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How to connect and mount Google Drive on Ubuntu Linux

  Date Of Publication: June/2025
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Nowadays one of the most modern, safe and advanced technology that we can have at hand are without doubt the cloud-based applications.

These offer us free storage, from 5GB to 15GB, and the main advantage of this is that we can connect to it from anywhere and create, edit, download or delete content on that platform. We know that there are several options in the cloud such as OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, each with its respective advantages and benefits.

This time we will focus on how to mount and access Google Drive in Ubuntu 16.10 in a simple and totally useful way.

For this we will install Google Drive Ocamlfuse.

What is Google Drive Ocamlfuse

This application is a FUSE file system which is backed by Google Drive.

It is written in OCaml and its primary function is to allow us to mount Google Drive on Linux distros for later access and editing.

Features of Google Drive Ocamlfuse

Its main features are:

  • Support multiple accounts.
  • Compatible with symbolic links.
  • It has UNIX properties and permissions .
  • We have read and write permissions to all content.
  • Read access to applications such as spreadsheets, Google Docs, among others.
  • Handles duplicate files.
  • Access and editing of the trash .

1. How to install Google Drive Ocamlfuse on Ubuntu 16.10

Step 1
For its installation in Ubuntu, we must first install the following repository for its optimal installation and operation: 

 sudo add-apt-repository ppa: alessandro-strada / ppa

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Step 2
Once the repository has been downloaded and installed, we proceed with the installation of Google Drive Ocamlfuse by executing the following command: 

 sudo apt update && sudo apt install google-drive-ocamlfuse

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2. How to run Google Drive Ocamlfuse on Ubuntu 16.10

Step 1
Once the system is updated and the application is installed, we proceed to its execution using the following line in the terminal: 

 google-drive-ocamlfuse

Step 2
Press Enter and the default browser will automatically open where we must enter the respective credentials:

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Step 3
Once we access we will see the following:

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Step 4
Click on Allow and we must accept the respective permissions and finally we will access our Google Drive platform in Ubuntu 16.10:

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3. How to run Google Drive Ocamlfuse on Ubuntu 16.10

Step 1
This step is important to create the folder where Google Drive will be mounted on the operating system. To do this we execute the following command: 

 mkdir ~ / googledrive

Step 2
Once created we proceed to execute the following command to mount this folder: 

 google-drive-ocamlfuse ~ / googledrive

Step 3
We can see that we have our folder created and all the Google Drive content available there:

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Step 4
If we wish to disassemble the Google Drive unit, simply execute the following command: 

 fusermount -u ~ / google-drive

4. How to access Google Drive using the GNOME Ubuntu 16.10 control center


This is another option available in Linux environments to safely access our Google Drive and make the necessary changes. To install this utility, we will execute the following command. There we accept the download and respective installation of the GNOME control center packages. 
 sudo apt install gnome-control-center gnome-online-accounts

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5. How to adjust Google Drive accounts on Linux Ubuntu 16.10

Step 1
Once installed we go to Configuration and we will see the following:

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Step 2
There we open the Online accounts option and in the window that is displayed, select the option Add an account online and we will see the following:

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Step 3
There we select Google and it will be necessary to enter our account access credentials, then we will see the following after allowing Google access:

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Step 4
There we must activate what options the account will have access to. We open a new Files window and there we can see on the left side our Google account with its respective access:

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Step 5
As we see the images are not in the way they look in the cloud, to update them we go to File / Properties and in the displayed window we go to the Search & Preview tab and in the Thumbnails field we activate the All files box .

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We can see that the respective thumbnails are updated:

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6. How to disassemble unit with Google Drive account Ubuntu 16.10


To disassemble our Google account on Ubuntu 16.10, just click on the Eject button or right click on the account and select Dismount :

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In this way we will have access to our Google Drive account in Ubuntu environments in a fully functional way. Google Drive can be of great help to have a backup of our files without having to consume disk space. Learn more about this tool in this article with the advantages and tools of Google Drive.

Google Drive advantages

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