Google Drive Folder Duplicated

[LisaParticipant]

I use a single top-level folder on google drive which contains all of my sites backups. On 2016-01-30 a duplicate top level folder of the same name was created by UpdraftPlus (drive api user recorded as creator). I was not working that day and did nothing the day before that would bring this on.

This has nearly doubled my google drive storage use and now I do no know which sites are saving to which folder of the same name. (how did google think it was a good idea to allow duplicate folder names?)

The only thing I can think to do it download both folders and archive them (will take days given the size) then create a new top level folder with a different name and reconfigure all my sites to use this new folder. This is not an insignificant effort that no one will pay me for.

Has anyone else seen this happen with Updraft connected to Google Drive recently?

I don’t know if it is something that Google Drive did or some change in Updraft.

Just a heads up for people using Google Drive – check your “My Drive” for duplicate folders. Your backups may not be where you think they are.

Actually, now I’m kinda screwed, Google Drive cannot export the files as it is too large for them.

Google really needs real support. We pay for it but get none.

[LisaParticipant]

I am beginning to think the problem is with Updraft, I created a new top-level google drive folder with a GUID type name to start using for my backups, and the first site I changed to use this folder still sees the old (duplicated) folder as the one being used.

[LisaParticipant]

After changing the folder name in the Updraft settings, then several hours of downloading the duplicated files from GD, when I deleted the backup sets from Updraft, it reported as having removed them from remote storage. It did not.

Something is not right with the Google Drive remote storage.

[Dee NutbourneModerator]

Hi Lisa,

When performing an operation on Google Drive, UpdraftPlus has to lookup the ID of the folder in Google Drive based on the name.

If the lookup fails to find the folder (usually due to the folder not yet existing), UpdraftPlus will create a new one. This is to prevent backups being lost due to an abort. However, if the lookup failure was transient (i.e. the folder exists but the ID could not be found), two folders will then exist.

To resolve this issue, delete all but one of the duplicate folders. In future, the remaining folder will be used.

Best Wishes,
David

[LisaParticipant]

Can I still use the old GD folder IDs instead of folder names in an effort to prevent this from happening again?

[LisaParticipant]

It appears the answer is no. I just tried and it created a new top level folder with the name being the ID of the folder where I wanted it to go.

Can we restore the old behaviour where the folder ID is provided instead of a folder name, given that Google does not understand how filesystems work and creates duplicate folders with identical names, seemingly at random?

[LisaParticipant]

Hi David, I just saw your reply, thanks for the response.

Unfortunately the solution you offer is unsatisfactory. It is going to take me days to correct this. You see, I can’t just delete the backups from many ecommerce sites. I have to resolve the files so that I have accurate backups.

It would seem to me that the only solution to this is to allow us to enter the folder ID directly instead of the folder name. We used to be able to do this. Can we restore that behaviour? It would be a huge help for me to know that my backups are going exactly where I tell them to go.

[LisaParticipant]

P.S. I think it is worth mentioning that we have been using UpdraftPlus Premium (all add-ons) for a couple years now on around 30 sites and that this is the first significant problem we have encountered and no data was lost.

I love UpdraftPlus, it is a smart plugin, does its job reliably, is well documented and well supported. So apologies if any of my posts above sounded snarky. I really do appreciate the obvious effort that has gone into this plugin.

:)

Oh, there is this one little thing though, it seems the migrator misses file system paths in the database (such as /home/account/public_html/…), it would be super awesome if it could pick those up in addition to the site address.

[udadminKeymaster]

Hi Lisa,

You can set a Google folder ID using this mu-plugin:

<?php
add_filter('updraftplus_googledrive_parent_id', 'my_updraftplus_googledrive_parent_id');
function my_updraftplus_googledrive_parent_id($v) { return '123456'; }

Replace the 123456 with your actual folder ID.

David

[DavidParticipant]

Why did this happen? My root folder has always been there along with new sub folder created for each site (53 sites) prior to the first backup run. So why would Google not find the folder in the first place?

I have the same issue as Lisa described in the original post. Fortunately I have unlimited space on Google drive but what a mess it is to find the latest backup. What would prevent this issue from happening again, after I go through and figure out what can be deleted and saved? Would google drive not just start the process all over again of failing to find a folder and creating a new one?

[Dee NutbourneModerator]

Hi David,

This usually occurs if there is a temporary connectivity glitch when UpdraftPlus is attempting to find the directory.

You can set the Google Folder by ID by adding the following script in a PHP file in the ‘wp-content/mu-plugins’ directory (You may need to create this directory):

<?php
add_filter('updraftplus_googledrive_parent_id', 'my_updraftplus_googledrive_parent_id');
function my_updraftplus_googledrive_parent_id($v) { return '123456'; }

Replace ‘123456’with your Google folder ID

Best Wishes,
David N

[Author]

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