GOOGLE Drive which helps millions of people store important files and pictures on their computers is being scrapped and replaced with two new storage options.
If you're among the hundreds of millions of people using Google Drive to synchronize files across your PCs and phones, be warned: you've now got three months to install its replacement.
Support for Google Drive desktop will be cut off from December 11 and it will shutdown on March 12 next year.Users who are still using the drive app will start seeing notifications in October telling them drive for Mac/PC is "going away".Customers will be advised to use one of two alternative cloud storage options - Backup and Sync, and Drive File Stream.
If a user starts running both Drive File Stream and Backup and Sync on the same machine, they’ll be advised to stop syncing My Drive with Backup and Sync to save disk space.You can still access Google Drive in the meantime for the web, smartphone apps and either of the two new software options.
Google announced in July that it's replacing Google Drive with Backup and Sync, which does the same thing as Google Drive but slurps in more files. On Thursday, Google detailed its transition plan, saying it'll stop supporting Drive on Dec. 11 and shut it down completely on March 12, 2018.
The new approach lets Google's software synchronize files you've stored on your desktop or your documents folders and make all your photos part of Google Photos, too.
And it reflects the growing importance of cloud-based services. In bygone days your files were anchored to a single computing device, but with services like Google Backup and Sync, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive and Apple iCloud, your PC or phone is becoming just the tool you happen to be using to edit a photo or write a letter or share a tweet. That's handy -- especially if you lose your laptop or break your phone.
Google announced the date of Drive's demise in a blog post for IT administrators who offer Google's G Suite productivity tools to employees. If you're one of those employees, you may see another Google option coming your way: File Stream. This software lets organizations store files solely in the cloud, "streaming" them to laptops when you're working on them and otherwise keeping your storage space unencumbered.
You can install Backup and Sync right now if you want to get the transition out of the way. After all, you're not going to be able to postpone it forever.
Source: Google and Cnet
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