How to Seamlessly Sync Large Files from rsync to Google Drive Without Losing Data Integrity

Uploading large files directly to Google Drive can be a frustrating experience—long upload times, wasted bandwidth, and the nagging fear that something might go wrong mid-transfer. Why blindly upload everything when you can harness the power of rsync to intelligently sync only what matters? This not only saves bandwidth and time but also guarantees your data integrity remains intact.

In this post, I’ll walk you through a practical approach to syncing large files from your local Linux machine to Google Drive using rsync. By combining these two tools, you get the best of both worlds: rock-solid file synchronization capabilities from rsync and the resilience plus accessibility of Google Drive cloud storage.

Why You Should Stop Blindly Uploading Large Files to Google Drive

Uploading entire folders repeatedly or via naive drag-and-drop often results in:

Uploads resuming from scratch if interrupted.
Duplicate files clogging space.
Excessive bandwidth consumption.
Missing partial updates when modifying just portions of large files.

Wouldn’t it be better if your syncing tool:

Automatically detects which files (or parts of files) changed.
Transfers only those changes instead of entire blobs.
Ensures checksums match so corrupt or incomplete transfers don’t get accepted.

Enter rsync, a command-line utility built precisely for efficient, incremental file transfers that preserve permissions, timestamps, and — most importantly — data integrity by verifying every file’s checksums.

The Challenge: Rsync + Google Drive?

Since Google Drive isn’t natively an rsync destination (it’s not a normal filesystem), you can’t directly run rsync /local/path/ google-drive:/backup out of the box.

What Are Your Options?

Google Drive Client with Local Mount
- Use Google’s official Backup & Sync or Drive for Desktop tools to mount your drive locally.
- Then, run rsync locally between your source folder and mounted drive path.
- Downsides: These mounts may have performance limitations with lots of large files.
Rclone: The Bridge
- rclone is a popular CLI tool that acts as an intermediary between local filesystems and cloud providers like Google Drive.
- It supports an efficient synchronization mode and is scriptable.
- With rclone mount, you can mount Google Drive as a local filesystem accessible by rsync.
Rsync Over Mount + Checksums
- Combine both, mounting Drive via rclone and syncing with rsync.

In this guide, I’ll demonstrate how to implement Approach #2 — using rclone + rsync.

Step 1: Install Rclone

If you haven’t installed rclone, here’s how:

# On Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install rclone

# On macOS using Homebrew
brew install rclone

Verify installation:

rclone version

Step 2: Configure Rclone for Google Drive

Run:

rclone config

In the interactive prompt:

Choose “n” for new remote.
Name it something like gdrive.
Select “drive” as the cloud storage type.
Follow through OAuth prompts — these may open a browser window where you log into your Google account.
Accept all defaults unless you have specific needs.
Complete configuration.

Test connection with:

rclone ls gdrive:

You should see filenames and directories from your Google Drive root.

Step 3: Mount Google Drive Locally

To make it accessible like a local directory for rsync, mount it somewhere:

mkdir -p ~/mnt/gdrive
rclone mount gdrive: ~/mnt/gdrive --vfs-cache-mode writes &

Note: The ampersand (&) runs this in the background. You can stop it anytime with:
fusermount -u ~/mnt/gdrive

With this mount point ready, now you can treat your cloud storage as if it were part of your filesystem tree.

Step 4: Use Rsync to Sync Your Large Files

Assume your large files are stored in /home/user/largefiles.

Run this command to sync them intelligently:

rsync -avh --progress --delete /home/user/largefiles/ ~/mnt/gdrive/backup-largefiles/

Breakdown:

-a: archive mode (recursive copy preserving timestamps & permissions)
-v: verbose output – so you see what’s happening
-h: human-readable numbers (e.g., “1.2G”)
--progress: show progress bars for each file transfer
--delete: remove any files in destination no longer present on source (use with caution)

rsync will compare timestamps and sizes by default; even better is adding checksum checks with:

rsync -avhc --progress --delete /home/user/largefiles/ ~/mnt/gdrive/backup-largefiles/

Where:

-c: skip based on checksum rather than mod-time & size (slower but more accurate).

Note: For huge data sets, checksum mode takes more time but ensures data integrity by verifying contents match exactly.

Step 5: Automate Your Backup (Optional)

Create a simple bash script called /usr/local/bin/google-drive-backup.sh:

#!/bin/bash

# Ensure rclone mount exists; else mount it first (optional)
if ! mountpoint -q ~/mnt/gdrive; then
    echo "Mounting Google Drive..."
    rclone mount gdrive: ~/mnt/gdrive --vfs-cache-mode writes &
    sleep 5 # wait for mount stabilization
fi

echo "Starting rsync backup..."
rsync -avhc --delete /home/user/largefiles/ ~/mnt/gdrive/backup-largefiles/

echo "Sync finished!"

Make executable:

chmod +x /usr/local/bin/google-drive-backup.sh

You can use cron or systemd timers to run it automatically at regular intervals — freeing yourself from manual uploads forever.

Example crontab entry running backup every night at 2am:

0 2 * * * /usr/local/bin/google-drive-backup.sh >> /var/log/google-drive-backup.log 2>&1

Extra Tips To Maximize Efficiency & Safety

Exclude temporary or cache directories: Use --exclude='*.tmp'.

Example:

rsync -avhc --progress --exclude='*.tmp' /path/to/source/ ~/mnt/gdrive/folder/

Use VFS cache modes judiciously: If you encounter slow performance or errors with mounted drive, experiment with different mounting cache options (--vfs-cache-mode minimal/full/writes) depending on your needs.
Test on small batches first: Especially when using deletion flags!
Check drive quotas: Syncing extremely large data sets might fill up your allocated space quickly—monitor regularly.

Wrapping Up

By bridging traditional Linux sync via rsync with cloud storage resilience thanks to Google Drive (rclone acting as an essential glue), you're empowering yourself with an intelligent backup system that:

Efficiently transfers only changed data,
Preserves data integrity via checksum verification,
Saves bandwidth/time,
Easily automates backups,
And scales effortlessly across small personal projects or massive datasets.

Stop blindly uploading everything piece-by-piece — start syncing smart today!

Got questions or want me to cover troubleshooting tips? Drop a comment below!

Happy syncing! 🚀

Rsync To Google Drive