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Is there a tool which allows me to mount the cloud storage of Google Drive or Dropbox to my system? It is important that it stays completely remote.

My local storage is almost full and I need a way to access one or both of these clouds to get my files easy.

gerlos
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DevJoe
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    Until Dropbox rolls out Project Infinite for Linux, I think your best bet is to just use the services' respective web interfaces. – Nick Weinberg Sep 03 '16 at 17:42
  • Are you confusing `my local memory` with `my hard disk free space`? Which one are you asking about? How do you know you're running out of it? In terminal, type `df` and paste the output here for us to review. Cheers, Al – heynnema Sep 03 '16 at 21:33

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The current answer is incorrect. There is actually a way to mount your cloud storage as if it were its own drive.

The method is called google-drive-ocamlfuse. There is a version for 16.04 and down to at least 12.10.

To install it, you do need to add the PPA, but I've used it before and trust it.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alessandro-strada/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install google-drive-ocamlfuse

Usage instructions from WEB UPD8:

Run google-drive-ocamlfuse to authorize it with your account.

Make a directory somewhere (~/gdrive for example): mkdir ~/gdrive.

Mount Google Drive to the folder you created: google-drive-ocamlfuse ~/gdrive

By default, the app only refreshes lists every 60 seconds. You can change this in the config file: ~/.gdfuse/default/config.

To make it mount on startup, add this command to Startup Applications (Unity): google-drive-ocamlfuse /path/to/gdrive. Even if you made the folder in your user directory, use an absolute path for this.

As for Dropbox, something a little more general exists: CloudFusion. This actually supports both Google Drive and Dropbox, but it looks like it only works for one at a time.

The installation is a bit more manual for this one.

sudo apt-get install git
git clone git://github.com/joe42/CloudFusion.git
sudo apt-get install python-setuptools gcc libssl-dev libffi-dev python-dev fuse-utils opencv-dev libhighgui2.4 libcvaux2.4 sikuli-ide python-pycurl python-libxml2 python-imaging  tesseract-ocr
cd CloudFusion
sudo python setup.py install

The GitHub page has full configuration instructions.

For Dropbox:

Simply copy the Dropbox configuration file located at cloudfusion/cloudfusion/config/Dropbox.ini to your home directory. If you do not have a Dropbox account already, you can create a new one at https://www.dropbox.com. Edit the configuration file by adding your username and a password.

For Google Drive:

Copy the Google Drive configuration file located at cloudfusion/cloudfusion/config/GDrive.ini to your home directory. Add your client_id, and client_secret to the configuration file. Details on obtaining these are inside the configuration file.

To start:

cloudfusion --config ~/db.ini mnt

This assumes that you saved the configuration file as db.ini to your home directory. If you simply copied the configuration file as suggested, replace db.ini with the respective file; i.e. Sugarsync.ini or Dropbox.ini. If the login process is not yet fully automatized, as with Google Drive, a browser will open, and you have to allow CloudFusion access to your account manually.

Enjoy accessing your files in the directory mnt/data.

For more advanced options, check the linked page.

So, yes it is possible to mount cloud storage, using those two programs.

Community
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TheWanderer
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  • Do you think/know if this could also work for mounting a cloud storage on an Android device as if it were a local folder/drive? – Redoman Sep 17 '17 at 18:52
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The program rclone seems to be available on Ubuntu as a snap. It can mount both Dropbox and Google Drive using FUSE.

To install using snap:

$ sudo snap install rclone

Detailed instructions for how to configure rclone to work with Dropbox and Google Drive are available on the rclone website:

Once installed and configured, you can mount e.g. Dropbox with a command like this:

$ rclone mount dropbox: /path/to/mountpoint
acodispo
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No, there isn't.

Dropbox has an official sync client for Linux and Google Drive has also an unofficial one, so both can be easily used in a Linux system. However, sync always means copying the contents to the synced local folders, hence using at least as much space.

  • Is there maybe another cloud provider which allows retrieving files without sync (onedrive etc.)? – DevJoe Sep 03 '16 at 18:05
  • Not that I'm aware of. +1 to Nick's suggestion, use the respective web interfaces. –  Sep 03 '16 at 18:12
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    @CelticWarrior there are actually quite a few ways to mount cloud storage on Linux. Take a look at my answer. – TheWanderer Sep 03 '16 at 19:26
  • @Zacharee - The OP doesn't want local sync. AFAIK, your proposed solutions do that in one way or the other. –  Sep 03 '16 at 19:37
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    @CelticWarrior they do neither. They literally mount the cloud storage as if each service was a hard drive. It's not sync at all, just a way to interact with files in the cloud directly from Nautilus. – TheWanderer Sep 03 '16 at 19:39
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    This should not be the accepted answer. There are many programs that allow mounting cloud storage as a drive on all major systems. IMO this is the way to go forward (with better caching than most solutions I tried have though). The OP should adjust. – masterxilo May 26 '17 at 19:45
  • Agreed. SE could do a better job of notifying OPs when the community overwhelmingly prefers a different answer, or identifies the "accepted" one as being incorrect. @DevJoe ^^ – Scott Prive Jan 24 '20 at 16:57
  • @DevJoe absolutely, OneDrive allows mounting over WebDAV ( https://d.docs.live.net/ ) , you can mount it with davfs2 (even Windows' Explorer can mount it, as explorer.exe has native support for WebDAV) – hanshenrik Jun 30 '21 at 12:01
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Regarding Dropbox: Cloudfusion doesn‘t seem to be maintained anymore. Another solution is to use dbxfs which is described in this article: https://www.ostechnix.com/dbxfs-mount-dropbox-folder-locally-as-virtual-file-system-in-linux/

Matthias Munz
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For Ubuntu 16.04 you can install online accounts and mount them into your file explorer by:

sudo apt install gnome-control-center gnome-online-accounts

under "System Settings" you can add online accounts with your google drive mounted directly in nautilus.

Taken from: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/08/use-google-drive-ubuntu-16-04-linux-desktops

Timomo
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  • While you answer does provide some of the essential parts, [it would be preferable](https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/8259) to include all the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. – J. Starnes Dec 11 '17 at 20:32
  • I tend to disagree here, the steps to install and add an online account are the essential parts to have your gdrive mounted. I think the choice of words "full description" can be misleading. This refers to the details since when it is possible and some screenshots for beginners. – Timomo Dec 13 '17 at 16:50
  • low rep users can indirectly include screen shots by including a link to a hosted image, on say http://imgur.com/. Then when it is reviewed it can be edited as seems appropriate, ie making it an in-line image or just a reference link. – J. Starnes Dec 13 '17 at 17:13