How do I get FFS to not delete and re-upload files to Google Drive?

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Joined: 2 May 2023

Vercinger

I'm using FreeFileSync for 2-way sync between my PC and Google Drive. I'm also using an app (FolderSync) for 2-way sync between the same Google Drive folder and my phone.

When FolderSync overwrites files in Drive, my Drive activity log shows "You edited an item", and Drive maintains version history of the file.

When FreeFileSync overwrites files in Drive, my Drive activity log shows "You permanently deleted an item" and then "You uploaded an item", and Drive's version history for that file is permanently lost.

How do I get FreeFileSync to do it the "You edited an item" way instead?
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Joined: 11 Jun 2019

xCSxXenon

Not possible currently
viewtopic.php?t=9390
I can't tell if this is because Google doesn't have that functionality built into their API or if it isn't implemented in FFS.
Posts: 2
Joined: 2 May 2023

Vercinger

Is it possible for it to not be built into the API if another program can do it?

In any case, are there any plans to implement this feature? If not, does anyone know which other sync programs can do it? Drive's versioning feature is pretty important to me.
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Posts: 4055
Joined: 11 Jun 2019

xCSxXenon

Is it possible for it to not be built into the API if another program can do it? Vercinger, 02 May 2023, 15:19
It's possible. The app may be accessing it completely differently, I couldn't tell you unfortunately. There is a page about updating files in their documentation, so maybe it's possible to implement.
https://developers.google.com/drive/api/reference/rest/v2/files/update

LeoW

I'm using FreeFileSync for 2-way sync between my PC and Google Drive. I'm also using an app (FolderSync) for 2-way sync between the same Google Drive folder and my phone.

When FolderSync overwrites files in Drive, my Drive activity log shows "You edited an item", and Drive maintains version history of the file.

When FreeFileSync overwrites files in Drive, my Drive activity log shows "You permanently deleted an item" and then "You uploaded an item", and Drive's version history for that file is permanently lost.

How do I get FreeFileSync to do it the "You edited an item" way instead? Vercinger, 02 May 2023, 13:18
Not sure if this will work or not but you can give it a try. There is a free time limited trial. i'm guessing or assuming that you're using the Google drive feature within free file sync?

There is a product I use called Mountain Duck That lets you mount Google drive as a local disk drive and you will access it in free file sync as a local disk rather than as a remote Google "Cloud" drive. Perhaps there is something different in the way the application is coded in regard to how it treats cloud files versus local files.

Mountain Duck lets you mount server and cloud storage as a disk in File Explorer on Windows. Open remote files with any application and work like on a local volume.

Give that a try and let us know if it works for you because that might be a cure for everyone else as well.