Google Drive Sync + Read-only access

Question

Here's the situation:
We use Google Apps for Business. We have one Google Drive folder -- "Folder A" -- that contains about 30 sub-folders. Each of these sub-folders contains hundreds of files and folders within it. You can assume that I am the owner of all files and folders on Google Drive. I am also the Google Apps superadmin. Folder A has a very well thought-out structure, with as many as eight levels of folders in the folder hierarchy. We need to share Folder A with 40 different computers -- folder structure, files, everything. These 40 computers are display terminals, so each is used by dozens of people every day. It's crucial for us that all 40 computers have exactly the same folder structure because people have to frequently move from one display computer to another, and they have to make a presentation in which every second matters, so we can't have them spend 5 to 10 minutes each time figuring out the folder structure of the computer they are standing at. For business reasons + potential delays, we can't have people sign in using their individual Google accounts.

Here's what I did:

1. created a new account ("[email protected]")
2. shared Folder A with [email protected] (at "can view" permission level)
3. on all 40 computers, logged in to [email protected]'s Google Drive and synced everything

My problem is
For some reason, Google Drive allows users to move, delete, or do pretty much whatever they want to folders and files -- even if they have only "can view" access. Yes, this doesn't affect the original shared folder / file, but is still a huge problem because:

1. If any random user goes to any of the 40 computers and accidentally deletes a file or moves it, then this affects the other 39 computers as well (because Google Drive syncs across all 40 computers)

2. Even if I share Folder A ("can view" access only) with 40 different new accounts ([email protected], [email protected], ...), a user can still mess up the folder structure by going to -- let's say -- computer 17 and moving or deleting folders. So everyone who uses computer 17 from that point onwards will struggle because the folder structure has been tampered with. Yes, the original Folder A, owned by me, will still be in perfect condition, so there is no data loss. But I have no way of knowing that the folder structure for computer 17 has been messed up. So to make sure that every computer has the correct folder structure just like my original Folder A, I need to manually go to each of the 40 computers every day and check or re-sync to Google Drive. That's going to be crazy!

So ideally we need some way to make Folder A read-only, i.e., users can access the content but can't tamper with the overall folder structure or delete files. We're open to getting creative solutions and happy to do as much work as required, as long as it's one-time work.

Answer 1

Your problem is the Drive Sync app which is bi-directional. If I understand you correctly, you want uni-directional sync. My recommendation would be to replace Drive Sync with your own app that implements the behaviour you're looking for.

Answer 2

I know this is an old question, but in case anyone else comes here looking for a solution, try using a different Google Drive Client. I've tried the programs WebDrive and RaiDrive before, and both of them offer the ability to use sync Google Drive to a virtual drive, and set the drive to read-only mode in the settings.

Answer 3

How about changing user permissions the local filesystems of all the 40 computers to "read only"? Should achieve the desired result.

Answer 4

I'm responding very late, but thought I'd share what I found (for future users with a similar problem).

Short version: there is no solution here. Google Drive will allow users to tamper with folder structures, even if they've been given only view access. Philosophically, Google probably wants each user to create his/her own folder structure.

Creating our own Google Drive lookalike, as pinoyyid suggested, wasn't really an option for business reasons (we're completely entrenched in the Google ecosystem so makes sense to stick to Drive). So what I end up doing is look through change activity in Google Drive (online, on my computer) on a daily basis, keeping an eye out for any changes to the folder structure. I then: - undo that change - approach the person who made that change and tell them they went wrong Takes about 15 minutes per day

I will also eventually get around to automating this (using AppsScript I guess) but that's for later.

Thank you to all those who thought about the problem. Hopefully, Google will allow for a variety of use-cases at a later time.