Mount Google Drive on Linux Using rclone

ByEric Ma Posted on Updated on

rclone is the modern standard for mounting Google Drive on Linux — it’s actively maintained, handles authentication reliably, and works across distributions without compilation.

Install rclone

Most distributions package rclone. Install via your package manager:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install rclone

# Fedora/RHEL
sudo dnf install rclone

# Arch
sudo pacman -S rclone

Or install the latest version directly:

curl https://rclone.org/install.sh | sudo bash

Configure rclone for Google Drive

Start the configuration wizard:

rclone config

Follow the interactive prompts:

  1. Create a new remote — name it gdrive (or your preference)
  2. Choose drive as the storage type
  3. Leave client ID and secret blank (rclone uses built-in credentials)
  4. Select your preferred scope:
    • Full access: Access all files on your Drive
    • Drive.file: Access only app-created files (more restrictive, safer)
  5. Authorize by visiting the provided URL in your browser and grant permissions

This creates ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf with your credentials. Verify the file contains an [gdrive] section with your token.

Mount Google Drive

Create a mount directory:

mkdir -p ~/gdrive

Mount your Drive:

rclone mount gdrive: ~/gdrive --vfs-cache-mode full &

Your Google Drive is now accessible at ~/gdrive. The --vfs-cache-mode full flag caches files locally for better performance and offline access.

Mount options

For better reliability and performance, use these options:

rclone mount gdrive: ~/gdrive \
  --vfs-cache-mode full \
  --vfs-cache-max-age 168h \
  --cache-dir ~/.cache/rclone \
  --allow-other \
  --no-checksum \
  --dir-cache-time 1h

What each option does:

  • --vfs-cache-mode full — Cache entire files locally for offline access and repeated read performance
  • --vfs-cache-max-age 168h — Keep cached files for 7 days before re-fetching
  • --cache-dir ~/.cache/rclone — Store cache in a dedicated directory (easier cleanup)
  • --allow-other — Allow other system users to access the mount (requires user_allow_other in /etc/fuse.conf)
  • --no-checksum — Skip checksum verification on uploads (faster, use only if you trust your network)
  • --dir-cache-time 1h — Cache directory listings for 1 hour (reduces API calls)

Unmount

Unmount the drive:

fusermount -u ~/gdrive

Or if you mounted in the background:

killall rclone

Persistent mount with systemd

For automatic mounting on login and auto-recovery on failure, create a user systemd service.

Create ~/.config/systemd/user/rclone-gdrive.service:

[Unit]
Description=rclone Google Drive mount
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=notify
ExecStart=/usr/bin/rclone mount gdrive: %h/gdrive \
  --vfs-cache-mode full \
  --vfs-cache-max-age 168h \
  --cache-dir %h/.cache/rclone \
  --dir-cache-time 1h \
  --log-level INFO
ExecStop=/bin/fusermount -u %h/gdrive
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Enable and start the service:

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now rclone-gdrive.service

Check status:

systemctl --user status rclone-gdrive.service
journalctl --user -u rclone-gdrive.service -f

Multiple Google Drive accounts

To mount multiple accounts, create separate remotes during rclone config. For example:

rclone config
# Create remotes: [gdrive-personal], [gdrive-work], etc.

Then create separate systemd services for each:

cp ~/.config/systemd/user/rclone-gdrive.service ~/.config/systemd/user/rclone-gdrive-work.service

Edit rclone-gdrive-work.service and change:

  • Description=rclone Google Drive mount (Work)
  • ExecStart=/usr/bin/rclone mount gdrive-work: %h/gdrive-work ...
  • ExecStop=/bin/fusermount -u %h/gdrive-work

Then enable and start:

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now rclone-gdrive-work.service

Security and performance considerations

Credential security: Credentials in ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf are stored in plain text. Restrict permissions:

chmod 600 ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf
chmod 700 ~/.config/rclone

Quota management: The mounted drive exposes your entire Google Drive. Avoid accidentally recursive copies with cp -r or rsync, which consume quota quickly. Use rclone copy for intentional transfers:

# Safe transfer with rclone
rclone copy gdrive:path/to/folder ~/local-backup

Initial indexing: Large directories may take time to list on first access. Subsequent access is faster thanks to the directory cache and VFS cache.

Bandwidth: Repeated file access is served from the local cache, reducing API calls and bandwidth. Monitor ~/.cache/rclone size; it persists until manually deleted.

SELinux/AppArmor: If the mount fails silently, check your system’s mandatory access control logs. You may need to configure policies to allow FUSE mounts.

Symlinks: FUSE mounts handle symlinks inconsistently across tools. Test symlink operations with your workflow before relying on them.

13 Comments

  1. Thank you for the write up on how to install google-drive-ocamlfuse. After I installed opam, I try to run the opam install google-drive-ocamlfuse, but it is breaking on the install of sqlite3-ocaml.2.0.4.

    I am getting error:

    Package sqlite3 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
    Perhaps you should add the directory containing `sqlite3.pc’
    to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable

    No package ‘sqlite3′ found

    E: Failure(“Command ”/root/.opam/4.00.1/bin/ocamlbuild’ lib/libsqlite3_stubs.a lib/dllsqlite3_stubs.so lib/sqlite3.cma lib/sqlite3.cmxa lib/sqlite3.a lib/sqlite3.cmxs -tag debug’ terminated with error code 2″)

    Can you advise?

    Reply

    1. I tried it again on my system (Fedora 19 x86-64). After installing several needed packages, it works for me:

      # yum install sqlite-devel fuse-devel libcurl-devel zlib-devel

      `opam` needs some headers from the Linux system. Hope this can helps you. You may need to install more packages it `opam` reports it.

      Reply

      1. Along with the dependencies listed above I also needed to install m4 on my Fedora 19 x86-64 system

        #yum install m4

        One of the opam dependencies needed it (ocamlfind).

        Reply

  2. Thanks for the tutorial. In the momento of the apply the command: $ opam install google-drive-ocamlfuse, i receive a error message: The former state can be restored with opam switch import -f “/home/kingars/.opam/4.01.0/backup/state-20140020125053.export”

    ‘opam install google-drive-ocamlfuse’ failed.

    Reply

  3. Hello,

    The following was prompted on Fedora 19:

    [waldyd@localhost-live ~]$ opam install google-drive-ocamlfuse
    The following actions will be performed:
    – install cryptokit.1.9 [required by gapi-ocaml]
    – install camlp4.4.02.1+system [required by extlib]
    – install sqlite3-ocaml.2.0.7 [required by google-drive-ocamlfuse]
    – install ocamlnet.3.7.6 [required by gapi-ocaml]
    – install extlib.1.6.1 [required by gapi-ocaml]
    – install gapi-ocaml.0.2.6 [required by google-drive-ocamlfuse]
    – install google-drive-ocamlfuse.0.5.10
    === 7 to install ===
    Do you want to continue ? [Y/n] Y

    =-=- Synchronizing package archives -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    =-=- Installing packages =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
    Copying ~/.opam/repo/default/packages/camlp4/camlp4.4.02.1+system/files/install to ~/.opam/system/build/camlp4.4.02.1+system/
    Copying ~/.opam/repo/default/packages/camlp4/camlp4.4.02.1+system/files/check-camlp4.sh to ~/.opam/system/build/camlp4.4.02.1+system/
    Building camlp4.4.02.1+system:
    sh ./check-camlp4.sh
    [ERROR] The compilation of camlp4.4.02.1+system failed.
    Removing camlp4.4.02.1+system.
    Nothing to do.
    Building cryptokit.1.9:
    make
    make install
    [ERROR] The compilation of cryptokit.1.9 failed.
    Removing cryptokit.1.9.
    ocamlfind remove cryptokit
    Building sqlite3-ocaml.2.0.7:
    ocaml setup.ml -configure –prefix /home/waldyd/.opam/system
    ocaml setup.ml -build
    ocaml setup.ml -install
    [ERROR] The compilation of sqlite3-ocaml.2.0.7 failed.
    Removing sqlite3-ocaml.2.0.7.
    ocamlfind remove sqlite3

    #=== ERROR while installing camlp4.4.02.1+system ==============================#
    # opam-version 1.2.0
    # os linux
    # command sh ./check-camlp4.sh
    # path /home/waldyd/.opam/system/build/camlp4.4.02.1+system
    # compiler system (4.02.1)
    # exit-code 1
    # env-file /home/waldyd/.opam/system/build/camlp4.4.02.1+system/camlp4-14957-e7966f.env
    # stdout-file /home/waldyd/.opam/system/build/camlp4.4.02.1+system/camlp4-14957-e7966f.out
    # stderr-file /home/waldyd/.opam/system/build/camlp4.4.02.1+system/camlp4-14957-e7966f.err
    ### stdout ###
    # …[truncated]
    # 4.02 by switching to a local installation via `opam switch 4.02.1`.
    #
    # Here are some installation instructions for camlp4 if you obtained OCaml
    # via the OPAM binary packages:
    #
    # http://software.opensuse.org/download.html?project=home%3Aocaml&package=ocaml
    #
    # * Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install camlp4-extra
    # * RHEL/CentOS/Fedora: sudo yum install ocaml-camlp4
    #
    ### stderr ###
    # ./check-camlp4.sh: line 3: camlp4orf: command not found

    #=== ERROR while installing cryptokit.1.9 =====================================#
    # opam-version 1.2.0
    # os linux
    # command make
    # path /home/waldyd/.opam/system/build/cryptokit.1.9
    # compiler system (4.02.1)
    # exit-code 2
    # env-file /home/waldyd/.opam/system/build/cryptokit.1.9/cryptokit-14968-d2d111.env
    # stdout-file /home/waldyd/.opam/system/build/cryptokit.1.9/cryptokit-14968-d2d111.out
    # stderr-file /home/waldyd/.opam/system/build/cryptokit.1.9/cryptokit-14968-d2d111.err
    ### stdout ###
    # ocaml setup.ml -configure
    ### stderr ###
    # …[truncated]
    # Use Bytes.set instead.
    # File “/home/gildor/programmation/oasis/src/oasis/OASISFindlib.ml”, line 256, characters 6-24:
    # Warning 3: deprecated: Lazy.lazy_from_fun
    # Use Lazy.from_fun instead.
    # W: Field ‘ocamldoc’ is not set
    # W: Not_found
    # W: Not_found
    # E: Cannot find external tool ‘ocamldoc’
    # E: Failure(“1 configuration error”)
    # make: *** [setup.data] Error 1

    #=== ERROR while installing sqlite3-ocaml.2.0.7 ===============================#
    # opam-version 1.2.0
    # os linux
    # command ocaml setup.ml -configure –prefix /home/waldyd/.opam/system
    # path /home/waldyd/.opam/system/build/sqlite3-ocaml.2.0.7
    # compiler system (4.02.1)
    # exit-code 1
    # env-file /home/waldyd/.opam/system/build/sqlite3-ocaml.2.0.7/sqlite3-ocaml-14995-ad8886.env
    # stdout-file /home/waldyd/.opam/system/build/sqlite3-ocaml.2.0.7/sqlite3-ocaml-14995-ad8886.out
    # stderr-file /home/waldyd/.opam/system/build/sqlite3-ocaml.2.0.7/sqlite3-ocaml-14995-ad8886.err
    ### stderr ###
    # …[truncated]
    # File “setup.ml”, line 247, characters 8-26:
    # Warning 3: deprecated: String.set
    # Use Bytes.set instead.
    # File “setup.ml”, line 2502, characters 6-24:
    # Warning 3: deprecated: Lazy.lazy_from_fun
    # Use Lazy.from_fun instead.
    # W: Field ‘ocamldoc’ is not set
    # W: Not_found
    # E: Cannot find external tool ‘ocamldoc’
    # E: Failure(“1 configuration error”)

    =-=- Error report -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
    The following failed
    – install camlp4.4.02.1+system
    – install cryptokit.1.9
    – install sqlite3-ocaml.2.0.7
    Due to the errors, the following have been cancelled
    – install extlib.1.6.1
    – install gapi-ocaml.0.2.6
    – install ocamlnet.3.7.6
    – install google-drive-ocamlfuse.0.5.10
    [waldyd@localhost-live ~]$ sudo yum install ocaml-camlp4
    Loaded plugins: langpacks, refresh-packagekit
    Package ocaml-camlp4-4.02.1-3.1.i686 already installed and latest version
    Nothing to do

    Reply
  6. Pingback: Google Drive Linux | پرتال جامع فان گستر

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