A few weeks ago Google announced that they were rapidly increasing Gmail’s storage space, and at the time it sat under 3GB. Now, however, it is at 4.28GB and by the end of this year we will have broken the 6GB barrier. You have all of that space to use, and that means there’s never been a better time to use Gmail for file storage! 
Before I dive into some of the file storage tools I thought I would give you some words of wisdom. Google’s Terms of Use are pretty vague, and there’s a good reason for that. If they feel that you are using your account excessively they will probably terminate it, or at least temporarily suspend it. In the Terms of Use Google doesn’t explicitly define what excessive use is (rumor is that it’s 1GB of uploading/downloading per day), but they do say that they “may at any time and for any reason terminate the Services, terminate this Agreement, or suspend or terminate your account.” What I’m getting at here is that you shouldn’t use your main Gmail account for file storage, instead create a generic account that you won’t lose sleep over should it end up getting shutdown.
The two solutions that I’m about to list both support files of nearly any size. How can that be if Gmail limits the size of email attachments? Both tools will split files into multiple emails, and the files will be rejoined when you download them.
–Gspace Firefox Extension (Homepage)–
This is a Firefox extension that works for Windows, Linux, and Macs. One of the things you’ll quickly notice is that it has an FTP-like interface for managing your Gmail file storage. I tested this out, and it was extremely intuitive. Not only are you able to use Gmail for file storage, but you can also create folders to organize your files. Every file/folder that is added will show up as a separate email, with the name of the file/folder being put in the subject so that at a glance you can understand the email’s contents.
One of the nice things with Gspace is that you can specify multiple Gmail accounts that you want to work with. You can create one account for documents, one for music, and so on. That way it will also be less likely that your accounts will be shutdown for excessive usage.
–Gmail Drive (Homepage)–
This Windows addon has been converting Gmail accounts into file storage solutions for more than two years. It is among the easiest solutions because it integrates right into Windows Explorer, and it acts just like another hard drive on your computer. One of the more disappointing things with this addon, however, is that you can’t create folders to organize your files in (UPDATE: A commenter below said that you can create folders with Gmail Drive, so it must be a Vista bug that I’m experiencing?).
Note: The latest Beta version will let you use a hosted Gmail account (a.k.a. Google Apps) for file storage.
Thanks to Radu for the tip on Gspace!
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Tags: Google, Downloads, Email, Firefox Extensions, Gmail
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- Backup Your Files To An Email Account
Why not just use DivShare (free, unlimited, no hack necessary, no threat of getting shut down file hosting)?
DivShare is definitely my number one choice, but this is a little more private and integrates a little better into the tools that you use. DivShare really should come out with some sort of program for uploading files.
I am able to create folders in the virtual space that Gmail Drive creates just fine.
DivShare is just fine tuned expressly for file uploading and keeping safe online without limitations, with sharing options of course, while gmail is just not really made for that, though it’s a great well thought mail service. Both are as usefull as different.
Really? Every time that I create a folder in Gmail Drive it deletes it right away. I guess that could just be a Vista bug peeking out though. I’ll update the post though, thanks.
That’s true, but Gmail gives users more privacy over their files, and DivShare has been going pretty slow lately. With Gmail you get much better reliability.
Why using GDrive/GMail for keeping files online with a “secure privacy” if not for sharing?
What about an external fast and reliable 250Go usb drive?
If not for sharing, but just storing?
Usb drive usage is much more practical than managing files on a virtual drive through Explorer. More private, too.
Lesser storage, usb keys are eventually usefull too!
That’s easily said out of money consideration, I’m aware of that.
Well, I think some people want to access their files no matter where they go without having to carry anything around. This provides a good solution for taking files from home to work without needing to do much. Not only that but some important items are also worth having offsite backups in case something drastic, such as a fire, happens at your home.
Has anyone figured out how to connect to gspace/gdrive as if it were a network drive (or at least automatically sync the two the way syncback 4 ties a local HD and a FTP server)? Either I am missing something or gspace/gdrive is too labor-intensive for my taste (saving the file locally THEN uploading to gspace/gdrive).
GSpace is heading in the right directions as it currently enables users to play music w/o having to download the file.
OR maybe i am too picky….
I don’t think that there is a way to sync Gmail files with your computer, and you probably won’t see a feature like that until Google comes out with their own file storage service.
I installed GDrive. I can not add directories using Explorer File/New/Folder on the GDrive. However if I create directories on my computer I can then copy the directories to the GDrive and so build a usable directory/subdirectory structure. You can then move them around, add & delete files etc, but can not rename them.
When opening a files it copies the file to the local computer (under a different name as apparent from the Windows title bar). These are in the user’s temp directory under local settings.
You run into GMail’s prohibition of executable files so you can’t keep a spare copy of TrueCrypt on the GDrive. It’s odd that you can store the exe file but not the sys file.
If you have TrueCrypt on the local computer you can navigate to the GDrive to access an encrypted volume you created on your home computer, then copied to GDrive.
Overall, GDrive is an easy way to keep files online.
These tools supposedly automatically forward updated files to a specified e-mail list which in effect syncs Gmail with a local HD:
http://weblogs.asp.net/nleghar.....ackup.aspx
http://www.friendsoftware.ro/P.....fault.aspx
http://www.duodata.de/automailer/
***NOTE***
I HAVE NOT TESTED THESE AS OF YET. At the same time, I didn’t want to let this sit on my ‘to-do’ either… I will try these out later this week and share my findings.
-martin