New Google Backup & Sync

What if I told you that you could back up every file on your computer or laptop to your Google Drive? Think about it…… You’re home, you realize you want to tweak your lesson plan for tomorrow based on today’s class discussion and you suddenly realize you left your laptop at work. If you’re anything like me you don’t want to go back to work. Not because you don’t love your job but because you’re already in your comfy pjs. However, if you’ve downloaded and installed Google’s Backup and Sync on your work computer, you can access all of your files from any computer with internet connection. That means while my daughter is doing her kindergarten homework I can work in my SERSD files from my home computer.

For those of you who already use Google Sync, as of October 1st Google is no longer supporting the old Google Sync (and Google Photos app) and instead has forced us all to transition to the new Google Backup and Sync. I know, sometimes it can be frustrating to change over to a new system when you are so used to the old one. Believe me, I too had to read and learn how to use it, but I can tell you, the new Google Backup and Sync is so much better!

So what exactly does Google Backup and Sync do? What are some cool features you need to know about? Let’s talk about the obvious ones first.

  • It syncs your google drive to your computer. Meaning you can access your google drive from your computer via the Google Drive Folder. (Just make sure you’re logged into your G-mail account.)
  • It backs up folders from your computer into your Google Drive, including your desktop. So if you love to fill your computer desktop with shortcuts and files, that can all be backed up to your Google Drive. (The old version didn’t offer this.)
  • You can backup any type of file: photos, PDF, Microsoft files, PSD, video, audio, etc.

Some new features I’m excited about are:

  • The new manage versions feature allows you to access older versions of your backed up files, just like the history function in Google Apps. So let’s say you accidentally delete half of your PowerPoint presentation, hit save and close out, your previous version is most likely gone. However, if that was a file you chose to back up, you’re covered. All you would have to do is access your Google Drive in the browser, right click on the PowerPoint file, click manage versions and from there you can access and restore previous versions.
  • Another improved feature is: “Drive can recognize objects in your images and text in scanned documents (like PDFS). So you can search a word like “Eiffel Tower” and get text documents with that word, as well as images of the actual Eiffel Tower.” I don’t know about you but I’m pretty excited about that one.

You ready to download the new Google Backup & Sync?

Google website to download: https://www.google.com/drive/download/

Need help learning how to install it? Watch the one minute YouTube tutorial below.


About the blogger: Stephanie Albernaz is the Technology Education Integration Specialist at Southeastern Regional School District and has been an educator for over 10 years.  Prior to joining the Technology Department, she worked as a Business & Technology Teacher and a Vocational Marketing Teacher in other districts.  She is passionate about education, technology and working with students, staff, and instructors in making the most of technology in education.

This blog post was relaunched on mbea-ma.org with permission from the blogger. You may find the original post HERE.