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Things to Know
- Most Google Drive issues are temporary and caused by a lack of internet connection to sync your online content with the offline app.
- If you get a specific error message, note its error code and check Google Drive’s help center.
- Reinstalling Google Drive and ensuring your Mac is up to date is the last resort, but it should resolve most problems.
Trying to use Google Drive on Mac and seeing folders unavailable for download? Or perhaps only visible on one platform but not the other (whether it’s offline or on the browser version)? Here are the main causes for common Google Drive Mac issues and how to solve them.
Option 1: Internet Connection for Google Drive Mac Issues
If your Google Drive doesn’t properly sync between your online and offline storage, you should check if your internet connection is stable. Beyond that, you can restart the application to force it to recheck your account.
Step 1. Click on the Drive icon in the toolbar.
Step 2. Go to “Settings,” then click on “Quit.”
Step 3. Find Google Drive in Finder > Applications and run it.
If this doesn’t work, you may need to re-log in to your account.
Step 1. Click on your account name on the app.
Step 2. Go to “Manage storage” then click “Log out.”
Step 3. When you reopen the app, you’ll be prompted to re-enter your account credentials.
Option 2: Google Drive Cannot Start Due to Permission Issue Mac
There’s a rare issue where user settings are incorrectly set to prevent Google Drive from creating local cache folders to sync files. You can try to circumvent this by manually changing permissions and locating the folder.
Step 1. Go to Finder and select Google Drive. Then, right-click on the folder and choose “Get Info.”
Step 2. Open the Sharing & Permissions area, then check that folder permissions allow everyone to open and modify them. You may need to unlock the folder (by inputting your password).
Step 3. Highlight the option “Everyone,” then click on the action menu at the bottom and select “Apply to enclosed items.”
Step 4. Open Terminal and run the commands:
diskutil resetUserPermissions / id -u
If you get an error, enter “chflags -R nouchg ~” then retry the command.
Step 5. Try to restart Google Drive.
Step 6. If you still can’t get it to open, click on “Go” in the Finder menu bar then “Go to Folder” and type “/Users/myusername/Library/Application Support/Google”
Step 7. Create a folder named “DriveFS” and restart Google Drive. This should allow Google Drive to start populating the cache and sync files.
Option 3: Running Out of Storage Space
If you’ve run out of storage space on Google Drive, you’ll get persistent warnings that files can’t sync, but only in the browser. In the app, you might see syncing just stop.
You can confirm how much storage space you have by logging into your Google Drive account and going to “Storage.” Then, you can move out large items and store them offline to save space, or subscribe to get extended storage space if needed.
As an avid gamer, I’ve run into my fair share of error codes and weird faults that have forced me to find fixes to problems I never anticipated. That gave me a passion for sharing those fixes with others so we can all game without feeling like our hardware is rebelling against us.