Hi to the KDE savants!
I am on Fedora KDE Plasma, and overall quite happy.
BUT: The KDE tool to integrate Google Drive (KIO Drive)doesn’t work. The problem has been didcussed here, but it seems not a priority for developers.
Now, the Gnome Online Account tool works great. However the accounts don’t show up in Dolphin.
One workaround which I ma using now is to have Thunar, Nautilus, Nemo as my file manager. But that sucks. Dolphin is better for me in a number of aspects.
My question: Is there any way (or add-on) to make the Gnome Online Accounts show up as mounted in Dolphin?
I use my numerous Google Drives a lot, and its a pain to jump back and forth between two file managers.
PS: This is not about syncing, so Rsync, Celeste etc don’t help. It about simply mounting my online Google drive in my file system
There isn’t. The GNOME utility you’re mentioning only works in GNOME software, not in KDE software.
Sad. But why? They work in Thunar, PCFM etc Why not in Dolphin?
The Deepin guys have done something that seems to make it easier to integrate gvfs with QT programs, but I have no idea how it could be used with Dolphin or to integrate with Kio: GitHub - linuxdeepin/gio-qt: Gio wrapper for Qt applications.
Addresses mounted with gvfs can be accessed in the folder: /run/user/1000/gvfs/
It may be necessary to change the value 1000 to what is in the $UID variable
Using OneDrive directly from this folder is simple, but Google Drive exposes files with completely messed up names. If it is possible to solve this problem directly in gvfs, then it would be possible to just access the folder with Dolphin or any other program
Because they use GNOME technology under the hood; Dolphin doesn’t.
But at least they try to provide a solution. Which KDE doesn’t 
KDE provides Network / KIO GDrive · GitLab which integrates Google Drive functionality in Dolphin just like GNOME Online Accounts integrates it into Nautilus.
The problem is that KIO GDrive is currently broken because thus far, nobody in KDE had the required combination of interest, time, expertise, and emotional wherewithal to jump through the new security hoops Google imposed last year. As a result, Google blocked it from functioning.
The solution is for someone with those resources to take initiative to complete the process; see kio-gdrive changes needed to conform to new Google requirements.
Until that happens, it will remain broken.
Sorry, I am only a user. Cannot do that. But this situation has been going on for many months. And I have not given up hope that the issue will finally get to the top of the ToDo list. It’s more important than some beauty issues, imho.
If at least someone cane up with using the Gnome app in KDE! Or amend Dolphin, there are numerous other file managers that can do that - unfortunately lacking other functionality.
I end up using 2 file managers alternately, but that’s a pain.
I’m not asking you to do it; I’m saying that someone has to do it or else it will remain broken.
I understand that it’s a high priority for you, but it appears all of the people capable of doing the work don’t use the software, and are unhappy enough with Google to not want to try anyway.
I long since couldn’t care less about google stuff integration since all it takes is some random dude at Geugle’s having a bad day and decides to change api’s and what not. Been going on for years. It’s much simpler to make some drive ( whatever) ssb, webapp or whatever and drag n drop whatever you like. Using an extra file manager seems totally b…rs to me.
A possible solution could be using a different software to (auto)mount Google Drive as a local directory, and bookmark that directory in Dolphin.
rclone mount and google-drive-ocamlfuse may be options. Rclone is excellent software but I have never experimented with the Google Drive backend myself. I have no experience with ocamlfuse on the other hand.
I would have suggested to manage a gio/gvfs mount and access it with Dolphin, but from @Bruno_Goncalves’ comment it seems there may be issues.
I have been trying to reach out to people who work at Google. Since they don’t provide a Google Drive client for Linux, the least they could do is designate someone within Google to maintain the integration that is already implemented in the KDE project.
It’s a minimal cost for the company to include good support for a large number of users. I’m surprised that the Steam Deck team hasn’t made a move to contact Google employees; company-to-company relationships tend to be much easier to establish.
It would also be interesting if they applied the old slogan regarding KDE: “Don’t be evil.” KDE has probably been relevant to Google in other ways, but the fact that KHTML code was used as the basis for the creation of Webkit/Chromium/Chrome/Android WebView… is more than enough reason for KDE to receive special treatment. It’s not a legal obligation, but a matter of moral gratitude, and I hope to find someone at Google who understands the concept of moral gratitude.
I thought computers and programs were supposed to help me get my work done. And not tell me what and how to do it.
If everyone had problems with Google, I would understand that. (There are specific reasons why I have to stick with them for online collaboration.) What I find odd is that it is possible with the Gnome tool but not the KDE tool.
I fail to see the “tell me what to do” part. It’s just a way of doing things, not HAL 9000.
That is quite strange to begin with.
On one hand they apparently don’t third party applications accessing the drive API, on the other hand they don’t provide a client of their own.
The solution with the best ratio between cost and number of users would be to have a FUSE “driver” that allows users to simply mount the drive as a remote file system.
Apparently they don’t have anyone with sufficient know-how in that area.
Supporting multiple third party solutions sound much less cost effective.
Even their current approach of randomly breaking/blocking working solutions and certifying new ones (or recertifying old ones) must be more work than simply providing an implementation they know to work.
The point is that the KDE tool worked. Google decided to not allow users to use it anymore.