Grive Tools Not Syncing?

• Posted: Tue Aug 04 2015 05:18:16 GMT-0500 (CDT)
• Updated: Tue Aug 04 2015 05:34:04 GMT-0500 (CDT)

Tags:

• tutorial
• Ubuntu
• Google Drive

I have long used Ubuntu as my primary "desktop" OS (on my MacBook Pro for the last few years), using Grive on the back end with the Google Drive Indicator provided by Grive Tools to keep me appraised of Grive activity and to run Grive at startup.

A little over a week ago, I noticed that changes made to my resume locally were not syncing to Google Drive (where I keep it, so I can link to an always-up-to-date copy from this site and LinkedIn). After a little Googling, I realized that the wonderful Grive program for Linux no longer worked due to Google Drive API changes. I then read about Grive 2, serving the same function as the original but with support for Google Drive's new API(s). The problem is that nobody had written a front end to Grive 2, to my knowledge.

I added the main WebUpd8 PPA (I can't believe I've been running 14.04 this long without it), reloaded sources, and updated (since Grive2 has the same package name of ""grive"" in WebUpd8's repo):

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8 && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

 

Not wanting to change too much, I decided to see if the already-installed Grive Tools would support it. Out of the box, no. Then I tried running the Grive Setup front end provided by Grive Tools. After giving it the Google-provided passphrase, voila! Grive 2 with Google Drive Indicator support!"

Install Grive2 and Grive Tools at the same time

Install these repos in at the same time/in reverse order if you do not currently have Grive installed. Once you have the main WebUpd8 PPA enabled, Grive Tools will pull in Grive2 as a dependency instead of the original Grive, and you'll only need to grant permission/give a Google Drive passphrase to Grive Tools once. In other words:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thefanclub/grive-tools
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install grive-tools

 

Caveat emptor: The developer of Grive Tools is no longer updating nor supporting them. The package is still currently available for Ubuntu versions 12.10-15.04 in the Grive Tools PPA via:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thefanclub/grive-tools
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install grive-tools

 

I have no idea how long Grive Tools will continue to work with Grive2. We all may get stuck paying for InSync or OverGrive (by the creator of Grive Tools, but without a Grive back end dependency) if we hope to have Google Drive sync on our Linux desktops.

It is also worth noting that, as of right now, Google Drive Indicator's Auto Sync functionality runs much slower with Grive2 than with the original Grive.