Google drive for multiple Windows users

Question

My wife installed the Google Drive application on her account on our Win 7 desktop. I went to install it on my Windows user (Administrator) and it will start for a second then exit.

Can Google Drive run in multiple Windows user accounts? Please note I'm not asking if one Win acct can access multiple Google Drive accts.

Solution 1

As suggested by Ramhound, Google Drive will work if installed on the Windows Administrator acct. I had originally installed it on a non-admin acct (which required an admin password to continue) but it then would not work later when I tried to install it on my admin acct.

So I uninstalled it completely and deleted the Google Drive folders on the non-admin acct. Switched over to the admin acct and reinstalled it. Google Drive then asked me to associate it with my Google acct.

Switched over to my wife's acct and was required to unlink it from her Google acct an then relink it. Did that and now we had our our own Google Drive folders linked under our Windows accounts. I didn't see any warning about this in the Google Drive help.

Solution 2

What works for me:

1. Assumptions: The PC has an existing user account ("Account A") that is already using Google Drive.
2. Create another Windows user ("Account B").
3. Log into Account B and set up Google Drive.
4. Optional, but very useful: Share Account B's Google Drive folder with Account A (share in Windows, not in the Google Drive web app).
5. In Windows, switch user accounts to Account A (do not log out of Account B; doing so will stop Account B's Google Drive from syncing).
6. [Optional] In Account A, map a drive letter to Account B's Google Drive folder (e.g., x:\ points to c:\users\Account B\Google Drive.[Only works if you shared B's Google Drive folder in step 4]

Now Account A and Account B are both syncing to their own Google Drive accounts, and you can access the local Google Drive folders for both accounts without leaving Account A (assuming you followed steps 4 and 6).

Note: whenever you reboot, log into Account B long enough for Google Drive to start, then switch to Windows user account A (again, do not log out of B or B's sync will stop).

I've been using this method with perfect reliability for over a year on Windows 7 and 10. The only drawback is having to log into both user accounts at startup.

Solution 3

I could sync only with one account each time. So I needed to close the Google Drive at the first Windows user to use the second Windows user Google Drive account. You don't need to uninstall and install it again. It is a one user at a time restriction.

Actually I did uninstalled and installed it again but it didn't work.

Ref: https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375023?hl=en

Comments

[5arx]

support.google.com/drive/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2375023

[Ian]

@5arx the page you pointed me to is about accessing multiple Google accts. As I said in my question, this was about running the app in each Windows user acct.

[5arx]

Ah sorry. I got asked that question three times this week at work (people have started using G Drive) and was on autopilot. If there are two distinct Windows accounts you should be fine. Try it and see.

[Ian]

Ok, so I deleted Google Drive from the system. I reinstalled it from my acct (the admin acct). It asked me for my login and all was good. However, when I went to my wife's side, the Google Drive taskbar item appeared briefly (faded out) and then disappeared. It didn't ask for her Google login.

[Ian]

@Ramhound do you want to write your comment as an answer so that I can accept it as the correct one?

[Ramhound]

@Ian - Feel free to answer it yourself.

[5arx]

Who downvoted? And why?

[Ian]

@5arx thanks for asking...wasn't sure why it go downvoted either.

[Ian]

Ok...this is mind boggling. Logged into my admin acct today and the Google Drive statusbar icon was faded out. Went to click on it and it disappeared. Is Google Drive quirky when multiple Windows accts use it?

[Tim Richardson]

My experience is different. Even installing as an admin does not allow this to work for me. The official drive account does not support multi-user Windows machines, as far as I know. If you install it under different accounts, the most recently installed takes precedence. I would love to be corrected, because we use insync, and it is not free.