Google Drive Issues on Mac

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  1. Chris Mellor 1

    Google Drive Issues on Mac

    Ha! Here;s a corrective fior hacks thinking they are God or near to God.The text below was sent by a reader of the Google DRive Launch story. It's great fun:

    -------------------------------

    re: Google Drive

    Might I suggest 10mg of Xanax every 6 hours until you stop your Mac addiction. It'll help you get over that sense of outrage and entitlement Mac users suffer from, especially with shaky initial launches on the first day by a global company offering a free service, trying to work out the kinks.

    I find Mac users greatly benefit from it standing in line for their their semi-annual "get fucked by our hero company" pilgramage to buy a new iWhatever.

    ------------------------

    I'm off to the pharmacist now :-)

    1. Bobbicus Anthropithicus

      Re: Google Drive Issues on Mac

      Oh my. Google Drive works fine for me on Mac and Windows 7, and I'm actually grateful that Google is providing the service. Worse yet, although I've used Mac's since 1984 so must have contributed to the black turtleneck fund I don't recall ever standing in line to submit a Steve tax. And I much prefer beer to Xanax.

      Should I seek professional help?

  2. GreggS

    But works absolutely fine on Windows

    7 at least.

    1. Miek
      Happy

      Re: But works absolutely fine on Windows

      Worked fine on my Android and chrome too :)

    2. Sordid Details
      FAIL

      Re: But works absolutely fine on Windows

      It installed and works fine on my Windows 7 netbook, but when I shut it down it crashes with a memory error.

  3. truCido
    IT Angle

    On windows at least it didn't try and synchronise everything...unless I told it to in the setup?

  4. Efros
    Devil

    Google and Apple

    Hope you're supping with a very long spoon!

  5. mrdalliard
    Thumb Down

    Down with this sort of thing....

    Aside from any software issues the author might have had, I wouldn't touch Drive due to their awful T&Cs regarding ownership and what they can do with your data.

    I know Dropbox has its flaws, but I'll stick with that, thanks.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Down with this sort of thing....

      Ownership? Rubbish. Have you even read Google's T&Cs? Both Google and Dropbox explicitly state they don't claim ownership of your data (" In short, what belongs to you stays yours." - Google, "You retain full ownership to your stuff" - Dropbox).

      Ownership aside, what exactly is it you think they can do with your data?

      1. mrdalliard
        FAIL

        Re: Down with this sort of thing....

        Yes, I've read them.

        "When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide licence to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes that we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights that you grant in this licence are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting and improving our Services, and to develop new ones.

        This licence continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing that you have added to Google Maps). Some Services may offer you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service. "

        Have you?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Down with this sort of thing....

          You're rare in that you have been smart enough to read past the positive bit :).

          I cannot believe how many people don't bother reading what I consider almost the most heinous terms of business on the planet (only Facebook beats it).

          ANY business which has an obligation to maintain confidentiality moves itself into non-compliant state the moment they use Google for anything else but web searches or translation (and even there a degree of care has to be taken - better use start page.com).

          As for end users, they seem to be unaware that they are dealing with a company that is actively collaborating with those that want to nuke privacy as far as they can get away with. A return of proper and correct privacy laws (i.e.pre the 9/11 excuse) would substantially harm their business of flogging their details to whoever pays the most..

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Down with this sort of thing....

          You can copy-and-paste! Well done. You might have even read them now too. Or do you still think they have nasty terms about ownership?

          Anyway, you haven't actually answered the question asked. What do you think those terms let Google do with your data, exactly? What is it you think they can do that Dropbox can't?

          Bear in mind the limited purpose applied to those rights, and the privacy policy that also applies.

    2. VeganVegan
      Pirate

      Re: Down with this sort of thing....

      Google is like a black hole.

      First it hoovered up all web pages on the intertubes.

      Then it nabbed onlline videos.

      It tried/is in the process of sucking in all the holdings of librairies.

      Now it is trying to grab everybody's files.

      Fancy doing a Google search on somebody else's private documents?

      I say use Google Drive only if your files are heavily encrypted.

      <icon: Google are ultimate pirates! /icon>

  6. spencer

    Not a great service

    It's the first of the 'cloud storage' type services I've tried to use. It's not that great to be honest, but then I don't think dropbox would be much better.

    As for your review - If you set the same set of morals on this software onto the software/hardware that you wrote the piece on I don't think it'd pass.

    1. sisk

      Re: Not a great service

      I haven't tried Google Drive (and probably won't), but Dropbox works great. On a PC (and presumably on a Mac) it simply creates a folder that automatically syncs to the cloud. I can't imagine a smoother way to do cloud storage. Incidently, that's why I haven't picked up Google Drive.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Dropbox works great

        and on Android, and on Symbian....talk about 'just works - install and use

  7. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Stop

    Am I alone?

    I thought, think, and will continue to think that the only possible sane use for a remote storage service is precisely that: storage of *data* - and maybe, at a pinch, metadata - that is otherwise in every respect managed on my personal PC, laptop, or whatever.

    There is absolutely no need for any service to interf[ere|ace] with your OS other than to appear as another drive...

    We seem to be moving from a data-centric view of the world to a view which encompasses the application which created the data, and I don't think I like it.

    1. DZ-Jay

      Re: Am I alone?

      >> We seem to be moving from a data-centric view of the world to a view which encompasses the application which created the data, and I don't think I like it.

      I must say that this has always been the goal of personal computing. Why is it important to access files directly when you can only use it with specific applications? Isn't it the job of the applications to handle their own data types, rather than deferring all this administrative work to the user?

      I want my photo application to have access to my photos and show them to me, and allow me to edit them. I further want this access abstracted. I profit not in the least by having them thrown in with a bunch of text files and other documents of myriad type; it just adds to the confusion and the maintenance burden.

      Likewise for word processor documents: why would I ever need to see them thrown anonymously in a folder without context? If I ever need to access them is to read, edit, or share them, and a suitable application would allow me to do so.

      Compartmentalizing the file system by document type (or application-specific function) using folders goes someways towards this, but why not extend this to its logical conclusion and abstract the entire file system.

      -dZ.

      1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

        Re: Am I alone?

        >>Isn't it the job of the applications to handle their own data types, rather than deferring all this administrative work to the user?

        Well, no... perhaps I want to open Word documents with Open Office; HTML documents with any old browser; text documents with whatever's handy... I might want to edit a text, or assemble or compile it; I might want simply to view an image - should I require all of a picture editor to do that?

        It's bad enough that W7 (and I suspect it's predecessors) won't even display fundamental information - e.g. file size - for certain files, but driving an entire operating system on the assumption that a file has only one application which can work with it? That way lies madness...

  8. eSeM
    Happy

    Doesn't work on a Mac, who gives a fuck! ...... probably not Google.

    :-)

  9. geekclick
    WTF?

    Trolling is the new form of reporting and reviewing!

    At its best, that wasnt a review it was whinge about being a fanboi in the extereme, i expect this sort of reporting from the Daily Mail!

    I have my G drive installed, syncing and working fine accross 3 Windows machines (one laptop and 2 desktops) and an 2 Android phones!

    El Reg, cut this nonsense immediately!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Trolling is the new form of reporting and reviewing!

      What do you expect from the same reg hack who created some very dodgy graphs to fudge his whinging about perfornance on a hardware review.

    2. Chris Mellor 1
      Happy

      Re: Trolling is the new form of reporting and reviewing!

      In reply to GeekClick....

      At once sir, at once!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Trolling is the new form of reporting and reviewing!

        If I was being a cynical bastard I'd suggest he does it on purpose to drive demand for comments, hence more adverts served

        1. spencer

          Re: Trolling is the new form of reporting and reviewing!

          Joke is on him then, I can't see any ads on the forum pages...

  10. DrXym

    Dropbox has had its problems too

    Such as turning off all password authentication for an unknown period of time during one incident.

    But it works pretty well and therefore I'm not in a hurry to switch to Google. The one thing that *would* make me switch to Google is if it supported proper client side encryption, i.e. if I could generate a keypair to encrypt content so not even Google know what I'm storing. To me it looks the same but Google sees garble on their end.

    1. BristolBachelor Gold badge
      Coat

      Re: Dropbox has had its problems too

      Why on earth would they do that? Haven't you read the T&Cs? Google Drive is their way of letting you give them all your stuff for them to have and use free. If you encrypted it, they wouldn't have anything except garble.

    2. SYNTAX__ERROR
      Alert

      Re: Dropbox has had its problems too

      Useful information for all:

      T R U E C R Y P T

      It seems I have far fewer data security worries than many others.

  11. The Dark Lord
    Megaphone

    Lucky escape

    Frankly, if a piece of software designed to steal all my content didn't work properly, I'd consider that a lucky escape!

    Why anyone's capitulating to this IP landgrab I really can't understand.

    1. jai

      Re: Lucky escape

      because google fanboys are just as bad as apple fanboys if you dare to suggest their beloved choclate factory is anything less than uptopian perfection...

  12. jai

    Thanks so much

    I was going to try it out and see if I was missing something that would make it useful for me.

    But thankfully, after seeing the troubles you've been through, i'm not going to bother. If i ever need to store generic documents in the cloud, i'll stick with dropbox.

    It's worrying that Drive begins to copy everything. They only give you 5gb, right? I have far more than that on my machine - how does it know which 5gb i'd want to sync?

    1. Steven Raith
      FAIL

      Re: Thanks so much

      It creates a folder called Google Drive under your home folder (on OS X at least - I'd expect it to do the same on Windows, under the %user% folder), and syncs any existing contents of Docs down to your device, and anything you add to it gets uploaded/shared to other devices.

      Try actually looking into something rather than just opening mouth without engaging brain.

      it's worrying that Unicorns are taking over the world, it must be true because I presumed that's what's happening without looking out of the window!

      I swear the internet used to be for the elite - now they let any mouthbreather on.

      Oddly, no problems on my late 2008 Macbook/Desire S running Cynagenmod 9 Alpha.

      Steven R

  13. SiempreTuna
    FAIL

    Fail on Android

    I got the same, "feck off, we're not ready for you" (I'm paraphrasing) message on my Droid, even though it had appeared on my updates list without me asking for it.

    I'm taking it personally ..

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Fail on Android

      Indeed!

      As it doesn't work on my <device>, I can only assume that it works on no ones <device>. Rather than checking this I suggest we vent frustration in the guise of a news article and clutter up the register.

      It would appear that is the case given this is the 2nd article in as many days regarding "doesn't work in my Mac waaaah waaaaaah waaaaaaaaaaah"...

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    What a tool

    Clearly has it in for this product, and goes out of his way to try and make it cock up, and then posts about his experiences.

    Slow news day. or shares in Dropbox?

    1. Chris Mellor 1

      Re: What a tool

      Lovely post. Reminds me not to take myself seriously.

      And, no, no shares in Dropbox...

  15. This post has been deleted by its author

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mine works fine on the following

    2 android devices and a vista and a win 7 box.

    maybe you're all doing it wrong.

    Have you tried calling your local tech support to hold your hand/

  17. Voland's right hand Silver badge
    Joke

    You are asking too much

    If Google wants me to try Google Drive then it needs to take the handbrake off and get out of first gear.

    First gear? California? The Holy Land of Automatic "because it pollutes less"? You gotta be kidding, when was the last time you saw a manual gearbox in Silly Valley?

    1. TeeCee Gold badge
      Facepalm

      Re: You are asking too much

      Er, automatics have gears too (with the exception of CVTs).

      Guess which one they use when going slowly?

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You might want to check T&Cs too...

    You give Google a license to reuse your content. DropBox and others make it clear that with them you do not.

  19. Joe Harrison

    I'll use it but not really sure why

    You can store all your data "in the cloud" somewhere. Maybe (or maybe not) you will be able to access it again later depending on availability of your internet connection. And you don't know who else is messing with your stuff unknown to you.

    Or you can carry everything with you on a tiny cheap flash memory and have guaranteed high-speed private access to it whenever you like.

    Not that it matters since Google Drive does not seem to work behind a corporate proxy requiring authentication, which I imagine is the case for most of us.

    1. jonathanb Silver badge

      Re: I'll use it but not really sure why

      Alternatively, you can do what I do, which is to get a computer, attach 15TB of hard drives to it, plus some more drives for backup, install a server operating system of your choice on it, configure it for a variety of filesharing protocols, put a strong password on it, connect it to the internet, then I can access them anywhere where there is an internet connection, or access to my LAN. At home, it is much faster than cloud storage, meaning it is possible to fill up the server with stuff in a fortnight or so, anywhere else, it is about the same speed as Google Drive, DropBox, SkyDrive etc.

      1. pixl97

        Re: I'll use it but not really sure why

        -attach 15TB of hard drives to it-

        Spend a bunch of money

        -plus some more drives for backup-

        spend even more money

        -install a server operating system-

        have in depth technical knowledge of computer operating systems and hardware

        -put a strong password on it-

        have in depth knowledge of computer security.

        -connect it to the internet-

        have working knowledge of router configuration and a static ip or DDNS

        The rest of the world will just use $cloud_drive because it's quick, easy, and relatively more secure then they could do it themselves with out having to call, contract, or wait on IT. That's why lots of people use iDevices, quick and easy and pretty much work without in depth knowledge.

  20. HeNe
    Meh

    "The Cloud Ate My Documents" - a new excuse/vulnerability

    Right now, there's the whole, "We have a search warrant, decrypt your hard drive" vs "I'm sorry, officer, I forgot that password." / "I'm sorry officer, I have no data on that hard drive." tussle.

    The person being served might be telling the truth, or might not be telling the truth.

    Now, we have a similar issue involving document storage on "the cloud".

    Maybe the cloud service truly ate the user's documents, or maybe the user is just making excuses.

    I'm sure lawyers will profit from this somehow.

  21. Geoff May

    Searching Google ...

    Reveals this interesting post ... scroll down to the answer from "Rishi S".

    That appears to have worked for several other people who had the same issue.

  22. squilookle
    Pint

    Not sure of the point of this article and the one posted the other day. The first one was possibly the most emotionally charged article I ever read over something so unimportant. This one less so, but is inevitably going to stir up more of the same response from the commentards. .

    Does the author wish to see this new Google service fail, and if so, is this is shameless way to attack it? Is the author being really clever and wanting to see it succeed, following the old idea that any publicity is good publicity? Or does he just want to announce that he is a Mac user?

    If none of the above, he must be trying to get a lot of hits by writing anything about Macs and Google. Or he may be annoyed at something else and need something to take it out on. I'm really not sure, but good luck to him whichever it is. It's Friday, only 7 hours to go until the pub :)

    1. Chris Mellor 1

      I'd like Google to succeed

      It would be great big Google out-dropboxed Dropbox and give me same convenience, if not better, and more free space. Instead it's provided crap software that doesn't work ... yet. I guess it will, Google being Google. But, compared to superb Google Earth, the Google Drive experience is second rate, IMHO that is.

      1. squilookle
        Happy

        Re: I'd like Google to succeed

        That's fair enough. I haven't tried it myself as my primary box at home is Linux and I already have Dropbox and Ubuntu One anyway, but the more options we have, the better.

        If Linux support appears, then I probably will give it a try.

  23. Ben Liddicott
    Pint

    "This cloud tech is supposed to be for my convenience, right?"

    What planet are you on? On Google Drive, everything is stored in cleartext. That's not for your convenience, since there is no reason for it.

    It's for Google's convenience, for the convenience of the three and four letter acronyms.

  24. daftveggie

    Automatic synchronising

    Sounds like google drive will be like itunes with the Automatic synchronising before you can stop it.

    I just hope that google drive doesn't decide to wipe all files on my phone / laptop / touchpad and any other device that it comes into sync with; like itunes does.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Automatic synchronising

      Erm... google drive doesn't automatically synchronise everything.

      And I've been using iTunes daily for years, on Macs and PCs and had no instance of it deleting *anything* unwarranted.

  25. austerusz
    Stop

    Didn't have a chance to test it on mac, but on my PC, the desktop app works ok.

    It asks you for what folders to sync - just like dropbox (adds your google docs stuff there too). You only need a browser plugin if you want to edit your google docs offline.

    Would be nice to allow you to choose a sync format for your google docs (eg, download them in ODF or something and then update your google doc on upload).

  26. Armando 123
    FAIL

    Wow

    I confirmed this at home on Lion.

    First important quality of software: it has to work. Maybe not well, maybe not feature-laden, but it has to work at some level.

  27. Andrew 63
    Stop

    I think you might want to get your mac checked out, I installed this last night on both my Mac and Android phone and both are working flawlessly.

    Also, the article the other day in relation to not being able to install it on Mac because your drive was not ready is not a Mac specific problem. I had to wait 2 days for mine, and I registered from a Windows pc.

    Please stop putting up crap without analyzing the facts first.

    Btw, I use a MBP 13" 2011 with Snow Leopard.

    1. jonathanb Silver badge

      I think I have the same Mac as you, or possibly the model that came out before yours. In my case, I wasn't even able to mount the .dmg file to start the installation.

      1. Andrew 63
        IT Angle

        They call that corruption. Happens sometimes, try downloading again.

  28. This post has been deleted by its author

  29. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

    CISSPA was just approved by the House..

    Do you really want to store data with an organisation that has to comply with the US PATRIOT Act and soon (by the signs of it) CISSPA?

    No thanks. I rather use a service in a somewhat safer legal environment..

  30. Paul 135
    Trollface

    The issue is ot with Google...

    ... it is that you are using a Mac.

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    get a proper computer

    Sorry to add my voice to the choir here, but if you tried to install it on a proper device, not a fruit-based toy computer, then you'll have no problems.

    I always find it hilarious seeing the helpless reactions from fanboys when something doesn't work without severe hand holding, which is quite amusing and happens more and more now

    Over-priced, unreliable, untrustworthy junk = Apple.

    1. Bobbicus Anthropithicus

      Re: get a proper computer

      Obviously a Linux user, doubtless an older release of Fedora scavenged from discarded CD's.

  32. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Devil

    Google Earth vs Google Drive

    Guess which one was coded by a company later bought by Google and guess which one was made by Google's own fair hand.

  33. jukejoint
    Paris Hilton

    How do the bright boyz (all of them) test UI?

    Do they put out a call for the commoner - or do they think they know everything already including how to act clueless?

    How are their products 'proofed' - ?

    I.E.: How are they sure Paris will use it and buy it without testing it on Paris?

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    WTF?

    Why on earth would I sign up to this Gcrap when I can get whopping 25GB free on Skydrive?!

    1. Tim Parker

      Re: WTF?

      "Why on earth would I sign up to this Gcrap when I can get whopping 25GB free on Skydrive?!"

      You don't have to. If Skydrive suits you better and you don't want yet another online storage resource then that's grand.

      As for others, well all new Skydrive users will only get 7GB, not 25GB, and for some the Google integration may work better than the Microsoft, e.g. for those who don't use a Microsoft OS - you can use Skydrive on your OSX/iOS device (as I have) but the benefit is far from compelling... just another bit bucket.

      Either way, I really don't think Google care about another Anonymous Coward spouting off as though their view of the universe is the only one that matters - I know I don't.

  35. Anything Goes
    Thumb Up

    charlie

    Well on OS 10.6.8 and got my email 24 hours later. 12 hours after that I'm synced. Beats the fact that iCloud is only for 10.7 and Dropbox has already proved itself insecure. Be interesting to work how to wrap my google folder with encryption. Not being terribly geeky, I'd value a view from this corral on that.

  36. All names Taken
    Paris Hilton

    One's one too!

    www .one .com has a cloud drive thingy-mabob and that does Windows, iPads but not Mac OS.

    <sniff, ... >

  37. Richard Boyce
    FAIL

    Google Gotcha?

    Out of curiosity, I went to the Google Drive site using my virtual PC on my Mac. It offered me the software, but I clicked on Now now (or similar) because I wanted the software for the Mac host. Now I can't seem to find the software for either platform on Google's site at all, though plenty of third parties seem to be offering it, possibly many are malware. Now I read that the software attempts to grab your personal files without properly asking. That sounds like malware too.

    There is an alternative service called Wuala that *automatically* encrypts all your data *before* uploading it to the cloud in Switzerland. Thus, unlike Google and DropBox, they're protecting your privacy even from themselves, and not maximally harvesting your personal data for their own business. Wuala works on iOS too, and I've already used it to share data with someone who is not yet registered with Wuala.

    This doesn't sound like Google not being evil, does it? It also sounds like they're rushing late to a party that's started without them.

    1. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

      Re: Google Gotcha?

      Thanks for Wuala - I am using mydrive.ch (also Swiss, thus in a legally more safe environment) but Wuala seems to be worth looking into.

      You will never catch me using Google for anything but searches, and even those I tend to filter via start page.com..

  38. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Does feel like it's a beta

    On a Windows 7 machine no amount of clicking on 'download software' achieved anything in Chrome - but on IE8 it came down OK. Installed and seemed to work. Has a lot of potential. Pricing is pretty compelling (it's cheap) but I'll wait until they've ironed bou the bugs before relying on it.

    By the way - I'm sure the default install is to sync everything in Dropbox as well - you need to go to preferences in both.

    1. SYNTAX__ERROR
      Boffin

      No

      Only stuff you put in the Dropbox folder is synced.

  39. stanj52
    Happy

    I got something right!

    Windows 8 Consumer Preview running in VirtualBox on a Windows 7 machine and Google Drive worked as advertised. I'm amazed.

  40. jake Silver badge
    WTF?

    WTF?!

    Don't you lot have remote ("off campus") personal file servers? telnet's been around for nearly half a century, FTP for nearly a third of a century ... there are more secure options today. Why trust other people for remote data storage when you can park an old Pentium box of arbitrary capacity on your Great Aunt Ruth's DSL line in Duluth?

    Honestly, my mind boggles ... I thought this was a tech site.

  41. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Error codes - retro lives on

    I do wonder that error codes are in many ways redundant for the user base at large. As programmer, admin /person who knows how computers work then there tolerated. But to parse them out to the user in a way that means nothing to them is from a company that has standards on user interaction; Somewhat lacking. A user needs to know what went wrong and you should tell them in english, no error codes, just if anything a reference. Now with unknown errors like this you should say to the user, something realy odd just happened and we dont know what so we would like to know more about this and click here to send use the following information which will only be used to make sure you never have to suffer this ever again for which we humberly appologise. Users to bitch about the wrongs of computers in error codes, so why should computers bitch at them with codes as the whole point of bitching is to be understood, otherwise it's a rant.

    As such if they must carry on using codes to inform users of errors then I inist they call them RANT CODES as the term ERROR CODE has been sorely missed in the retro computer listings :).

  42. Ilsa Loving
    FAIL

    As a Mac user

    Ok, some software broke. Some FREE software that the author hasn't invested any time, money, or effort in (I refuse to count going to a webpage and clicking a download link as time or effort). It's not as if google said, "Oh look! HE'S downloading our software! Let's screw it up for him!"

    May I humbly recommend the author taking a chill pill?

    And for all you people who denigrate macs as being "fruity toys", please masturbate your egos in the privacy of your own bedroom because all you do is come off looking like a fool. In my own experience, I've found macs to be overwhelmingly more stable than windows machines. Example: I can suspend my machine and be 98% sure that it will come back up again, even if I had a fullscreen 3d game running. If you try doing that on a windows machine, you're pretty much guaranteed that you machine will be scrambled beyond use when starting back up. At least, that's how it was prior to Windows 7. I don't know how well Windows 7 handles it because I switched to Mac as my primary platform before it came out, and I've had no interest in switching back.

    Additionally, I have almost seemless interoperability with other unix machines. No, I can't play every game on the market. I also don't care.

    I was using my Mac at work until my job required me to do a lot of Windows-specific development. So I switched to a windows machine. It's annoying to use because, after having used a mac, I find the Windows UI to be horribly inconsistent and awkward. In other words, the exact same complaint Windows users make when trying to use a Mac.

    TL;DR version: You use the machine that is suited to your needs. Computers are tools and should be treated as such, not as religions.

    1. Chris Mellor 1

      Crap software fixed

      I'm taking my chill pill now ... sip, gulp, swallow. Ah, that;'s better. Let's try installing Google drive again..... it's downloading ....its installing ... it's working.... the status message is "Your'e all set. Just drag drives from ... to the Google drive folder."

      Fabulous. Crap initial software fixed. I'll give it a whirl.

  43. jobst
    Stop

    The entitlement attitude of some people sucks

    Its a free (well with ads) service, appreciate it you overly entitled feeling people. Further stop sulking about a free service that does not immediately work 100% on its first day.

    I have 5 devices, and it worked on ALL of them with syncing: 1 android tab, 1 android phone, 1 linux laptop, 1 windows 7 desktop, 1 windows XP desktop.

    Thanks, Google!

  44. ToonArmyBarmy
    WTF?

    What's it for?

    OK so I signed up for Google Drive and to be honest, don't care what they use my data for. If they can find a use for it. However:

    I've now got - 5GB Google Drive - 2x 25GB Skydrive - 50GB Box.net - 7.25GB Dropbox - 5GB MSpot - 5GB Google Music - Various photo storage/sharing sites and, apart from transferring files to my Phone & Tablet. they don't get used.

    What's it all for?

  45. the unironed
    FAIL

    Article score 0/10

    This Reg hack should be sacked.

    It's not a 'review' if the hack has screwed their Mac up to the point where it can't install Drive.

    To then give up without trying it on other Macs, or OSes is NOT the standard of IT journalism we expect from the Reg. If it doesn't work, at least identify why it's broken and share with the community.

    Perhaps the 'journalist' is just trolling. Again, NOT what we read The Reg for.

    p.s. Have Drive working here on all manner of Windows & Mac boxes, worked first time without any intervention.

  46. SteveMack
    WTF?

    I agree

    I agree with the article when it comes to Google 'half baking' a service and then unleashing it in the wild.

    I Pay for Google Apps Business to host the email of my .co.uk domain.

    I cannot even download Google Drive.

    Top right of the screen claims it isn't 'enabled' for my domain. I have checked 3 times on my Control Panel and it is enabled... This happened with Google+ as well. If you are a free @gmail user then great, the new service is there for you to use, but if you're a paying Pro user. Sorry it isn't ready yet...

    I will stick with Dropbox

    1. Joeman
      Mushroom

      Re: I agree

      Some people are behaving like a spoilt brats who didnt get what they wanted for xmas!!

      Its not unusual for Google Apps Business to get features after the free Gmail users get them. No doubt google want to ensure the service is reliable and worthy of a fee before including it in with the 'Paid for' accounts.

      Give them a bit of time, and you will get a service that really compliments your Google Apps Business account.... alternatively, chuck your toys out of your pram, stomp your feet, and refuse to move away from whatever system your currently using... your choice!

  47. TomLeyden

    I really really want to love this product, but so far I can't ...

    Logged in with the wrong account; found no way to change that account but reinstalling the app.

    So far it seems there is no multiple-account support. Kind of lame.

    I do wonder though whether they will fix my main Dropbox issues:

    *everyone (i.e. all shares) pays for the same file shared by a person

    * you can't share a top level folder with one person and a lower level folder with another person (everyone gets access to top level without any notification)

  48. Mark Steel
    FAIL

    Useless

    google docs or 'drive' is completely useless. files appear in the wrong directory (if they are too big). the ownership of files appears random (we only have 10 people sharing files, and one use uploaded some files (which appeared in the wrong place) and they had the ownership of someone who hadn't used the files.

    you want to delete a folder that someone else created ? nope. (its my domain, my account, I pay, I should be 'Administrator').

    it decided because of some random error to create 999 versions of one file.

    I wanted to move a folder into another folder, it did so, and emptied the folder.

    Completely useless, almost pointless.

    we use syncdocs on the front of it, because the 'drive' download is utterly, utterly crap (I can't see folders owned by others in my team but shared to me ?).

    I'm not paying $995 for dropbox - that pricing model simply does not compute.

    I'm moving to ifolder...

    Mark

  49. jlynn149

    I currently use google drive and want to connect with friends and share pictures via dropbox. How does this work?

  50. ovidem

    All my Google Docs removed

    I ended up losing all my Google Docs files because of the way the syncing interface works. I posted my story here: http://googledrivesucks.com

  51. Sofienetta

    I am able to run on El Capitan just fine. I am trying to troubleshoot another user who is on Windows though. I hope you got ir to work by now Liam. I have had no issues with mine. I do use Chrome with El Capitan.

  52. JacobEye

    I had issue with mine on both iPhone and Mac so I discontinued the use. I only use Google Drive on PC now. I have windows 10 there. For Mac and iPhone I am using iCloud service. I had to move to Paid one for more capacity.

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