Connecting Google Drive

To connect Google Drive, open Remotes & Accounts, click Add Account, choose Google Drive, give it a nickname and click Open browser to sign in. You sign in on Google's own page in your usual browser, and Storage Studio never sees your Google password.

Step by step

1. Choose Connect Accounts… from the More menu to open Remotes & Accounts, then click Add Account.
2. Select Google Drive in the list.
3. Type a Nickname, such as personal-drive or work-drive. It's how the account is named everywhere in the app, so pick something you'll recognise.
4. Click Open browser to sign in. The sheet tells you which browser will open.
5. In the browser, choose the Google account you want, sign in and approve access.
6. The browser shows You're connected. You can close that tab — the sheet finishes on its own and shows Account added.

Click Add Another to connect a second account straight away, or Done to close.

%% caption: What happens while a Google Drive account is being added
flowchart TD
  A[You click Open browser to sign in] --> B[Your browser opens Google's account chooser]
  B --> C[You sign in and approve access]
  C --> D{Did the browser come back in time?}
  D -->|Yes| E[Storage Studio saves the account]
  E --> F[Account added]
  D -->|No, after 5 minutes| G[Sign-in timed out, nothing was added]
  B -->|You click Cancel| H[Authentication canceled, nothing was added]

More than one Google account

Storage Studio asks Google to show its account chooser every time, even if you're already signed in to Google in that browser. That makes it easy to add a personal drive and a work drive side by side; each keeps its own sign-in. You can connect up to 5 Google Drive accounts — the Add Account list shows how many you've used.

Each nickname must be different. If you type one that's already in use, the sheet says You already have an account called "…". Pick a different nickname. — this stops a new sign-in from replacing an existing account.

What Storage Studio connects to

The account connects to your own files in Google Drive. There's no option in the app to choose a shared drive instead.

Once it's added you can use it with Data Transfers, show it in the Storage Studio location in Finder, use it as a backup destination, and check it for duplicates.

Google Photos is a separate service and works differently — see Google Photos: what's possible and the Takeout route.

If the sign-in doesn't finish

• Google says "This app is blocked" — some Google accounts, often work accounts, need their own sign-in credentials. See using your own sign-in credentials for an account.
• Sign-in timed out after 5 minutes — the browser didn't come back in time. Click Try Again.
• The browser picked the wrong account by itself — sign out of Google in that browser, then click Try Again so you can choose.
• The browser tab didn't open, or you closed it — click Cancel, then add the account again with Add Account.
• You signed in, but the account list stays empty — see my cloud accounts list is empty after signing in.

Closing the sheet while it's still waiting for the browser stops the sign-in, and no account is added.

See also: Cloud accounts · Testing, editing and removing an account · When an account needs signing in again · How your account sign-ins are stored