It's been almost a year since Google accidentally pushed out the first buggy release of Backup and Sync, which was officially announced a few months later and later replaced the old Google Drive client last July. Since then, Google's been pushing out new fixes and features for it at a steady clip, with around one a month. This weekend saw another update to v3.39, with the addition of NAS support, optional Apple Photos Library metadata inclusion/exclusion, and a pile of improvements and fixes.

The full changelog as posted to the G Suite Administrator Help site is just below:

February 1, 2018 — Network-attached storage support (3.39)

  • You can now sync photos and videos to Google Photos and Google Drive from network-attached storage (NAS) devices. To start syncing, mount the network device to your Mac or PC. In the “My Computer” section of the Backup and Sync Preferences, click Choose Folder. Select the mounted folder or subfolder, and click Open. Click OK. Network folders sync periodically only while mounted on your computer.
  • You can now exclude Apple Photos Library metadata from syncing. In the “My Computer” section of the Backup and Sync Preferences, click Change. Select Back up photos and videos, and uncheck Back up Apple Photos Library metadata. When unchecked, only photo files from your library are backed up. When checked, your entire Apple Photos Library is synced to Google Drive.
  • Introduced more safeguards to protect from database corruption.
  • Fixed issues where files were locked when saving from Adobe and Microsoft Office applications on Windows.
  • Fixed an issue where after upgrading to Windows Fall Creators Update, Backup and Sync was not able to locate Documents, Desktop, and other folders.
  • Fixed a broken link in “Can’t sync” error dialogs.
  • Fixed an issue where Backup and Sync crashed with error 6EF4E317 when trying to sync.
  • Fixed an issue where users were erroneously signed out.
  • More bug fixes and performance improvements.

As an aside, there was also a recent update to Drive File Stream, the non-consumer G-Suite backup solution, which added registry and .plist customizations for Windows/macOS. That addition should make mass deployment a bit easier. For more information, check out the Configure Drive File Stream help page.

The vast majority of Backup and Sync/Google Drive users probably won't care about the addition of NAS support, but that's a biggie. It's even been designed to minimize network/disk usage by only syncing "periodically." As someone who does a good bit of photo and editing work that requires network storage, the addition is something I'm excited about.

The Apple Photos Library metadata tweaks might not be quite as exciting, but if you manage a large photo library via that application, excluding metadata could cut down on syncing, saving you a bit of data and bandwidth. The remaining balance on the changelog is less exciting, but to be expected: bugfixes and improvements.

Desktop Backup and Sync clients should automatically update sometime soon, though none of my computers have just yet. If you're impatient (or you haven't installed it), you may also be able to manually install this latest update over at the tool's download page.

Source: Google