How to Sync Google Drive on Ubuntu 24.04 and 26.04 (Insync and rclone)

Updated: 8 October 2026 · Applies to: Ubuntu 24.04 and 26.04; Insync 3.9.11; rclone 1.60.1 (Ubuntu package) and 1.75.1

Google does not make a Google Drive app for Ubuntu: its help pages say the Drive for desktop app is not available for Linux and point Linux users to Drive in the browser. To keep a folder in sync with Google Drive on Ubuntu, use Insync (a paid app with a window and file manager integration) or rclone (free, command line, also works on servers).

Option 1: Insync (paid, two-way sync with a GUI)

According to Insync's website, the current desktop version is 3.9.11 and it supports Ubuntu 26.04, 24.04 and 22.04 (and older), Debian, Linux Mint, Fedora, RHEL and openSUSE, on 64-bit Intel and AMD only. It is a one-time licence per cloud account (each Google account counts as one), usable on any number of computers, with a 7-day free trial.

1. Download the .deb for your Ubuntu version from the Linux download page on insynchq.com. The file name contains the release name: noble for 24.04, resolute for 26.04.
2. Install it with apt, which also pulls in its dependencies:

   sudo apt install ./insync_3.9.11.60043-noble_amd64.deb

3. Start Insync from the app menu, sign in with your Google account and choose what to sync.

The package adds Insync's own apt repository, so later versions arrive with your normal updates. On our Ubuntu 26.04 test it wrote:

deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/insynchq.gpg] http://apt.insync.io/ubuntu resolute non-free contrib

Insync also has a command line: insync status, insync pause, insync resume and insync quit, and insync export-option sets the format used for Google Docs, Sheets and Slides. On a minimal Ubuntu 26.04 image the installer stopped with rev: not found; installing bsdextrautils first fixed it (normal desktop installs already have it). For servers there is a separate insync-headless edition, sold as a yearly subscription per machine.

Option 2: rclone (free, also for servers)

rclone copies, syncs and mounts Google Drive from the command line. Ubuntu 24.04 and 26.04 both ship rclone 1.60.1; the current release is 1.75.1, available as a .deb from the rclone releases on GitHub. Prefer the current release if you want two-way sync: rclone 1.60.1 prints bisync is EXPERIMENTAL. Don't use in production!

Before you start: create your own Google client ID. rclone 1.75.1 warns that its shared Google Drive client ID "is being retired and will stop working during 2026". Following rclone's documentation, in the Google Cloud console:

1. Create a project and enable the Google Drive API.
2. Set up the OAuth consent screen (app name, support email, audience External) and add your own Google address as a test user.
3. Create an OAuth client of type Desktop app and copy the client ID and client secret.

Google's OAuth documentation says that while such an app is in Testing, its refresh tokens expire after 7 days, so you would have to sign in again every week. Publish the app to avoid that.

Set up the remote:

curl -LO https://github.com/rclone/rclone/releases/download/v1.75.1/rclone-v1.75.1-linux-amd64.deb
sudo apt install ./rclone-v1.75.1-linux-amd64.deb
sudo apt install fuse3
rclone config

1. Choose n (New remote) and name it gdrive.
2. At Storage> type drive (Google Drive).
3. Paste your client_id and client_secret, choose scope 1 (full access), and press Enter for the service account file and the advanced config question.
4. At Use web browser to automatically authenticate rclone with remote? (rclone 1.60.1 asks Use auto config?) answer y on a desktop and sign in to Google in the browser. On a server without a browser answer n, run the rclone authorize "drive" "..." command it prints on a computer that has a browser and the same rclone version, and paste the result back.
5. Answer n to the Shared Drive question unless you use one, then test with rclone lsd gdrive:, which lists your top-level Drive folders.

Copy, sync or mount:

rclone copy gdrive:Documents ~/Drive/Documents --progress
rclone sync ~/Documents gdrive:Backup/Documents --progress
rclone bisync ~/Drive gdrive:Drive --resync
rclone bisync ~/Drive gdrive:Drive
mkdir -p ~/GoogleDrive
rclone mount gdrive: ~/GoogleDrive --vfs-cache-mode writes --daemon

• copy adds and updates files but never deletes. Use it to download your Drive files to Ubuntu or to upload a folder.
• sync makes the destination identical to the source. In our test it deleted a file that existed only at the destination, so try --dry-run first.
• bisync is the two-way sync. The first run needs --resync (without it rclone 1.75.1 and 1.60.1 both abort). In our test with 1.75.1, a new file on each side and a deletion on one side all reached the other side. rclone calls bisync an advanced command, so keep a backup.
• mount shows Drive as a folder without downloading everything. Unmount with fusermount3 -u ~/GoogleDrive.
• To sync on a schedule, put the bisync or sync line in your crontab (see crontab syntax).

On a server, rclone is a simple way to copy backups to Google Drive. See backing up your files with rsync and a VPS for a server-to-server alternative.

Built-in Online Accounts (Ubuntu 24.04 only)

On Ubuntu 24.04 you can add your Google account in Settings > Online Accounts and leave Files switched on. Your Drive then appears as a remote location in the Files app and in open and save dialogs. This is not a sync: the files stay on Google Drive and are opened over the network.

Ubuntu 26.04 no longer offers this. We compared the packages: gvfs-backends 1.54.4 on Ubuntu 24.04 includes the Google Drive backend (gvfsd-google), while 1.60.0 on Ubuntu 26.04 only has OneDrive. On 26.04, use Insync or rclone.

Google Docs, Sheets and Slides

These are not ordinary files on Drive. rclone downloads them as docx, xlsx, pptx or svg by default (change this with --drive-export-formats), and Insync lets you choose the format with its export option.

Official documentation: Google Drive system requirements and Google OAuth 2.0 (refresh token expiry).