How to Run Multiple Instances of Google Drive on Windows to Sync Multiple Accounts

orking on multiple Google Drive accounts on the browser is very simple. Once can simply use the Google account switcher and work on multiple accounts in parallel. Unfortunately, when using the Windows application for the same, there is no such feature

IMPORTANT UPDATE: This is an old post and many people recently started reporting in the comments that this method no longer works because the Google Drive app was updated to exclude this feature. Hence we’ve written another post that uses a different method. Here it is -> How to Use and Sync More Than One Google Drive Account on Windows.

According to Google Support, once must use application preferences and sign out from the first Google account before using another. But that’s not a solution if you want to sync more than one account and use them in parallel.
Fret not, like always, we’ve got your back. Here’s a method to get it done and run multiple Google Drive instances on the same machine.

Multiple Google Drive Instances

Step 1: Close all instances of Google Drive running on your computer and then download and install this application. After the application is installed, add C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Drive to your Windows Environment Variable. You can refer to this article to see how it’s done.
Step 2: Having done that, open Notepad and copy paste the following line. Don’t forget to replace username@ domain.com with your Google username.

@ECHO OFF
SET USERNAME=username@ domain.com
SET USERPROFILE=%~dp0%USERNAME%
SET USERPROFILE=%~dp0%USERNAME%
MD “%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming”>nul
MD “%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Application Data”>nul
MD “%USERPROFILE%\Application Data”>nul
MD “%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data”>nul
MD “%USERPROFILE%\My Documents”>nul
MD “%USERPROFILE%\Documents”>nul
START googledrivesync

Save the file as Account 1.bat to your desktop or another folder where you would like to sync the files. Don’t forget to select All Files as type in Notepad while saving the batch file.
Step 3: Now run the batch file and wait for another instance of Google Drive to Start. The second instance of the application will ask you to sign in to a new account. Proceed normally, just remember to change the sync folder to the new folder that’s created using the batch files in the advanced option.

Note: Sometimes you might encounter some difficulty while changing the folder. In such a case, copy the exact path of the folder to select the directory.

That’s all, you will now see two instances of Google Drive syncing side by side. Amazing, right? The next time you want to sync files on the secondary account, run the batch file of that particular account. To add every subsequent account, just make a new batch file, run it and configure the application.

Conclusion

As we are not using any third-party application for the trick, this is the best method to sync multiple Google Drive accounts in Windows according to me. However, I think this is one of the very basic feature that should be provided as a built-in feature by Google. What do you think?

GT Explains: What is Environment System Variable and How to Edit it in Windows

Whenever I write content related to Android rooting and ADB access, I often ask readers to add a specific path to Windows System Environment variable so that they can execute the command globally. However, most of the users seem to be having trouble understanding what setting up the environment variable path actually means and the way to edit it in Windows to include the path.
Today I am going to show you how you can edit Environment Variable in Windows but before we see that, let’s understand what it really means.

What Environment Variable Means

Environment Variable is only significant if you are working on Windows Command prompt. Let me state an example for better understanding. Suppose you type in the command ipconfig to find out the IP configuration of your computer. No matter in which folder you are in the Command Prompt, Windows will recognize the command and automatically run it. However, if you try to execute any executable file in a folder without actually navigating to the folder, Windows will not be able to recognize the command.

It’s not that Windows has a soft corner for the ipconfig command, but the path where the ipconfig command is located in the system, i.e. system32 is configured in Windows Environment Variable by default. So the point is, if you want to run any file on Command Prompt, no matter which folder you are in you will have to set up the Environment Variable Path for it.
So let us now see how we can set up an Environment Variable in Windows to include the path of a folder.

Setting Windows Environment Folder

Step 1: Open Windows Explorer and navigate to Computer. Here, click on the System properties button to open your computer System properties.

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Step 2: After the Windows System Properties open up, click on the link Advanced System Settings on the left sidebar.

Step 3: In Advanced System Properties click on the button Environment Variable to open Environment Variable.

Step 4: Under user variable, double click on PATH to open it. You can now add the path of the folder in the text box. Use a semicolon (;) to merge two or more paths.

Finally press the OK Button to save the settings and close all the windows. You can now access the executable files from the configured path globally on Command Prompt.

Conclusion

That was how you can edit and include a custom path to Windows Environment Variable in Windows to execute a file throughout the Command Prompt. I have tried my best to put it in as easy way as possible, still if you have questions you would like me to clear, all you need to do is drop a comment