krake
March 16, 2025, 1:47pm
81
I don’t see a reason why they would go down that route.
However, even if it were not open source it would still provide a reliable fallback as it would always fulfill their requirements even when third party implementations temporarily might not.
They could also just contribute to this project to ensure it is always up to date with their policies.
I thought about that too but given how much this system is built around the browser it is most likely just a web application that looks like a file manager.
2 Likes
Thank you very much for the response and the links. The project shared by Astrada is particularly inspiring. The reason for my doubts about a possible Linux Google Drive client being closed-source is simple. As far as I know, the Google Drive clients on Windows and macOS are closed-source! So I don’t see much evidence that Google will stop being Google. But I hope you are right. However, I find it more realistic to place my hopes not in Google, but in free software supporters like you.
thanks , this workrd for me.
Works! just copy file and works fine
Hi @arno_robin_werkman and @Marcin_Lyczko ! Please see below for important context on what was posted above:
ngraham:
Please don’t use the GNOME ID; this will result in that ID getting blocked once Google notices it, because it’s being used in software Google hasn’t re-authorized. This will break it for you and also all GNOME users.
The current situation is that someone with interest and patience needs to jump through the new security hoops Google put in place so that we can get our own access re-authorized. Until that happens, it will remain broken.
3 Likes
Wheelz
June 8, 2025, 7:10pm
86
Thank you so much. I was pulling my hair out over this. Your walk through worked like a charm.
Hi @Wheelz - please see below for important context on what was posted above:
ngraham:
Please don’t use the GNOME ID; this will result in that ID getting blocked once Google notices it, because it’s being used in software Google hasn’t re-authorized. This will break it for you and also all GNOME users.
The current situation is that someone with interest and patience needs to jump through the new security hoops Google put in place so that we can get our own access re-authorized. Until that happens, it will remain broken.
Some folks have been working on individual workarounds in threads like these: How to make Google Drive work for you (for a while at least)
1 Like
qaaya
June 18, 2025, 6:18pm
88
This has saved my KDE, thank you!
Hi @qaaya - please see below for important context on the post that you referenced:
ngraham:
Please don’t use the GNOME ID; this will result in that ID getting blocked once Google notices it, because it’s being used in software Google hasn’t re-authorized. This will break it for you and also all GNOME users.
The current situation is that someone with interest and patience needs to jump through the new security hoops Google put in place so that we can get our own access re-authorized. Until that happens, it will remain broken.
Some folks have been working on individual workarounds in threads like these: How to make Google Drive work for you (for a while at least)
1 Like
qaaya
June 24, 2025, 9:46am
90
Thanks, I have gone with something else, wouldn’t want to break it for the gnome folks too!
1 Like
You need to install KIO GDrive to get google drive accounts under network
I’ll remind these comments for who don’t read previous posts:
ngraham:
Please don’t use the GNOME ID; this will result in that ID getting blocked once Google notices it, because it’s being used in software Google hasn’t re-authorized. This will break it for you and also all GNOME users.
The current situation is that someone with interest and patience needs to jump through the new security hoops Google put in place so that we can get our own access re-authorized. Until that happens, it will remain broken.
Many KDE developers try to avoid Google products, so it may take a long time, or never come at all, unless someone else steps up to help.
johnandmegh:
The post you are replying to contained a link to the bug report for this issue. I’m reproducing the key parts of Nate’s comments there below, just for ease of reading.
Can you please help me understand what you’re perceiving as a lack of clarity or transparency in what’s written below?
Google blocked us from using this back in June because we weren’t able
No one is in charge of managing this; KDE is not a company with people assigned to things in that manner.
Most KDE developers minimize their usage of Google services these days, so the overlap between “people who care about Google Drive integration working” and “people who have the interest and time to engage with Google to prove the security of KDE’s Google Drive client implementation” is becoming smaller over time. That’s the backstory to why this broke, why it’s not fixed yet, and why even my exceptionally crude change took so long to get done.
If anyone wants to take initiative to communicate with Google directly on KDE’s behalf to prove the security of our Google Drive client, and then also do it again every year when they make us re-certify, and then also do it again randomly when they tighten the requirements again, please let me know and I’ll be happy to direct you to the right place.
KDE is a primarily community-driven FOSS project. Work getting done requires the contributions of volunteers - or sponsored developers - with the time, ability, and interest to figure things out, implement them, and maintain them.
ngraham:
The information I provided was factual and serious, not ironic.
This isn’t really an attack from Google; they simply tightened their documentation and reporting requirements for software using the Google Drive API.
It doesn’t feel like an attack; rather it’s just a standard big corporate bureaucratic thing that isn’t unreasonable per se , it just happens to burden smaller entities like us.
GNOME had someone willing and able to jump through those hoops and provide the required documentation this time (no guarantee for next time, of course).
KDE had no such person who was willing and able. Today, we still don’t.
No collaboration with others to resolve the issue is workable. The issue is ours in KDE to resolve because we need to provide documentation and evidence that our software is secure. Nobody else outside of KDE would have a reason to be interested in helping us with this — any more than we would have a reason to be interested in helping GNOME prove the security of their Google Drive client implementation to Google if the situation were reversed.
To my knowledge there is no roadmap to resolving the issue. This makes kio-grdive effectively a dead zombie project. I expect it to be archived eventually if nobody can be found who’s willing and able to jump through Google’s new security hoops.
Hopefully that clarifies the situation adequately.
Regards
PS: kio-gdrive is a zombie project.
2 Likes
Although kio.gdrive is a zombie project, it works. Google provides tools to generate your own client ID and secret.
There is a post in Tips and Tricks
I don’t know ho to inlcude the link…https://discuss.kde.org/t/how-to-make-google-drive-work-for-you-for-a-while-at-least/34697/1
smammy
July 28, 2025, 4:25pm
94
@PsyCrow , have you succeeded in staying signed in for longer than a few days? That’s the issue we’re dealing with, even after generating your own client key.
No, I have to remove/re-add the online account to keep working with it.
1 Like
Thank you, bro! Works fine with Linux Mint + KDE Plasma.
user27
September 5, 2025, 6:32pm
98
This worked on Gentoo Linux KDE 6.3.6, But after i read that you better not use gnome ID, turned my online account off.
