Switching My Drive from streaming to mirroring downloads a local copy of its content. Plan for the required disk space and choose the destination carefully. A nonempty folder can cause existing local material to upload or produce additional copies.
Prepare the account and destination
Confirm that recent local edits have finished syncing and preserve unresolved changes. Review how much ordinary file content My Drive contains and whether the device has enough space. Keep required independent backups separate from the future mirror folder.
Prefer a clearly identified appropriate destination rather than an unrelated existing project folder. Google’s guide says that when existing contents differ, Drive may keep both, and local files not already in the cloud can upload.
Change the supported setting
Open Drive for desktop preferences and find the My Drive syncing options under the current Drive or Folders from Drive section. Select Mirror files and review the chosen location and confirmations.
Follow any requested restart or close action, then allow the initial download to complete. Shared drives, other computers, and other supported streamed locations do not become mirrored simply because My Drive changes mode.
Verify the active local copy
Open representative local files and compare them with the web originals. Check Sync status for failures and inspect unexpected duplicates before deleting anything. Native Google documents still need their separate web offline setup; a desktop entry is not an ordinary full document file. Confirm that project shortcuts and application paths point to the intended current location. Keep the former setup and local sources intact until you understand the result, rather than cleaning folders during an incomplete mode transition.
References
Reviewed against the linked official product guidance on November 3, 2026. Features, limits, screen labels, and access can vary by account, platform, region, and organization policy.