Google Drive provides 15GB of free storage space, making it a good option for backing up and syncing files. Accessing your Google Drive account on Windows and macOS is easy, but using Google Drive on Ubuntu works a little differently.

It's not hard to access your Google Drive files in Ubuntu; however, you must know how to do it. Here are a few ways to access the coveted Google Drive on your favorite Ubuntu version.

Access Google Drive via GNOME Online Accounts

You must install GNOME Online Accounts via the terminal to facilitate Google Drive Ubuntu sync. Go to the Settings icon on your Ubuntu menu and click on the Online Accounts tab.

Online accounts setup page in Ubuntu 22.04 with various sign-on options

Select Google from the list. Enter your email address and password in the ensuing dialog boxes. Click on Next.

Gmail credentials window in Gnome sign-on window

Click Allow to let your Ubuntu file manager, Nautilus, access your Google Drive client account.

Gnome permission window on Ubuntu

Make sure the Files slider button is on. Close the Online Accounts dialog box.

Google menu option to grant usage permissions

Mount Your Google Drive in Nautilus

Now you can access your Google Drive account directly in Nautilus. On Ubuntu, mount Google Drive to display your Gmail account's address. Click on your email address on the left sidebar to access the files in your account.

Nautilus file window with menu options

You can add as many Google email accounts as you want. To add another address, open GNOME Online Accounts again and follow the steps in the Add Your Google Drive Account section above. Each account is listed separately in the sidebar in Nautilus.

You can also mount your Google Drive folder from the dock. Hover your mouse over a mounted drive icon on the dock to see which Google account is mounted to that icon. Nautilus opens directly to that mounted Google account.

Using google-drive-ocamlfuse to Access Google Drive

When variety is the spice of life, why settle for anything less? Such is the case for your email accounts as well. With today’s technological advancements, creating and using multiple Google accounts is always an option.

Another way to access your Google Drive accounts on Ubuntu is through google-drive-ocamlfuse, which is a command-line tool.

ocamlfuse is a handy tool for installing and configuring your Google Drive like a directory on Ubuntu and accessing its contents as and when needed. The installation process of google-drive-ocamlfuse is relatively straightforward, and you can follow the steps below to install it on Ubuntu.

To kick-start the process, you need to add the software's repository, allowing you to access the tool easily. Run this command to add the PPA:

        sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alessandro-strada/ppa
    
Terminal window interface with installation codes

Update your system repositories and packages using the update and upgrade commands:

        sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
    

Once done, install the tool with the following command:

        sudo apt install google-drive-ocamlfuse -y
    
Terminal window steps with the installation codes

After installation, you can launch the application from the terminal by typing:

        google-drive-ocamlfuse
    

This command triggers a follow-up browser window, wherein you must enter your Gmail account's details, such as the email address and the password, when prompted.

Gmail's sign-in screen requesting email address inputs

You need to grant the necessary permissions, before moving to the next step. On the Google Accounts page, click on Allow to grant permissions, if you want to move ahead with the specified email address.

Gmail permissions page with permission options

You can close the browser window, once you reach the authorization tokens page.

Bowser page showing the permissions granted message

To access your Google Drive, you must create a new directory using the mkdir command.

        mkdir -v ~/myGoogleDrive
    

Mount the drive onto the newly created directory with the following command:

        google-drive-ocamlfuse ~/myGoogleDrive
    

You need to grant the necessary permissions once you execute this command. Once you give the permissions, you can check if the drive was successfully mounted with the df command:

        df -h
    
Terminal window on Ubuntu with codes

After mounting the drive, navigate to the files explorer (Nautilus) and look for the myGoogleDrive tab on the left-hand side. This will open up your newly mounted drive. As soon as you click on the tab, you will enter Google Drive, where the drive's contents are visible.

Google drive contents on Ubuntu 22.04

Access Google Drive via a Web Browser

The methods listed above work well, when you want to mount the drive on your Ubuntu machine. However, you can't overlook the fundamental way to access your Google Drive via the browser.

Open your favorite browser and search for Google Drive. Alternatively, you can access it by heading over to drive.google.com.

Click on the Go to Drive option. You can even use the sign-in button at the top to access your desired email address.

Google Drive sign-on page

This will open up your Drive and you can view the contents, as usual.

Work With Google Drive Files in Ubuntu

Unlike Windows or macOS, your Google Drive files are not downloaded and stored locally on Ubuntu. You must have an active internet connection to access your account.

To add local files to your Google Drive account, copy the files to your mounted Google Drive folder in Nautilus. To work with files from your Google Drive account offline, copy the files from the mounted directory to a folder on your hard drive.

You can also work directly on files in the mounted Google Drive folder. As you change files, those files are immediately synced back to your account online. But this method is slower than working with the files directly on your hard drive.

If you have a lot of work to do on your Google Drive account files, it's more efficient and productive to copy them to a folder on your local hard drive first. When you're finished working on the files, copy them back to your Google Drive account, replacing the original files.

Show Thumbnails for Google Drive Files

By default, Nautilus does not load file previews or thumbnails from mounted remote accounts. But, you can change this. In Nautilus, go to Edit > Preferences.

Drop down menu in settings within Nautilus

On the Files Preferences dialog box, click the Preview tab. Then, change the option for Show thumbnails to All Files under the Performance header.

Nautilus does not show the number of items in remote folders by default. To see this number for folders in your Google Drive account, select All Folders in the Count number of items drop-down list under Performance.

Thumbnails option in Nautilus

Unmount a Google Drive Account on Ubuntu

To unmount a Google Drive account, click the Eject icon to the right of your Gmail address in Nautilus.

Dialog box on Ubuntu to unmount the drive

You can also unmount a Google Drive folder from the dock by right-clicking on the mounted drive icon for the account you want to unmount. Then, select Unmount.

The icon for that Google account stays locked in the dock unless you select Unlock from Launcher from the context menu. Leaving the mounted folder icons locked to the dock makes it easier to mount each Google account again.

Ubuntu desktop interface

Alternatives to Google Drive on Ubuntu

Google Drive is not the only cloud storage option for Ubuntu. Here are some other options:

1. Dropbox

Dropbox is a good option because the Dropbox Linux client for Ubuntu works similarly to the Dropbox client on Windows. The files are synced and stored in a folder on your hard drive, and you can choose which folders in your Dropbox account to sync.

When you install Dropbox on Ubuntu, you get an indicator on the top panel that provides access to Dropbox features.

Dropbox folder and menu icon with a set of options

Download: Dropbox Linux

2. Mega

There is an ongoing comparison between Mega and Google Drive, but the clear winner is never realized since both are equally good in their respective fields.

Mega provides 50GB of storage for free, and their MEGAsync tool provides easy syncing between your computer and your Mega account. There's also a Nautilus extension on the MEGAsync download page that integrates your Mega account into the file manager on Ubuntu.

You can get an additional 20GB of space by installing MEGAsync and 15GB by installing the mobile app.

Megasync cloud interface on Ubuntu 22.04

Download: Mega Linux

3. Additional Cloud Storage Solutions

Other mainstream cloud storage services, like Box and OneDrive, don't offer Linux clients. You can access OneDrive in a browser and manually download and upload files. Ubuntu used to have Ubuntu One, but that doesn't exist anymore. But there are several other cloud solutions you can use on Linux.

Google Drive on Ubuntu: Basic but Useful

You don't have an excellent indicator like Dropbox when working with Google Drive files on Ubuntu. And you don't have extra features like sharing files. But you can easily access and sync files in your Google Drive account. You're all set if that's the main thing you want to do.