Bidirectional sync with Google Drive

[jbarry14]

I am trying to find a way to setup bidirectional sync with Google Drive. The main reason for this is for our designers to work from home. With the file sizes that we work with, VPN is way too slow. I do have a cloud sync task setup and its working great with our business Google Drive. The designers can access the files easily and fast. The only problem is that they can not save edited or new files to Google Drive as they wont sync back to our main server. Is there anyway for me to accomplish this?

I am currently running TrueNAS Core 13.0 Stable.

Thanks in advance

 

[Apollo]

If you are willing to move away from Google Drive, I would suggest you explore Nextcloud which can be installed in a jail.

Scripted installation of Nextcloud 28 in iocage jail

Status: This script will run with TrueNAS CORE 13. It's possible, but untested, that it will work with FreeNAS 12. Earlier versions are not supported. There are a number of guides on the forum to install Nextcloud, but they all rely on a lot of...

www.truenas.com

 

[NickF]

So, I've looked for a solution for this over the years because I've been in situations where this looked like a great idea. There isn't really a good way to do it on TN alone, but with another system or VM in conjunction with it alot of doors open up. I've kept Sharepoints in sync between an on prem SMB share and O365 and it's worked with mixed results by just using the OneDrive client. I've also dabbled with GoodSync for a more polished productized solution, it it works reasonably well.

The problem really with any of these solutions is that multiple people working on the same files can yield unexpected results that may cause problems. While there are certainly ways to hack together something, I wouldn't recommend it for all use cases.

 

[jbarry14]

If you are willing to move away from Google Drive, I would suggest you explore Nextcloud which can be installed in a jail.

Scripted installation of Nextcloud 28 in iocage jail

Status: This script will run with TrueNAS CORE 13. It's possible, but untested, that it will work with FreeNAS 12. Earlier versions are not supported. There are a number of guides on the forum to install Nextcloud, but they all rely on a lot of...

www.truenas.com

I will look into this. I see it is a plugin on truenas core. Some other forums I have read, they have talked about using Syncthing to make this work. Do you know if this plugin might accomplish what I'd like to do?

 

[jbarry14]

So, I've looked for a solution for this over the years because I've been in situations where this looked like a great idea. There isn't really a good way to do it on TN alone, but with another system or VM in conjunction with it alot of doors open up. I've kept Sharepoints in sync between an on prem SMB share and O365 and it's worked with mixed results by just using the OneDrive client. I've also dabbled with GoodSync for a more polished productized solution, it it works reasonably well.

The problem really with any of these solutions is that multiple people working on the same files can yield unexpected results that may cause problems. While there are certainly ways to hack together something, I wouldn't recommend it for all use cases.

We are a smaller business with 3 designers, It rarely happens that multiple designers would be working on the same file. I am just setting this up so that they can work from home on days they can't come into the office. I have read that the syncthing plugin might accomplish what I need it to do? I also read on other forums that the next release of Truenas will include bidirectional options?

 

[Jamberry]

If you use GoogleDrive, why won't you access the files from there?

Cloud sync tasks on TrueNAS are not running Google Drive apps.It is more like API calls.
I use it for a weekly backup of Dropbox, listing all the files takes 4 hours, so it is not really useful for any real-time work if you have lots of files.

 

[Apollo]

I will look into this. I see it is a plugin on truenas core. Some other forums I have read, they have talked about using Syncthing to make this work. Do you know if this plugin might accomplish what I'd like to do?

I have no experience with Syncthing.
I would also stay away from Pluggins (not to be confused with "iocage jails" which the script for Nextcloud make use of).

We are a smaller business with 3 designers, It rarely happens that multiple designers would be working on the same file. I am just setting this up so that they can work from home on days they can't come into the office. I have read that the syncthing plugin might accomplish what I need it to do? I also read on other forums that the next release of Truenas will include bidirectional options?

Designers as? If software or alike, I would consider GIT or SVN, but you don't sync in real time. You will need to deal with the Merge process.

 

[FabianX2]

I have the same issue. We did use a Synology solution and google dirve and synced it bidirectional. Looking for a solutition for our new true Nas Server.

 

[Jamberry]

I have the same issue. We did use a Synology solution and google dirve and synced it bidirectional. Looking for a solutition for our new true Nas Server.

You are not gonna finde a solution directly on TrueNAS.

Please understand that the TrueNAS integration is more an API than a running GDrive. That is why for real time sync, you need something like a Windows client that runs the GDrive App. This is very different from an API call that takes 4h to even list all your files and you have a very high chance of running into some sort of rate limiter (because these services don't charge for that unlike something like AWS S3).

But again, I don't understand your workload. So I ask that same question that I asked OP:
If you use GDrive for your files, why don't you access the files from the GDrive App?

 

[jbarry14]

You are not gonna finde a solution directly on TrueNAS.

Please understand that the TrueNAS integration is more an API than a running GDrive. That is why for real time sync, you need something like a Windows client that runs the GDrive App. This is very different from an API call that takes 4h to even list all your files and you have a very high chance of running into some sort of rate limiter (because these services don't charge for that unlike something like AWS S3).

But again, I don't understand your workload. So I ask that same question that I asked OP:
If you use GDrive for your files, why don't you access the files from the GDrive App?

When the designers are working from home, they do access the files from google drive. But the problem is that they can't save the files to google drive. They have to save them either on a separate hard drive or email them and load them onto the truenas sever when they are back in the office. It would just be nice to be able to save them to either truenas or google drive and we get bidirectional sync.

 

[Jamberry]

When the designers are working from home, they do access the files from google drive. But the problem is that they can't save the files to google drive.

Sorry, I don't understand why? If they can open files from the google drive, why can't they save them?

It would just be nice to be able to save them to either truenas or google drive and we get bidirectional sync.

Again, this is not going to happen, for the reasons I explained.

I still don't understand your workflow, but let me explain the workflow of a customer of mine.
CAD company that uses Dropbox. CAD software saves files under \\Server\share. Because the also saves the path it saved a file to, we can't use Dropbox. Everybody has the use the same path. But with Dropbox, everyone has a different path C:\Users\variableUsername
At the same time, some employees work outside with iPads and have to access all files.

I hope you understand why we were looking for the same solution as you were. Here is how we solved it:
A Windows Server is running the Dropbox App. The folders inside Dropbox are shared over smb. Windows employees access the data fast via local network or VPN, while iPad employees use the Dropbox app. If a Windows user saves a file, there is a short delay until the file change gets recognized by the Windows Server Dropbox App and uploaded.

Again, you have not explained your workflow, so I don't understand your needs, but maybe a Ubuntu VM with a Dropbox share could help? Just be warned that Dropbox is dead slow, crushes your SSD with writes, wastes a lot of CPU cycles. My guess is that the same is true for GDrive.

 

[work2survive]

Im currently using QNAP, and besides many setbacks and annoying things, I must say that one thing they have very well solved is the cloud sync.
check the Hybrid backup system
Im missing a simple two way sync with google drive, and yes, we areusing constantly this two way sync to secondary backup, remote work, share some folders with clients, etc. The convenience is out of doubt for me.

 

[Jamberry]

QNAP did solve that pretty well and you can even backup Microsoft 365 mail accounts and stuff. But yeah, I would not trust QNAP or Synology software anywhere near my data.

What you guys are looking for is understandable, but probably far away. Reason is simple you either have a cloud-storage and don't wanna bother with a NAS or you have a NAS and don't wanna bother with cloud-storage. Someone who is able to setup a Nextcloud instance doesn't care about Gdrive and someone who uses Gdrive does not wanna setup a network share.

There are some strange edge cases like the one I already described. For all the use cases you described (secondary backup, remote work, share some folders with clients) I fail to see why this needs TrueNAS in to be synced in real time.

 

[victort]

I would also strongly suggest Nextcloud with the script (which can be found in my signature)

It allows for exactly what you are looking for including shared folders, and can be integrated with OpenOffice and Collabora Office.

It also has a windows client that allows syncing of folders.