If you've used Google drive at all, you know that you can access your files through a web browser. You've also been able to access them using the Google Drive desktop application, which synchronizes files between Google Drive and your desktop computer. That means that every time you added files to Google Drive, it consumed more of your local disk space. Google Drive File Stream works differently.
On Mac computers it appears as a link under Devices in Finder.
With Drive File Stream, instead of storing files locally and syncing them with Google Drive, files are streamed on demand as needed. So the files are actually located in your Google Drive in the cloud. They appear to be local to your machine, much like a network drive such as your H: drive, when logged in to a university computer. You can double-click on a Word file and it will download the file immediately and open it in Microsoft Word. You can double-click on Google documents and they will open in a browser window, just as they would if you were using the browser interface to Google drive. You can also copy and paste files into this folder and they will be synced up to your Google Drive. Basically, treat this folder just as you would a network drive. Another added benefit of using Google Drive File Stream is that it not only provides access to My Files, but also Team Drives.
If you're syncing large files or large numbers of files for the first time, it may take a little while for it to synchronize with Google Drive.
The first time you run the program and login to Google, the program should start automatically every time you login to that machine. If your Google Drive File Stream no longer shows up in Explorer or Finder, you may need to restart the program. On a Mac, open up Finder, go to Applications and launch Google Drive File Stream.
Files that you need to use when you do not have Internet access must be made available off-line in advance. Making files available off-line stores a local copy of the file or folder on your computer, so it is available without Internet access.
On a Mac, Ctrl-click the file or folder and then select Drive File Stream | Available offline:
