When I start a new project, a number of template and checklist files are copied into the empty project… If the empty copies of the templates were converted to shortcuts, it would be a huge mess for me. I’m a writer and use Drive to store my work. I’m glad there’s an option (that I took) to turn this off for my personal account. I take my file storage structure personally and get sweaty / fearful when I hear someone is going to massively mess with it. … For google to en mass meddle in our own files is an over-reach. Not a fan of this and I see it as overreach and meddling by Google.

The comments on the topic were eye-opening and made it clear that many users don’t want Google automatically modifying the files that they have worked so hard to organize over the years. The above announcement sure sounds like Google will replace duplicate files with shortcuts and one of my favorite writers wrote about how Google will replace duplicate files in Google Drive with shortcuts. Google’s latest announcement specifically stated:Īt that time, we also mentioned that we would be migrating existing files in multiple locations to shortcuts in 2021. (see detailed source list at the end of this post) Timeline of Google’s Shortcut Releases Interpretation of Google’s Latest Announcement: If you are wondering if you have files that have no parents, scan your account with Clean Drive, and it will show you how many “hidden” files you have. Made changes to prevent files from losing their parents.

Made the key combination, shift+z create shortcuts for files instead of placing the file in multiple locations.Made shortcuts available to all Google Drive users.Released a beta of shortcuts in Google Drive.Is Google Replacing Duplicate Files with Shortcuts, or Is this a Simple Misunderstanding? Release Notes Regarding the Shortcut feature:įrom August 2019 to December 2021, Google has:

Google drive app replacement