Google Drive is a popular cloud storage service that allows you to store and share files. You can access your stored files anytime from anywhere. Currently, for each Google account, it is giving 15 GB space for free. No matter which operating system you are using, you can easily backup your files to Google Drive. You can also schedule the backups if you do not want to run the backup at the current time.
In this article, we will learn how to schedule backups to Google Drive in Ubuntu OS. We will use the Déjà Dup backup tool that comes pre-installed with Ubuntu OS. It is a simple but powerful backup tool that offers many features including encryption, incremental backup, scheduling, and remote backups. I will use Ubuntu 18.04 LTS for describing the procedure mentioned in this article.
Setup Google Drive account
To schedule file backups to Google Drive, we will need to first set up a Google account in Ubuntu. Press Windows key on the keyboard to launch Ubuntu’s Dash menu, then search for Settings keyword in the search bar. When the results appear, click on the Settings Application as shown in the below screen.
Now click on Online Accounts. Then in the right pane, from Add an account list, click on Google.
It will ask you to sign in to your Google account. Enter your Google account credentials and grant Gnome access to it.
When you are finished with the account setup, you will see your account listed in the Online Accounts window.
Launch the Ubuntu Backup Tool
Now launch the backup tool. You can search for keyword déjà-dup from Ubuntu’s Dash menu search bar. Then from the search results that appear, click on the Backups application. Alternatively, open the Terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T key combinations and then type déjà-dup.
When the application will launch, you will see the following screen.Advertisement
Select files for Scheduled backup
Now select the files that you want to back up on your Google Drive. On the left pane, Click on the Folders to save tab. Then click on the + button to add folders that you want to include in your backup.
You can also ignore some folders from your backup. In the left pane, click on the Folders to ignore option. Then click on the + button to add files that you do not want to include in your backup.
Set Google Drive as the backup storage location
Now you will need to select your Google Drive as a storage location for your files. On the left pane, click on Storage location tab. Then in the right pane, click on the dropdown menu to select a storage location.
You will see your Google Drive account listed here. Select that account.
Now the Google Drive is selected as your default storage location for your files.
Turn on backup scheduling
Now on the left pane, click on Scheduling. Then turn the Automatic backup toggle to on. Here you can set the options whether to run backups daily or on a weekly basis.
As you turn on the toggle, it will pop up a message to install some necessary packages. Click on the Install button to continue. It will take a few minutes.
Then it will prompt for encryption. If you want to password protect your files, enter a password. Otherwise, you can ignore this option by clicking on restoring without a password. Click Forward.
Now all the settings have been configured for setting up file scheduling on Google Drive. You will see a mapped Google Drive location in the File Explorer.
So these are all the simple steps we need in our Ubuntu OS in order to schedule backups in Google Drive account. After you have followed all the above steps, it will automatically run the backup daily or weekly depending upon what you have specified in scheduling options.
