Google Drive Backup Script

Automated backup script for multiple Google Drive accounts to external storage volumes, with optional macOS automation.

⚠️ Security Notice

Before using this script:

1. Configure your actual rclone remote names
2. Never commit personal remote names or credentials
3. Review logs before sharing (may contain file paths)

Setup

1. Install rclone

brew install rclone
# or download from https://rclone.org

2. Configure your Google Drive remotes

rclone config

Follow the prompts to set up your Google Drive remotes. Choose meaningful names like:

• work_drive
• personal_drive
• backup_account

3. Configure the script

Edit the script to set your remote names, or use environment variables:

# Option A: Edit the script defaults
REMOTE_1="${REMOTE_1:-work_drive}"
REMOTE_2="${REMOTE_2:-personal_drive}"

# Option B: Use environment variables (recommended)
export REMOTE_1="work_drive"
export REMOTE_2="personal_drive"

Note: The script refuses the default placeholders (remote1/remote2). Set real remote names or export ALLOW_DEFAULT_REMOTES=1 for temporary testing. Remote names must match [A-Za-z0-9_-].

Features

• ✅ Backs up multiple Google Drive accounts
• ✅ Backs up both your own files AND files shared with you
• ✅ Organizes shared files in dedicated "Shared_with_me" subfolders
• ✅ Automatic external volume detection (Archives-A/Archives-B)
• ✅ Disk space validation
• ✅ Export Google Docs/Sheets/Slides to Office formats
• ✅ Comprehensive logging and error reporting
• ✅ Snapshot versioning with automatic cleanup
• ✅ Test mode for safe initial runs
• ✅ Continues backup even if one drive fails
• ✅ Automated backup monitoring with macOS notifications

Backup Structure

The script creates this folder structure on your external drive:

/Volumes/Archives-A/
├── work_drive/
│   ├── (your personal files and folders)
│   └── Shared_with_me/
│       └── (files shared with you)
├── personal_drive/
│   ├── (your personal files and folders)
│   └── Shared_with_me/
│       └── (files shared with you)
└── _logs/
    └── (backup logs organized by timestamp)

Usage

Test Mode (Recommended first)

REMOTE_1="work_drive" REMOTE_2="personal_drive" MODE=test ./run_gdrives_backup.sh

Production Mode

REMOTE_1="work_drive" REMOTE_2="personal_drive" ./run_gdrives_backup.sh

Automation Setup (Optional)

For automated daily backups, you can set up a macOS LaunchAgent:

1. Create Automator Application

1. Open Automator and create a new Application
2. Add "Run Shell Script" action
3. Set the script to run your backup command
4. Save as RunGDrivesBackup.app in /Applications/

2. Install LaunchAgent

# Copy the example plist and customize it (kept local and gitignored)
cp com.user.googledrive.backup.plist.example com.user.googledrive.backup.plist

# Edit the plist file to match your setup:
# - Update the path to your Automator app
# - Update user paths (WorkingDirectory/StandardOutPath/StandardErrorPath)
# - IMPORTANT: Set RunAtLoad to true for auto-start on boot

# Install into LaunchAgents (prefer a copy; symlinks can break if the repo is iCloud-managed)
cp com.user.googledrive.backup.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents/

# Load it (will run immediately and then daily at 23:00)
launchctl bootstrap gui/$(id -u) ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.googledrive.backup.plist

Important Configuration:

• Set <key>RunAtLoad</key><true/> in the plist to ensure the backup service automatically starts after system reboots
• Without this setting, backups will stop running after a reboot until manually reloaded

3. Managing the LaunchAgent

# Check status
launchctl list | grep googledrive

# Stop the service
launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u)/com.user.googledrive.backup

# Restart after system reboot or if service stops (should happen automatically, but if needed):
launchctl bootstrap gui/$(id -u) ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.googledrive.backup.plist

# View logs
tail -f ~/Library/Logs/com.user.googledrive.backup.stdout.log

Backup Monitoring (Optional)

The monitor_backup.sh script checks if backups are running successfully and sends macOS notifications.

Setup Monitoring

# Make the script executable
chmod +x monitor_backup.sh

# Test it manually
./monitor_backup.sh check    # Check status and send notification
./monitor_backup.sh summary  # Display backup summary report

# Install automated monitoring (runs daily at 9 AM)
# Copy the example plist and customize it (kept local and gitignored)
cp com.user.googledrive.backup.monitor.plist.example com.user.googledrive.backup.monitor.plist

# Edit the plist file to match your setup:
# - Update the script path in ProgramArguments
# - Update user paths (WorkingDirectory/StandardOutPath/StandardErrorPath)
# NOTE: Ensure RunAtLoad is set to true in the plist for auto-start on boot
cp com.user.googledrive.backup.monitor.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents/
launchctl bootstrap gui/$(id -u) ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.googledrive.backup.monitor.plist

By default, the monitor looks for Automator logs in ~/Library/Logs/Backups/automator-*.log. If you run backups another way, update BACKUP_LOG_DIR near the top of monitor_backup.sh.

Monitoring Features

The monitoring script will send macOS notifications for:

• ✅ Success: Backup completed successfully
• ❌ Failure: Backup encountered errors
• ⚠️ Warning: Backup hasn't run in 26+ hours
• ⏳ Running: Backup is currently in progress

Monitoring Configuration

Setting	Default	Description
MAX_AGE_HOURS	26	Alert if last backup is older than this

Monitoring Logs

Monitor logs are saved to:

• ~/Library/Logs/backup_monitor.log - Monitoring activity log
• ~/Library/Logs/backup_last_status.txt - Latest backup status
• ~/Library/Logs/com.user.googledrive.backup.monitor.stdout.log - LaunchAgent stdout
• ~/Library/Logs/com.user.googledrive.backup.monitor.stderr.log - LaunchAgent stderr

Error Handling

The script is designed to be resilient:

• If backing up your personal files fails, it will still attempt to backup shared files
• If one Google Drive account fails, it will continue with the next one
• All errors are logged and reported at the end
• The script provides clear exit codes for automation

Configuration

Setting	Default	Description
CHECKERS	8	Number of parallel file checks
TRANSFERS	8	Number of parallel transfers
RETENTION_DAYS	90	Days to keep old snapshots
MIN_FREE_SPACE_GB	50	Minimum required free space

Security Best Practices

• 🔒 Never commit rclone config files
• 🔒 Use environment variables for sensitive configuration
• 🔒 LaunchAgent plist files contain personal paths - keep them out of git
• 🔒 Regularly review and rotate access tokens
• 🔒 Review log files before sharing
• 🔒 Use specific, non-personal remote names in public examples

Troubleshooting

1. "Cannot access remote" error: Check rclone config show
2. Permission errors: Verify Google Drive API access
3. Network timeouts: Check internet connection
4. Disk space errors: Free up space on destination volume
5. LaunchAgent not running after reboot: Ensure the plist in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ is a real file (not a symlink), RunAtLoad is true, and reload it (see below)
6. "can't open input file" for monitor_backup.sh: Verify the script path in the plist and ensure the repo is kept downloaded if it lives in iCloud-managed ~/Documents

LaunchAgent Recovery

launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u)/com.user.googledrive.backup 2>/dev/null || true
launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u)/com.user.googledrive.backup.monitor 2>/dev/null || true
launchctl bootstrap gui/$(id -u) ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.googledrive.backup.plist
launchctl bootstrap gui/$(id -u) ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.googledrive.backup.monitor.plist
launchctl list | grep -E "googledrive|backup"

Optional diagnostics if it still fails:

launchctl print gui/$(id -u)/com.user.googledrive.backup | head -40
launchctl print gui/$(id -u)/com.user.googledrive.backup.monitor | head -40

Log Files

Logs are saved to <destination>/_logs/<timestamp>/:

• main.log - Combined output from entire backup session
• <remote1>.log - First remote backup log (both personal and shared files)
• <remote2>.log - Second remote backup log (both personal and shared files)