, USB keys and SD cards to the cloud, so they’re available anywhere. The original Google Drive was not so convenient, as it required you to use two separate apps for files and photos.
![Is Google Drive For Mac Pc Going Away Soon? Is Google Drive For Mac Pc Going Away Soon?](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125384310/691667870.jpg)
Yes, the old Google Drive app is going away but there is a replacement. I have been using ‘Backup and Sync from Google’ for a few months now. It was better than the old app from day 1. I especially like that it can handle selective sync of folders much better than the old app ever did. Google announced in a blog post today that the Google Drive app for desktop will be shut down. The Verge reports: Support will be cut off on December 11th and the app will shut down completely on March 12th, 2018. Users who are still running the Drive app will start seeing notifications in October that it's 'going away,' and the company will steer customers towards one of two replacements depending on whether they're a consumer or business user.
That could affect your storage space dramatically — if you upload images to Drive, it counts against your space, but if you upload them to Photos (using the “high,” not “original” setting), it doesn’t. At the same time, PC backups are now a more automated process. Google also fully launched Drive File Stream, an app that performs roughly the same chores as Backup and Sync, but for enterprise and business users. It has more team-oriented features, like on-demand file streaming and access to Team Drives (for a comparison chart and other info, check here). The loss of Drive on the desktop won’t affect your life much, unless you really liked the old Drive logo, which has been changed to something that resembles Microsoft’s OneDrive icon. Google also points out that you may soon see messages notifying you that “Drive for Mac/PC is going away,” presumably to join Google Reader and others in the great App Graveyard.
Via: Neowin Source: Google G Suite.
Drive File Stream is for GSuite users, looks great but we already use Egnyte in enterprise as we need hybrid storage (local in sync with cloud) for performance demand The Backup and Sync for personal users is just an expansion of Google Drive. Its much better as you install it and it keeps your Google drive setting and lets you choose other folders from your local disk to sync.
So if you have an existing photo library or bunch of stuff you can sysnc that now rather than having to keep it in your Google Drive folder.