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Google wants to move me from the Backup and Sync (currently running in the background) to Google Drive, which is a whole new game - not just cloud storage and sync, but an entire suite of word processor, spreadsheet etc..
Today I suddenly got a prompt to log in to Google Drive, and the icon and name for Backup and Sync in my system tray changed:

enter image description here

  • I used backup and sync to mirror a folder with private photos to the default 20GB storage space that comes with my Google account
  • I hardly ever use Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets and if I do, I just go to the URL for those services in my browser.

I'm critical about software bloat and privacy issues, so I'd prefer to stick to the above methods.

Questions:

  • Will Google Backup and Sync go away?
  • What new software (services) will be running on my PC if I allow this Drive login?
    I have tested that without the login, new files added to that photo folder still upload to Google Drive.
  • Will the new Google drive software access other folders than the one I specified for backup?
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  • Google discontinued Backup and Sync, eventually Google will just block the client. Since they announced it 8 months ago that is likely going to happen on October 1st 2021
    – Ramhound
    Commented Sep 25, 2021 at 16:41

1 Answer 1

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  1. Yes, Backup and Sync will be gone, according to this tweakers.net article by Oct 1 2021
  2. As far as I have seen, none. The login is configured when you first install Drive, settings are retained so when it's running it autologins. If you shut it down or logout, no sync should take place.
  3. I've never used BU&S so I don't know how it was configured, but Google Drive creates its own folder or partition. It doesn't try to reach outside of that.

All Google services are available with all Google accounts, whether or not you use Drive. Things like the Office suite and Calendar are web-based, i.e. run in Google cloud, nothing's installed on your hard drive.

Just for a heads-up so you won't get surprises - Google Drive default size is 15GB, and AFAIK it's shared with all Google services you use.

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