Multiple Google accounts signed in on the same computer, brilliant! Both accounts were indeed mounted within /Volumes (a location accessible to all users).

We then signed in user A’s Google Drive account, then user B’s Google Drive account (still on user A’s local profile). We then installed Google Drive via user A’s local profile. We first made sure two test users (A and B) had admin rights on the machine. Bright and early this morning we got together to make the switch to the new Drive for Desktop app and get everyone logged in. One of the main features of the new version is that it supports multiple Google accounts, which we thought would easily solve our problems. So we decided to modernize and all switch over to the new Drive for Desktop app. This recently became untenable, as we started to run out of storage space on our main drive. Another downside of Backup & Sync is that it stores all files locally. By using File Stream I was able to access files and directories that were shared by other lab members to me (but not the other way around). One downside of Backup & Sync was that it didn’t allow local access to shared directories (and unfortunately our institution does not allow us to create shared drives on Google Drive). File Stream did not allow multiple users to log into the same computer, so our solution was that 1 group member (me) used File Stream, while the other 2 group members used Backup & Sync. Google Drive until recently offered two different desktop apps: Backup & Sync and File Stream. Only 3 lab members utilize the Mac Pro, and until recently all of us had been able to access their Google Drive files locally on the Mac Pro, avoiding the need for cumbersome manual syncing through the browser. We also use Google Drive to continuously sync and share all of our files related to each lab member’s project. It’s been a great resource, giving us local control and immediate access to high-performance computing, while providing a familiar environment (Mac OS) where we can also test software that will be run by many Mac users. My lab uses a Mac Pro with 512GB RAM for most of our computationally intensive analyses.

Google drive mac application