How to fix invalid Google Drive quota!

I recently have seen that 25% of my GDrive quota was occupied by something. But my GDrive has in it only 0.7GB. So, who gets the rest of the space.
It turns out that there are files in my Google Drive that are not assigned to a folder. Therefore they are "hidden" from view.

To see these files just click this link:
https://drive.google.com/drive/search?q=is:unorganized%20owner:me
Review what you want to keep/delete (probably you will delete them all) and get rid of them. Don't forget to empty your trash also.

No my quota shows only 6% occupied.

How to make GDrive synchronize faster?

You are in the  middle of your work and for some reason you need to restart the computer. It restarts fast BUT you cannot start your work (if you are working in team with others) because your Google Drive takes a good long fucking nice nap before it synchronizes all the files.
So you delete some of those 500MB files hoping that it will synchronize faster. But it won't!

I did some research and I have found out that the size of the files you have in drive doesn't matter too much. What matters is the number of files. So, 5000 files of 0.1MB will take way much longer to synchronize than a singe 500MB files even if the total amount of data (5000 * 0.1MB = 500MB) is the same.

So, start compressing the folders that contains LOTS of (small) files if you don't use them right now. If the compression takes too long you can set your compressor to 0 compression (this is called a 'tar ball' or 'compacting'). This will generate a single files, of the same size as the initial uncompressed data. So you don't gain something, space-wise, BUT ITS ONLY ONE, not 5000! And now we know that one big file synchronizes faster than 5000 tiny files!

PS: 
1. Don't use the 'Compress contents to save disk space' feature located in the Properties windows that appears when you right-click a folder. It won't work.   
2. Don't be a lamer. Use RAR instead of ZIP. Arcive created with RAR are MUCH smaller (better) than the ones created with ZIP. And if you activate the 'Create solid archive' in WinRar the archive will be even smaller!




Enjoy your new GDrive speed. 
Don't forget to leave a comment...


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Related posts: Google drive still unreliable

Google Drive still unreliable (How to fix 'Primary key must be unique' error)

I hate Google Drive. It is haunted by too many bugs. 

Recently my GDrive application started showing a "primary key must be unique" error message, asking me to disconnect the drive and start all over again. I did that. Took few hours to resynchronize it all. But the next day I got the same error and asked me again to repeat the operation. I have been poking the forums (including Google's forum) up and down for months and found no real solution. So I had to do the job on my own. This is how to fix the "primary key must be unique" error:

1. Start Google Drive
2. Hold the SHIFT key pressed while clicking the Google Drive systray icon. This will show the 'Enable diagnostic mode' special menu.
3. Click 'Enable diagnostic mode' menu.
4. Wait until Google Drive crashes and shows the "primary key must be unique"error message. Let the application shutdown.
5. Go to "c:\Users\YOUR_USER_NAME\AppData\Local\Google\Drive" folder and open "sync_log.log".
   Note: Replace 'YOUR_USER_NAME' with your Windows account name (the account in which you are logged in). You can see this name when you press the 'Start' button.
6. Look up this text: "Detected conflict while trying to download file to".
7. After 'to' follows the name of the file that generated the conflict. Locate that file and delete it or (better) rename it. Do this for all conflicted files (if there are more than one).
8. Restart Google Drive.
   That's it.

This technique can be used to debug other Google Drive errors also.


Update 1 - How to do it on Mac OS (thanks to Maik):

Thanks, this fix also works for Apple Mac OS-X.
To get to the log file:
- in finder click the Go menu
- with the menu open click ALT-key so the hidden Library item appears
- open the Library and go to folder Google -> Drive


Update 2 - More GDrive bugs: The trash cannot be purged

Now my Google Drive account shows that is 95% full even if I don't have many files loaded in GDrive (I have a total of 1.1GB). After investigation I have discovered that are files locked in the 'Trash' that cannot be deleted. I contacted Google Drive support and they said they will fix my account. The provided additional Google Drive space so I can keep using my GDrive until they will fix the problem. That was in February 2012. Still no word from them.


Update 3 - How to make GDrive synchronize faster?



Related
How to improve the Google Drive synchronize speed?

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With this occasion I want to thanks Google team for the fucking 'good' job they did and to tell them: I don't believe in witches, but they surely exist.