Difference Between My Drive and My Computer in Google Drive: A Guide

Google Drive is a cloud storage service that allows you to store and access your files from anywhere.

Files stored on My Computer are synced to Google Drive, but files stored in Google Drive are not automatically synced to My Computer.

You can access your files on My Computer by opening the Google Drive folder, which is usually located on your computer's desktop or in the Start menu.

Files stored in Google Drive are backed up and synced across all your devices, but files stored on My Computer are only accessible on that specific device.

Here's an interesting read: Where Is Google Drive on My Pc

You can choose how you want your files to be synced between your computer and Google Drive. Google Drive for Desktop offers two main options: mirroring and streaming.

Mirroring allows you to have all your files available offline, and every change is synced online. This means you're using both hard drive space and Google storage space.

With streaming, your MyDrive files are stored in the cloud, and you can choose which ones to use offline, taking up minimal hard drive space.

To access all your files, including those available offline, the Drive for Desktop application must be running.

Intriguing read: Backing up Pc to Google Drive

Google Drive for Desktop and Backup and Sync are two different tools that serve distinct purposes. Backup and Sync is primarily used to sync and store Drive locally on your computer.

If you choose Backup and Sync, you can only select specific folders for offline access. This means you won't be able to use all your files offline, but you can still access them when you're connected to the internet.

Drive for Desktop, on the other hand, offers two syncing options: Mirroring and Streaming. With Mirroring, all your files are available offline and every change is synced online, taking up both hard drive space and Google storage space.

Streaming, another option, stores your MyDrive files in the cloud, and you can choose which ones to use offline and take up minimal hard drive space. To access all your files, including those available offline, you need to have the Drive for Desktop application running.

Here's a quick summary of the main differences:

Decoupling files from your computer and Google Drive can be a bit tricky, but it's doable. You can only select folders to make available to your computer and be accessed offline while using Backup and Sync.

To access all your files, including those available offline, the Drive for Desktop app must be running. You can also choose whether certain computer files will sync with the online version or if you’d like them to be disconnected.

Files can be accessed anytime, and you don’t need the Drive for Desktop app running to open the files as they can be accessed directly on your computer. This is thanks to the Mirror feature, which is like having all your content in two spaces you can access—online and offline.

If you've moved files and folders on your PC into a folder synced with Google Drive, you can try to decouple them by adding them to My Drive. This worked fine for the author when they only moved files, but it didn't work as intended when they tried to move subfolders.

Here's a summary of what you can do to decouple files: