I have been using SyncBack for many, many years both at home and (when I was still working) at work. On my home PC I backup to external HDs and to my Google Drive. I have been backing up only a select group of files to my Google Drive since I'm only using the free 15GB space there. Today I noticed that Google is having a sale on Google Drive space so I took advantage of it and bought 200GB for 75? for three months. Anyway, to my problem.
I started to back up my complete Documents folder to Google Drive and noticed that the disk space on my PC was dwindling. By a lot. I panicked and stopped the SyncBack program. I asked ChatGPT what the problem might be. It responded:
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It sounds like SyncBack may have created temporary files or local copies of your backups on your hard drive instead of directly syncing to Google Drive. Here are a few things to check:
Check SyncBack?s Temporary Files
Some backup software creates temporary copies before uploading. Look for extra files in your SyncBack folder or default backup location.
Verify Backup Location
Make sure the backup isn?t mistakenly saving to your hard drive instead of Google Drive. Check SyncBack?s settings to confirm the destination.
Google Drive Sync Settings
If you're using Google Drive?s desktop app, ensure it?s set to "Stream files" instead of "Mirror files"?mirroring keeps copies on your local drive.
Check for Duplicate Backups
Sometimes, SyncBack may create multiple versions of the same files if configured incorrectly. Look for duplicate folders or older backups eating up space.
Clear Unused Temporary Files
Try running Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr on Windows) to remove temporary files.
Look at Your Hard Drive Usage
Open Windows Storage Settings (Settings > System > Storage) to see which folders are taking up space.
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I couldn't find any files in the SyncBack folders. I have no idea where these files may be. Just that my Windows C: drive is losing space when the backup is running.
Does anyone have any idea where I might find those files that are eating up my disk space?
Just to iterate, I have been using SyncBack for years to back up files like DOCUMENTS, etc (600 GB) to external hard drives and never had this problem. Nor has there been a problem in backing up selected files (11GB) to Google Drive in the past.
Thanks in advance,
terryZ
PS I just saw this while searching "How to backup to Google Drive": There are two ways to back up computer files to your Google Drive folder. One way is to drag and drop the files to a Google Drive window. The major drawback with this method is that it creates a copy of each file you back up, taking up twice the storage space." Maybe this is what is happening?
