How to install Google Drive Grive2 on Ubuntu

Updated 9/15/2015
If you are here from our How to install Google Drive on Ubuntu then you must be having problem installing Google Drive Client Grive on Ubuntu. As of Google changing it’s API recently and Grive (client of Google Drive) not being maintained any more is causing problem while installing Grive on Ubuntu. To get Grive up and running again, Vitaliy Filippov forked it and named his fork “Grive2”. The fork supports the new Google Drive REST API and it also includes a new feature: partial (directory) sync, along with bug fixes.
Problems you might be having while installing Grive previously are something like:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
grive-tools : Depends: grive (>= 0.3) but 0.2.0-1.1 is to be installed

Then here again, we have posted How to install Google Drive Grive2 on Ubuntu

Install Google Drive – Grive2 in Ubuntu or Linux Mint via PPA

Since there are quite a tools that rely on Grive, the Grive2 binary and package continue to be called “grive”, so installing Grive2 from the main WebUpd8 PPA will overwrite any old Grive versions it may find on the system (just as if it was a newer Grive1 version).

To install Grive2 in Ubuntu, Linux Mint and derivatives by using the main WebUpd8 PPA, use the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grive

If you don’t want to add the PPA, you can download the deb from HERE (for Ubuntu 12.04, you’ll also need yajl2 – get it from HERE) but installing the debs manually means you won’t receive automatic updates.

Using Grive2

1. Grive2 will download / upload new or changed files from the directory you run it. So firstly, let’s create a new folder – we’ll call it “grive” -, in your home directory:

mkdir -p ~/grive

2. Next, navigate using the terminal into the newly created “grive” folder:

cd ~/grive

3. The first time you run Grive2, you must use the “-a” argument to grant it permission to access your Google Drive:

grive -a

After running the command above, an URL should be displayed in the terminal – copy this URL and paste it in a web browser. In the newly loaded page, you’ll be asked to give Grive permission to access your Google Drive and after clicking “Allow access”, an authentication code will be displayed – copy this code and paste it in the terminal where you ran Grive2.

That’s it. Now each time you want to sync Google Drive with your local “grive” folder, navigate to the “grive” folder (step 2) and run “grive” (this time without “-a” since you’ve already authenticated Grive with Google Drive).

Grive2 comes with some advanced features as well. For instance, compared to the original Grive, the new Grive2 fork supports partial sync. To only synchronize one subfolder (a folder from your~/grive directory) with Google Drive, use:

grive -s SUBFOLDER

(replacing “SUBFOLDER” with the name of the subfolder you want to sync)
To see all the available options, type:

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grive --help

Comments 20

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Roy says:

7 years ago

i have a problen in the last step , this is the message ,can you help me?
Please input the authentication code here:
4/HMcGzaMfvl2OQqsZ7ALIr6EegMBX6sPKZ-ge2uh4rHM
Reading local directories
Synchronizing folders
Reading remote server file list
exception: /build/grive2-rauZp1/grive2-0.4.1/libgrive/src/json/Val.cc(90): Throw in function const gr::Val& gr::Val::operator[](const string&) const
Dynamic exception type: boost::exception_detail::clone_impl
[gr::expt::BacktraceTag*] = #0 0x477d00 grive gr::Exception::Exception()
#1 0x467901 grive gr::Val::Error::Error()
#2 0x46c79e grive gr::Val::operator[](std::string const&) const
#3 0x484d08 grive gr::v2::Entry2::Update(gr::Val const&)
#4 0x485a9c grive gr::v2::Entry2::Entry2(gr::Val const&)
#5 0x485e45 grive gr::v2::Feed2::GetNext(gr::http::Agent*)
#6 0x4445b8 grive gr::Drive::DetectChanges()
#7 0x432ae6 grive Main(int, char**)
#8 0x430cab grive main
#9 0x7fbdbeb9dec5 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 __libc_start_main
#10 0x43181f grive
[gr::NoKey*] = downloadUrl
- [email protected] says:
  
  7 years ago
  
  I’ve received similar error. Try getting a new authentication code. The authentication code extends beyond the text box so make sure you copy the code in its entirety. When I did that it worked fine for me.
Roy says:

7 years ago

i have a problen in the last step , this is the message ,can you help me?
Please input the authentication code here:
4/HMcGzaMfvl2OQqsZ7ALIr6EegMBX6sPKZ-ge2uh4rHM
Reading local directories
Synchronizing folders
Reading remote server file list
exception: /build/grive2-rauZp1/grive2-0.4.1/libgrive/src/json/Val.cc(90): Throw in function const gr::Val& gr::Val::operator[](const string&) const
Dynamic exception type: boost::exception_detail::clone_impl
[gr::expt::BacktraceTag*] = #0 0x477d00 grive gr::Exception::Exception()
#1 0x467901 grive gr::Val::Error::Error()
#2 0x46c79e grive gr::Val::operator[](std::string const&) const
#3 0x484d08 grive gr::v2::Entry2::Update(gr::Val const&)
#4 0x485a9c grive gr::v2::Entry2::Entry2(gr::Val const&)
#5 0x485e45 grive gr::v2::Feed2::GetNext(gr::http::Agent*)
#6 0x4445b8 grive gr::Drive::DetectChanges()
#7 0x432ae6 grive Main(int, char**)
#8 0x430cab grive main
#9 0x7fbdbeb9dec5 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 __libc_start_main
#10 0x43181f grive
[gr::NoKey*] = downloadUrl
- [email protected] says:
  
  7 years ago
  
  I’ve received similar error. Try getting a new authentication code. The authentication code extends beyond the text box so make sure you copy the code in its entirety. When I did that it worked fine for me.
Tal says:

7 years ago

Just a comment that may save you some time
If after running grive it stopped with the following message
exception: boost::filesystem::directory_iterator::construct: Permission denied: “./.cache/dconf”
(as it did in my case)
you should grant the appropriate permission by
sudo chmod 774 ~/.cache/dconf
Tal says:

7 years ago

Just a comment that may save you some time
If after running grive it stopped with the following message
exception: boost::filesystem::directory_iterator::construct: Permission denied: “./.cache/dconf”
(as it did in my case)
you should grant the appropriate permission by
sudo chmod 774 ~/.cache/dconf
Sara says:

7 years ago

i received the following error
exception: boost::filesystem::status: Too many levels of symbolic link
“./.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/f::”
Sara says:

7 years ago

i received the following error
exception: boost::filesystem::status: Too many levels of symbolic link
“./.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/sara/My Documents/.wine/dosdevices/f::”
ikbentomas says:

7 years ago

Thanks for the info!
The thing I like about Grive is the ability to sync multiple google accounts.
I can now easily sync my private and my work Drive folders which wasn’t possible on Windows with the original Drive software
ikbentomas says:

7 years ago

Thanks for the info!
The thing I like about Grive is the ability to sync multiple google accounts.
I can now easily sync my private and my work Drive folders which wasn’t possible on Windows with the original Drive software
Oleg Shalaev says:

7 years ago

Seems that Google is not very active in providing linux support. There are other cloud services which provide _official_ linux support: yandex-disk (10Gb) and mail.ru-cloud (25Gb). I use yandex-disk + apparmor + gpg + backup2l for my backups. I also store there my (unencrypted) family-video.
Oleg Shalaev says:

7 years ago

Seems that Google is not very active in providing linux support. There are other cloud services which provide _official_ linux support: yandex-disk (10Gb) and mail.ru-cloud (25Gb). I use yandex-disk + apparmor + gpg + backup2l for my backups. I also store there my (unencrypted) family-video.
ΒΑΣΙΛΗΣ ΜΕΡΤΖΑΝΗΣ says:

7 years ago

how can we start sync every time we boot?
ΒΑΣΙΛΗΣ ΜΕΡΤΖΑΝΗΣ says:

7 years ago

how can we start sync every time we boot?
Vinicius says:

7 years ago

Thanks. It is working so far to me.
Vinicius says:

7 years ago

Thanks. It is working so far to me.
dirt says:

7 years ago

Failed to fetch http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/dists/stable/Release Unable to find expected entry ‘main/binary-i386/Packages’ in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)
dirt says:

7 years ago

Failed to fetch http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/dists/stable/Release Unable to find expected entry ‘main/binary-i386/Packages’ in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)