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Google Drive Plugin can't show "Computers"

Posted: 2022-09-22, 09:15 UTC
by ade
I'm backing up/syncing my Windows folders with Google's desktop app.
These folders are shown as "Computers" in web browser on desktop
Image: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EK1OWeNiSyKCxjA2EsHLkt7DzDuyVPlK/view?usp=sharing

or as "Other computers" in TC desktop application with a separate drive letter.
Image: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cz3e_i1J5oRFPovrpEbrx_UCQiHYnhlH/view?usp=sharing

But in Android app with Drive plugin installed I can't see these folders/Computers. Only folders in "My Drive".
Can anybody help please? Thanks.

Re: Google Drive Plugin can't show "Computers"

Posted: 2022-09-26, 12:35 UTC
by ghisler(Author)
Unfortunately this isn't currently supported. At the time I implemented the Google Drive plugin this didn't seem to exist. I will check whether I can find the right https URL to access this...

Re: Google Drive Plugin can't show "Computers"

Posted: 2022-09-26, 21:33 UTC
by ade
Thank you for looking into this.

Re: Google Drive Plugin can't show "Computers"

Posted: 2022-09-29, 07:09 UTC
by ghisler(Author)
Sorry, it is currently not possible to access the files under "computers". The reason is that they are stored in Google Drive without parent folder IDs, so it's not possible to know where a specific file is located. There has been a request to Google since 2020 to fix this, but nothing has happened so far. See this page:
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/172775993?pli=1
See also these discussions on StackOverflow:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/64719294/google-drive-api-no-way-to-list-entries-under-computers
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14025546/google-drive-api-list-files-with-no-parent

Here is a workaround in one of the answers:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/53199781/mount-computers-of-google-drive-to-colaboratory
In short, you need two Google accounts, and then share a folder under "Computers" with your second account.

Re: Google Drive Plugin can't show "Computers"

Posted: 2022-09-29, 07:54 UTC
by ade
Thanks a million. I'll follow tracker and if anything changes I'll let you know.

Re: Google Drive Plugin can't show "Computers"

Posted: 2022-11-09, 09:15 UTC
by ghisler(Author)
I have now implemented the workaround suggested by one of the commenters on StackOverflow, to find the computers by name. To make this work, you need to rename the computers on Google Drive so they include the word "computer" anywhere in the name.

I have also added a few more features like support for links. This is another alternative: You can create a link to a folder on one of your computers and add it to "My Drive" if you don't want to rename your computers.

You can get the beta here:
https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.ghisler.tcplugins.drive