Google Drive – Unsafe Filename Extensions to Move Outside Syncing Folder

google docsgoogle sheetsgoogle-drivemigrate-datasynchronization

When syncing Google Drive to your computer, the following SHORTCUT files will be synced, which link to the online web-based Google Docs documents…

  • .gdoc
  • .gslides
  • .gsheet
  • .gdraw
  • .gtable
  • .gform

i.e. These files do not actually contain your data. And if you move them outside of your Google Drive folder, they will be deleted from Google Docs altogether, and you lose your data.

Many of my users have been burned by this, and I'm now migrating a number of people away from Google Drive, and need to be very careful to ensure that these links remain in place, while moving all other regular files to prevent having duplicates everywhere.

So my questions are:

  1. Is the list of filename extensions above 100% complete? Are there any others?

  2. And is there anything else I need to know along these lines about moving stuff outside of Google Drive in general?

Best Answer

Your list is almost complete:

Other possible Google extensions include: .GG, .GS, .GPI, .GPV