How to upload files to Google Drive faster

Google Drive is almost a perfect solution for online file storage, if you ignore a few minor problems. Slow upload speed with not being able to see the upload progress and transfer rate is one of them. Most of the times (99 %) Google services will not be the bottleneck, but it sometimes happen that you don't get good upload speed even though other websites are working just fine. In this post will we show you a command line application and a few tips to get better upload speed.

It should be kept in mind that the maximum download/upload speed is bounded by the type of connection your ISP provides. This tool will only be helpful if you are getting upload speed lower than what you typically get on other websites. So it is advised to check your average upload speed before trying anything out.

  Some obvious tips for better upload speed :

 

• Drive gives better uploading speed for one bigger file as compared to multiple small files, this is mainly because of opening and closing multiple file connections and other technical stuff. So it is better to compress your files into a Zip file before uploading. Also as a added benefit it reduces your file size.
• Check your app's inbuilt preferences, if you are using a desktop application for drive. Sometimes they have limiters On which limits the upload and download speed.
  
  

 

  The Solution :

 

Rclone is a command line program to sync file and directories to and from cloud storage. It has a lot of features and supports over 40+ cloud storage platforms and is available for both Windows and Linux. Rclone is mainly a command line program but recently it has released a experimental GUI which works by opening a tab on your browser. It takes at max 5-10 minutes to setup Rclone and they have a nice documentation about all the supported features and platforms.

Installation and setup :

•  Download Rclone from here. For Windows users they have a standalone offline installer. Linux/macOS/BSD users can do a script install.

  curl https://rclone.org/install.sh | sudo bash

  or they can install it as a Snap package.
  

  snap install rclone --classic

  It is also available in many official repositories so you can use apt or pacman to install it.
  
• Now you will need to configure Rclone first. The easiest way to make the configuration is to run rclone with the config option:
  

  rclone config

  
  
  
  

• Following this you will be asked a few questions. The following will guide you through an interactive setup process( The answers/replies are marked in red) :
  

  No remotes found - make a new one
  n) New remote
  r) Rename remote
  c) Copy remote
  s) Set configuration password
  q) Quit config
  n/r/c/s/q>nname> remote
  Type of storage to configure.
  Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
  [snip]
  XX / Google Drive
     \ "drive"
  [snip]
  Storage> drive
  Google Application Client Id - leave blank normally.
  client_id>
  Google Application Client Secret - leave blank normally.
  client_secret>
  Scope that rclone should use when requesting access from drive.
  Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
   1 / Full access all files, excluding Application Data Folder.
     \ "drive"
   2 / Read-only access to file metadata and file contents.
     \ "drive.readonly"
     / Access to files created by rclone only.
   3 | These are visible in the drive website.
     | File authorization is revoked when the user deauthorizes the app.
     \ "drive.file"
     / Allows read and write access to the Application Data folder.
   4 | This is not visible in the drive website.
     \ "drive.appfolder"
     / Allows read-only access to file metadata but
   5 | does not allow any access to read or download file content.
     \ "drive.metadata.readonly"
  scope> 1
  ID of the root folder - leave blank normally.  Fill in to access "Computers" folders. (see docs).
  root_folder_id> 
  Service Account Credentials JSON file path - needed only if you want use SA instead of interactive login.
  service_account_file>
  Remote config
  Use auto config?
   * Say Y if not sure
   * Say N if you are working on a remote or headless machine or Y didn't work
  y) Yes
  n) No
  y/n> y

  
  
  
• Now your browser will open automatically. You will need to log in to authorize Rclone for access. If browser doesn't open automatically, type http://127.0.0.1:53682/auth in your browser and log in.
  




If your browser doesn't open automatically go to the following link: http://127.0.0.1:53682/auth
Log in and authorize rclone for access
Waiting for code...
Got code
Configure this as a team drive?
y) Yes
n) No
y/n> n
--------------------
[remote]
client_id = 
client_secret = 
scope = drive
root_folder_id = 
service_account_file =
token = {"access_token":"XXX","token_type":"Bearer","refresh_token":"XXX","expiry":"2014-03-16T13:57:58.955387075Z"}
--------------------
y) Yes this is OK
e) Edit this remote
d) Delete this remote
y/e/d> y 

•   After this you will be able to upload files simply by typing the following command in your terminal.
  

  rclone copy -P /home/source remote:destination_directory/subfolder/

  Here /home/source/ is the location of your file or folder to be uploaded and destination_directory/subfolder is the place in your drive where you want your files to be uploaded.
  
  
  
  
   
• After installation you can also use Rclone GUI ( experimental ). Just type the following in your terminal, it will automatically open a interface in your browser.
  

  rclone rcd --rc-web-gui

    


• You can also move, delete and do other functions over your files. Browse through the documentation to check out all other features and flags.
   

Final Note :

Keep in mind that that the actual speed depends on your connection. Personally this tool helped me a lot. Before I was getting 100 KBPS upload speed and using this I was getting close to 7 MBPS. But this might be a special case since my friends who use the same connection were getting 2-3 MBPS using the drive web interface. Maybe it was a problem with my browser. But the point is it really helped me out since I was uploading 50+ GBs. Also it is better to upload files simultaneously using different terminals to get more speed. Using single terminal I was getting 600 KBPS, so I used 10 different terminals to upload 10 different folders. 

Gokul 23:49 2 Comments

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How to upload files to Google Drive faster

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