google drive stream vs mirror: which should you use?
by sumit paul · last updated
stream keeps your google drive files in the cloud and downloads each one when you open it; mirror keeps a full copy of my drive on your mac as well as in the cloud. pick stream if your drive is bigger than your free disk space or you're usually online. pick mirror if you need every file offline and have room for all of it.
the difference in one table
| stream files | mirror files | |
|---|---|---|
| space on your mac | only files you've opened or kept offline | the full size of my drive |
| opening a file | downloads the whole file first, then opens | instant, it's already on disk |
| offline | files you've opened or marked available offline | everything in my drive |
| shared drives | streamed | streamed (only my drive is mirrored) |
| where it lives | google drive under locations in finder (~/Library/CloudStorage) | a folder on your mac |
| needs a connection | to open anything not yet downloaded | only to sync changes |
| finder previews | quick look only for downloaded files | everything |
| google storage | files you own count either way | files you own count either way |
you choose in drive for desktop: click its menu bar icon, the gear, then preferences, and under my drive syncing options pick stream files or mirror files.
when stream is the right choice
- your drive holds more than your mac has free. a 2 TB google one plan doesn't fit on a 512 GB macbook.
- you open a small slice of your files on any given day.
- you're on a decent connection most of the time.
- you use shared drives a lot. they stream regardless.
the catch is that stream mode isn't really streaming in the way a video site is. when an app opens a file, drive for desktop downloads all of it, then the app gets it. small documents feel instant. a 10 GB video means waiting for 10 GB, and then 10 GB sitting on your disk. use stream long enough and the downloads add up; here's where that space goes and how to check it.
when mirror is the right choice
- you work offline a lot: flights, trains, patchy wifi.
- your mac has room for all of my drive with space to spare.
- you use apps that scan whole folders, like a photo catalog or a code project, where downloading files one by one in stream mode would be slow anyway.
mirror isn't a backup, though. delete a file in the mirrored folder and it's deleted in google drive too, and the other way round. if you want a copy that survives a mistake, back up separately.
what people usually settle on
the short version of the advice you'll find on reddit and in google's own help: stream on laptops with small disks, mirror on desktops with big ones. a sensible middle ground is stream mode with a few folders marked available offline, the ones you need on the road, and everything else left in the cloud.
how to switch without losing anything
mirror to stream, following google's steps:
- check the menu bar icon and make sure nothing is still uploading.
- in preferences, choose stream files.
- close drive for desktop.
- delete the old mirrored folder from your mac to get the space back. your files are still in google drive and appear under locations in finder.
stream to mirror: choose mirror files and close drive for desktop. my drive downloads to the folder you pick. google says it skips files already there and, if a local file differs from the cloud version, keeps both. make sure your mac has room for all of it before you start.
a third option for big files
neither mode helps much when the problem is a few very large files, like video, raw photos or archives. stream downloads them whole; mirror stores them whole. feather drive works differently: it fetches only the parts of a file an app reads, so a big video starts playing without the full download and takes zero bytes on disk. in a side-by-side test the same 1.22 GB video opened in 1.7 s from feather drive and after 1 min 44 s from drive for desktop in stream mode.
it's not a replacement for either mode. it only sees files you put in it, not your whole drive, it needs a connection to open files, it runs on macos 26 or later, and it's a paid app with a 3-day free trial. it sits next to drive for desktop rather than instead of it.
related
- does google drive take up space on your mac?
- how to clear the google drive cache on a mac
- how to use google drive in finder on a mac
- how to open a large video from google drive without downloading it
common questions
should i stream or mirror google drive on a mac?
stream if your drive is bigger than the free space on your mac or you mostly work online. mirror if you need every file offline and have the disk space for all of my drive.
does mirror mode back up my google drive?
no. a mirror is a synced copy, so deleting or overwriting a file on one side does the same on the other. use time machine or a separate backup if you need one.
can i mirror shared drives?
no. google drive for desktop only mirrors my drive; shared drives are always streamed.
does switching from mirror to stream delete my files?
not from google drive. after switching, you delete the old mirrored folder on your mac yourself, and google says to do that only once everything has finished syncing.
why does stream mode still fill my disk?
because opening a streamed file downloads the whole file and keeps it on your mac. remove downloads you no longer need from finder, or turn off available offline for folders you pinned.