Google Drive File Stream folders are missing

Question

I am using Google Drive File Stream and have a problem where some of the folders are missing from a team drive/shared drive. The folders appear in the web interface, but not in the Mac Finder. There doesn't seem to be any option to refresh.

This problem has come up intermittently in the last few months, and also is reported by other members of my team. I'm on Google Drive File Stream version 41.0.2.0 and macOS Catalina 10.15.6.

Answer 1

I received the following procedure from Google Cloud Support and it seems to have fixed the problem for me.

1. Go to Drive File Stream icon on the menu bar > gear icon > Pause Syncing
2. Then, Drive File Stream > gear icon > Preferences > Disconnect Account
3. Next, Drive File Stream > gear icon > Quit
4. Fine the cache folder: Finder > Go menu > Go to Folder > paste ~/Library/Application Support/Google/DriveFS
5. Delete the folder DriveFS
6. Drag the app Drive File Stream to the trash
7. Restart the Mac
8. Reinstall Drive File Stream
9. Go to Drive File Stream > gear icon > About, and verify that Version: 41.0.2.0

This worked for me but seems very elaborate. Hopefully they will come up with a better way in the future.

Answer 2

I just discovered after a lot of try and error that if my folders ends with a space character (ex: "COMPTA ") then it did not show up on my mac.

This is a strange bug as it was working on my old mac but it's now easy to reproduce on my mbpro M1.

Answer 3

Simply Control/Right click on the parent folder and select the “Refresh Folders” option. I also hate that large numbers of folders randomly disappear. I'm in a pissing match with Google support over this right now. They insist this is a fix, but it is becoming a widespread issue in our enterprise.

I updated to Google Drive for Desktop today to get 50.0.5.0, a computer reboot was needed to get the Finder integration options working so that “Refresh Folders” was an option.